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on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Henry, Emeric; Ponce, Carlos |
| Abstract: | We study the problem of an inventor who brings to the market an innovation that can be legally copied. Imitators may 'enter' the market by copying the innovation at a cost or by buying from the inventor the knowledge necessary to reproduce and use the invention. The possibility of contracting affects the need for patent protection. Our results reveal that: (i) Imitators wait to enter the market and the inventor becomes a temporary monopolist; (ii) The inventor offers contracts which allow resale of the knowledge acquired by the imitators; (iii) As the pool of potential imitators grows large, the inventor may become a permanent monopolist. |
| Keywords: | contracting; knowledge trading; Patents; war of attrition |
| JEL: | C73 D23 L24 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7511&r=ipr |
| By: | Tuomo Nikulainen; Martti Kulvik |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : General purpose technologies (GPT) have a significant impact on economic activity through radical technological change and wide technological diffusion. This paper aims to address the generality of technologies associated with the GPT concept. Information and communications technologies (ICT), biotechnology and nanotechnology are viewed as existing or potential general purpose technologies, but there is a lack of empirical evidence of their generality. This paper addresses the argument by using patent, industry and company level data from Finland. The results provide evidence that ICT, as expected, is a GPT. Nanotechnology shows signs of being potentially widely applicable, but for biotechnology the channels of technological diffusion seem to be fewer and more focused on areas where Finnish companies are less active. The results and discussion are also reflected on the newly formed innovation policy instrument in Finland - SHOKs (Strategic centres for science, technology and innovation), which aim to direct a large share of the Finnish public R&D subsidies towards more demand-based and incumbent-driven innovation activity. |
| Keywords: | general purpose technology, technology diffusion, science-based technology, ICT, biotechnology, nanotechnology, SHOK |
| JEL: | O30 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2009–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1208&r=ipr |
| By: | Maija Halonen-Akatwijuka (University of Bristol); Tobias Regner (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena) |
| Abstract: | We apply the property rights theory of Grossman-Hart-Moore in the music industry and study the optimal allocation of copyright between the artists who create music and the labels who promote and distribute it. Digital technology opens up a role for new intermediaries. We find that entry of online platforms occurs only if they are sufficiently more productive in distribution than the incumbent label. Furthermore, entry leads to a change in bargaining positions and it can become optimal for the copyright to be shifted from the label to the artist. |
| Keywords: | property rights theory, copyright, internet, music industry |
| JEL: | D23 L22 L23 L82 L86 |
| Date: | 2009–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-096&r=ipr |
| By: | Jeon, Doh-Shin; Menicucci, Dominico |
| Abstract: | Electronic academic journal websites provide new services of text and/or data mining and linking, indispensable for efficient allocation of attention among abundant sources of scienti c information. Fully realizing the benefi t of these services requires interconnection among websites. Motivated by CrossRef, a multilateral citation linking backbone, this paper performs a comparison between multilateral interconnection through an open platform and bilateral interconnection, and finds that publishers are fully interconnected in the former regime while they can be partially interconnected in the latter regime for exclusion or differentiation motives. Surprisingly, if partial interconnection arises for differentiation motive, exclusion of small publisher(s) occurs more often under multilateral interconnection. We also find that in the case of multilateral interconnection, a for-pro fit platform induces less exclusion than an open platform. Various other extensions are analyzed. |
| JEL: | D4 K21 L41 L82 |
| Date: | 2009–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:21451&r=ipr |
| By: | Francesco Giavazzi; Pietro Garibaldi; Andrea Ichino; Enrico Rettore |
| Abstract: | University tuition typically remains constant throughout years of enrollment while delayed degree completion is an increasing problem for many academic institutions around the world. Theory suggests that if continuation tuition were raised the probability of late graduation would be reduced. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design on data from Bocconi University in Italy, we show that an increase of 1,000 euro in continuation tuition reduces the probability of late graduation by 9.9 percentage points with respect to a benchmark average probability of 80%. We conclude suggesting that an upward sloping tuition profile would be desirable when effort is sub-optimally supplied, for instance in the presence of public subsidies to education, congestion externalities and/or peer effects. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:354&r=ipr |