Public Knowledge,Private Property and the Economics of High-tech Consortia

The management of knowledge in research consortia raises new appropriability issues, such as copying with the tension between individual protection and data sharing which is required in any process of collective invention. Based on case studies carried out in the field of biotechnology, the paper discusses these issues and develop some policy implications.     

Crossnational comparison of entrepreneurs perceptions of success

This article examines how entrepreneurs in the United States, Japan, France, and Canada perceive success. The research examined the perceptions of success, the basis by which success is judged, specific success criteria, major obstacles overcome along the path to success, and the attributes and eucational experiences considered most important in achieving success.     

The causes of unemployment in France: a flow approach

A flow model is used to identify the causes for rising unemployment in France between 1978 and 1990. Two flow equations are estimated as functions of exogenous factors such as aggregate demand, factor costs, structural shifts and long-term factors and then used in simulations for the level of unemployment. It is shown that the main reason for high unemployment in France is a slow down in the demand for labour due to high labour and energy costs in the early 1980s and to tight aggregate demand over the whole period.Change in the labour supply have had an increasing impact in recent years.     

Empirical estimation of tail dependence using copulas: application to Asian markets

This paper introduces non-parametric estimators for upper and lower tail dependence whose confidence intervals are obtained with a bootstrap method. We call these estimators ‘naïve estimators’ as they represent a discretization of Joe's formulae linking copulas to tail dependence. We apply the methodology to an empirical data set composed of three composite indexes for the three Tigers (Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia). The extremes show a dependence structure which is symmetric for the Thai and Malaysian markets and asymmetric for the Thai and Indonesian markets and for the Malaysian and the Indonesian markets. Using these results we estimate the copula (which belongs to the Student or Archimedean copula families) for each pair of markets by two methods. Finally, we provide risk measurements using the best copula associated with each pair of markets.     

Credibility and Monitoring: Outsourcing as a Commitment Device

We analyze an environment plagued by double moral hazard where the agent’s effort level and the principal’s precision in monitoring are not contractible. In such an environment, the principal tends to over‐monitor thereby inducing low effort. To ease the latter problem, the principal may choose to increase monitoring costs by outsourcing the activity. As a result equilibrium monitoring is reduced and incentives become more powerful. This choice is particularly likely when the worker’s effort is an important factor in determining output.     

The impacts of biofuels targets on land‐use change and food supply: A global CGE assessment

We analyze the long‐term impacts of large‐scale expansion of biofuels on land‐use change, food supply and prices, and the overall economy in various countries or regions using a multi‐country, multi‐sector global computable general equilibrium model augmented with an explicit land‐use module and detailed biofuel sectors. We find that an expansion of biofuel production to meet the existing or even higher targets in various countries would slightly reduce GDP at the global level but with mixed effects across countries or regions. Significant land re‐allocation would take place with notable decreases in forest and pasture lands in a few countries. The expansion of biofuels would cause a moderate decrease in world food supply and more significant decreases in developing countries like India and Sub‐Saharan Africa. Feedstock commodities (sugar, corn and oil seeds) would experience significant increases in their prices in 2020, but other price changes are small.     

Quel prix pour la sécurite alimentaire? Une évaluation contingente suite à la crise européenne de la ≪ vache folle ≫

L'hypothèse d'une éventuelle contamination humaine par la maladie de Creutzfeldt‐Jakob, par le biais du prion de I'encéphalite spongiforme bovine (ESB), faite en 1996 par le ministre de la santé anglais a étéè l'origine d'une perte de confiance des consommateurs dans la viande de b?uf. Lew comportement en France a étéétudié a partir d'une enquête menée en 1997, auprés d'un échantillon représentatif de 700 personnes résidant dans l'agglomération de Rennes en Bretagne. L'enquête présente aux personnes interrogées un scénario contingent visant èévaluer leur consentement è payer (CAP) afin de disposer d'une viande pour laquelle tout risque de contamination par l'ESB est écarté. Un processus original de révélation des CAP a été utilisé, combinant la méthode du référendum et un système d'enchères. Le CAP moyen obtenu est relativement élevé puisqu'il atteint 22 % du prix initial de la viande. Un modéle micro‐économique visant è expliquer la valeur du CAP du consommateur pour une sécurité alimentaire totale par rapport è l'ESB est alors présenté. De cette formalisation micro‐economique découle une spécification économétrique correspondant au modele multinomial logit ordonnéè seuils connus. Parmi les variables ayant un role determinant dans le choix du CAP des consommateurs figurent notamment la confiance dans les indications géographiques et les labels. After the British Minister of Health admitted a possible link between the BSE prion and the Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease in 1996, consumers lost confidence in the beef sector. This paper analyses consumers behavior after the BSE crisis in France in 1997, based on a survey using a random sample of 700 people located in the area of Rennes (Bretagne). Particularly, a contingent scenario was proposed to the respondents to elicit their willingness to pay (WTP) to have beef which would not transmit CJD using a mix of the referendum method and the bidding process. The mean WTP reaches 22% and is consistent with results obtained in other studies. A microeconomic model is proposed and an econometric approach based on an ordered logit model is developed. Among the significant variables, it is interesting to note the role of stamps of quality to explains consumers'behavior. Such variables prove the interest of a transparency and tracability policy to restore the consumers confidence.