Protecting Biotechnology IPRs in Developing Countries: Simple Analytics of a Levy Solution

High transaction costs and an absence of institutional infrastructure in developing countries prevent comprehensive enforcement of intellectual property rights and generate obstacles to the adoption of genetically modified (GM) crop technology. Governments of developing countries that are members of the World Trade Organization are faced with two options when licensing GM crop technology: (1) attempt to regulate GM crops to the standards of the Agreement on Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) or (2) allow a black market in GM seeds and risk trade retaliation from the GM innovator's host country through a TRIPS trade complaint. This paper develops a conceptual model that frames the adopting country's range of licensing options, including a new levy system, and derives welfare measures for each option. The model illustrates how a levy on GM technology can be a welfare‐increasing policy for developing countries, and the operation of a levy is discussed. The conceptual model is applied to Brazil's soybean market and quantitative economic surplus measures are estimated within a calibrated welfare model for a range of licensing scenarios. The model's results suggest that a levy may interfere with the long‐term prospects for innovators to collect monopoly rents in adopting countries.     

The State of the Welfare State

Books reviewed in this article:
J.M Wildeboer Schut, J.C Vrooman and P.T de Beer, On Worlds of Welfare: Institutions and their Effects in Eleven Welfare States
Jørgen Goul Andersen and Per H Jensen, Changing Labour Markets, Welfare Policies and Citizenship     

Discussion of “Were Information Intermediaries Sensitive to the Financial Statement‐Based Leading Indicators of Bank Distress Prior to the Financial Crisis?”

I discuss Desai, Rajgopal, and Yu ( 2016 ) with the goal of helping readers think carefully about which implications of the study are likely to generalize to future economic downturns and which are likely to be specific to the facts and circumstances of the recent financial crisis, given that the crisis was driven by the expectation and then the realization of a single market variable, national house price depreciation.     

A model of historical development and future trends of Italian cuisine in America

This study investigated both the historical development and future trends of restaurant cuisine in America. Italian cuisine is used as the basis of a prediction model. The study identifies the historical factors in menu trends in Italian–American cuisine; the factors that will influence culinary trends in the future, and whether the results can be applied to the development of a prediction model that will predict how restaurant cuisine in America may develop. This study used both qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (online survey) methods. The growing popularity of Italian cuisine in the United States will continue to shape the evolution of America's restaurant cuisine.     

Emerging Adults with Chronic Illness Pursuing and Enhancing Leisure

The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the adjustment process undertaken by emerging adults living with a chronic illness in their pursuit and enjoyment of leisure. A theoretical focus is placed on the processes of selection, optimization, and compensation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 participants who have a chronic illness. Participants’ experiences were rooted much more in triumph rather than loss. Selection was influenced by a consideration of uncertainty, a desire to avoid potential embarrassment, and an acceptance or rejection of constraints. Three types of approaches that helped them optimize their leisure experience involved participants shaping their perspectives about leisure and life, enhancing resources to make leisure possible, and by living through pain and discomfort. Responding to challenges that might otherwise limit their participation or enjoyment in leisure, participants prepared for possible incidents, received support from others, and confronted negative situations.     

On the inauspicious incentives of the scholar-level h-index: an economist’s take on collusive and coercive citation

Faculty renewal, promotion, tenure, merit and awards are typically tied to scholarship performance, which is often measured in several ways, among them citation-based metrics like the scholar-level h-index. With the relatively recent developments of ‘one-touch’ Google Scholar citation tracking and Harzing’s Publish or Perish Software, it is simple to monitor and potentially game one’s personal h-index. This article explores this possibility by assessing the incentives embedded in the scholar-level h-index through the lens of cartels, uncertainty, insurance and game-theoretic best response.     

美国运通冲锋不止

身经百战的金融巨人美国运通打出了一张王牌──蓝卡，但这只是某互联网计划的一个小小的开端。     

Ethics and corporate social responsibility – An analysis of the views of Chinese hotel managers

Based on a sample of 257 Chinese hotel managers, this paper examines the ethical principles to which these managers adhered. The premise is that any application of the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) will be facilitated or inhibited by the degree to which management holds to a strong ethical stance. Developing a questionnaire derived from different sources such as the Forsyth Ethics Position Questionnaire and the 12 golden standards of Tao Zhugong developed in the 5th century BCE, a principal components analysis of the scores on a 35 item scale indicated five components to ethical perspectives: namely respect for individuals, tolerance of degree of relativity in moral standards, the role of corporations in current society, expediency in business and adherence to CSR.