THE ROLE OF FEES IN PATENT SYSTEMS: THEORY AND EVIDENCE

This paper reviews the economic literature on the role of fees in patent systems. Two main research questions are usually addressed: the impact of patent fees on the behavior of applicants and the question of optimal fees. Studies in the former group confirm that a range of fees affect the behavior of applicants and suggest that a patent is an inelastic good. Studies in the latter group provide grounds for both low and high application (or pre‐grant) fees and renewal (or post‐grant) fees, depending on the structural context and policy objectives. The paper also presents new stylized facts on patent fees of 30 patent offices worldwide. It is shown that application fees are generally lower than renewal fees, and renewal fees increase more than proportionally with patent age.     

Cointegration analysis of the intensity of the ERM currencies under the European Monetary System

This paper examines the (long-run) intra-zonal elasticities between the spot exchange rates of the deutschemark and other major ERM currencies (French franc, Belgian franc, Dutch guilder, Danish krone, Italian lira and British pound) under the EMS. The findings show that under the fixed-but-adjustable rate system, the hypothesis of no cointegration can be rejected for all chosen ERM currency pairs and unit restriction on zonal elasticities can be accepted for almost all cointegrated currency pairs. On the other hand, under the fixed-rate system, Danish krone, Italian lira and British pound fail the cointegration test and the zonal elasticities for all cointegrated currency pairs are rejected to be unity. The study signifies less intense linkages of the ERM currencies without parity realignments. Finally, the deutschmark took the role of error-correcting process for one cointegrated currency pair under the fixed-but-adjustable-rate system, and it performed the same role for two pairs under the fixed-rate system. Hence, deutschmark should not be assumed a priori statistically exogenous under the EMS     

我国国有林区就业弹性实证分析

就业与经济增长是当代社会重要的经济问题,也是关系到每一社会成员切身利益的话题。通过分析我国天然林资源保护工程实施后国有林区经济增长与就业结构的变动趋势,利用回归分析等统计方法对国有林区经济增长与就业结构变化进行相关性测量,提出促进国有林区的经济增长与劳动就业政策建议。     

我国主要进口商品的Armington替代弹性估计

本文在对Armington替代弹性进行理论综述的基础上,运用Panel Data回归模型,对我国具有代表性的八种进口商品的Armington替代弹性进行了估计。回归结果表明:八种进口商品的整体替代弹性估计值较低,仅为0.568。其中,原煤的替代弹性估计值最高,为11.502;谷物和电视机的替代弹性估计值较低,分别为1.521和0.788。Armington替代弹性的大小反映的是进口商品与本国商品之间的替代程度,因此,我国原煤的进口敏感性较强,而电视机进口对国内电视机产业的冲击不大。     

Avoiding Mis-estimation of the CES Function: Unit Matters

ABSTRACT

We demonstrate that unit errors of measurement will lead to significant biases in estimating the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) function. Monte-Carlo simulations show that estimation results tend to reach Cobb–Douglas (CD) functions or extreme values if units of input variables are incorrectly used. To avoid this problem, we suggest adding an overall efficiency parameter and a unit correction parameter which is similar to biased technological change parameter when estimating CES functions. Any unit error of measurement can be captured by these two parameters while allowing researchers to get unbiased estimation results of other parameters.     

Balancing economic revenue and grazing pressure of livestock grazing on the Qinghai–Tibetan–Plateau

Treating grazing pressure as an undesirable output of livestock grazing in a directional distance function improves understanding of how economic behaviour affects the environment. Field survey data from 193 livestock grazing households combined with remotely sensed net primary productivity (NPP) data on the Qinghai–Tibetan–Plateau was used to develop a directional output‐orientation distance function. The average efficiency of livestock grazing households is 0.817 when incorporating grazing pressure as an undesirable output, which means that households can achieve 18.3% more output and decrease proportional grazing pressure holding all inputs fixed. The relative shadow price of undesirable grazing pressure to good output grazing revenue is estimated to be between 1.795 and 3.986. According to the Morishima elasticity of substitution between inputs, there is a significant complementary relationship between grassland, labour and capital.     

Lottery pricing and price elasticity dispersion in the UK and Canada

We estimate effective price elasticities for different quantiles of the demand distribution of the UK National Lottery and the Canadian Lotto 649. We show that price elasticities vary significantly from draw to draw and have a tendency to increase with lottery participation and jackpot size. Our findings indicate that setting lottery rules on the basis of mean effective price elasticities should be faced with caution because expected profits are negatively related to the evident variation of elasticities among lottery draws. We also simulate alternative active rollover distributions and show that limiting the rollover accumulation by withholding portions and ploughing them back in future nonrollover draws is potentially profitable.     

河北省工业集聚程度的度量与分解——基于两阶段不变替代弹性生产函数的分析

产业集聚作为产业演化过程中的一种地缘现象,逐渐成为提升产业竞争力和区域竞争力的有效途径。以传统工业大省河北为例,采用不变替代弹性生产函数模型测算出1985年—2009年间河北工业集聚程度的变动轨迹,得出1998年前河北工业集聚程度持续下降,主要源于内部集聚和布局集聚效应的双重影响,1998年后工业集聚程度在波动中逐步提高,则是因为内部集聚和城市集聚经济的效应增强。提升河北工业集聚效应,需要以工业聚集区建设为载体,促进技术创新与扩散转移、壮大主导产业与支柱企业、推进城镇建设与人口集中。