How Valuable are the Patents Behind Section 337 Cases?

A US patent protects the owner of the intellectual property from imitators producing in the US and foreign imitators selling in the US market. There are two venues for filing infringement cases against international infringement of US patents, with the International Trade Commission (ITC) using Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 or with federal district courts. Three indicators of patent value suggest that patents litigated under Section 337 are on average more valuable; however, their values tend to be more variable. The latter suggests that some firms may be using Section 337 not for protection against international infringement of US patents but for protection against imports.     

Input Controls,Input Substitution and Profit Maximisation in the English Channel Beam Trawl Fishery

Studies of input substitution in fisheries have tended to focus on substitution between physical inputs and/or time fished. However, input controls may create incentives for substitution of other inputs into the production process. For example, fishers faced with constraints on access to particular areas of the fishery may substitute physical inputs for fishing location. This was the case with the UK beam trawl fishery in the English Channel. Constraints were imposed on access to particular areas of the fishery through restrictions on engine power. This created incentives for a number of fishers to reduce their engine power to meet the conditions of the input control. The relative contribution of the boat inputs and location in the production process and the potential for substitution were examined using a translog production function. The results suggested that the apparent input substitution was consistent with profit maximising behaviour.     

The determinants of female labour supply in Hungary

The aim of this paper is to closely examine the effect on a married woman's labour supply decision of non-labour income and of her own wage rate in a transition economy. The paper first shows that labour force participation rates for Hungarian females, though decreasing, were still extremely high and comparable to male economic activity in western countries. It then estimates labour supply parameters using a model that controls for sample selection issues associated with the labour supply of married women. Wage elasticity is estimated to be high and positive (1.81) while the income effect is consistent with leisure being a normal good. No sample selection bias is found.     

Re-internationalisation: Exploration and conceptualisation

Re-internationalisation represents a research challenge for the internationalisation process and international entrepreneurship fields. Many companies withdraw from international operations, go through an international time-out period and later re-enter the international arena. Little is known about this process, and whether re-internationalisers behave differently from those starting out for the first time. The limited, sketchy evidence is considered and it is argued that some re-internationalisers will go into the re-entry process with a significant international heritage from previous activities, including relevant knowledge and networks, enabling faster re-entry and take-off. However, other firms will have exited in such negative circumstances that international re-entry initially is rejected as an option, and may be slow to respond to new international opportunities. Much depends on what happens during the international time-out period, particularly in terms of changes in management and/or ownership; the nature and strength of new re-entry influences; and how the re-entry process unfolds.     

Monetary Policy Rules for Managing Aid Surges in Africa

This paper examines the properties of alternative monetary policy rules in response to large aid surges in low-income countries characterized by incomplete capital market integration and currency substitution. Using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, it is shown that simple monetary rules that stabilize the path of expected future seigniorage for a given aid flow have attractive properties relative to a range of conventional alternatives, including those involving heavy reliance on bond sterilization or a commitment to a pure exchange rate float. These simple rules, which are shown to be robust across a range of fiscal responses to aid inflows, appear to be consistent with actual responses to recent aid surges in a range of post-stabilization countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.     

Outsourcing, productivity, and input composition at the plant level

Abstract .  We evaluate the productivity and input composition effects of outsourcing (or subcontracting) for Turkish textile and apparel manufacturing plants. We analyze differences in performance indicators for plants that subcontract inputs or outputs, and find that plants that outsource internationally perform better than those that outsource domestically. We evaluate labour productivity gaps and find that more productive plants both initiate outsourcing and subsequently increase their productivity. We then estimate a flexible production function, controlling for simultaneity and selection bias, and find that higher productivity from input subcontracting involves greater skilled labour intensity but the reverse is true for output subcontracting.     

Age and factors influencing consumer behaviour

When evaluating a product or service, consumers seek out information to judge whether that specific product will meet certain criteria. The main concern of sales providers is how to increase their purchasers' willingness to buy a product. The authors studied the impact of age on the perceived importance and interaction of three factors known to influence people when buying clothes: price, durability and suitability. A sample of 160 French adults aged 18–90 rated their likelihood of buying an item of clothing in 27 scenarios, in which three levels (low, moderate and high) of each of the above three factors were combined in an orthogonal factorial design. For younger participants, a low price was considered a sufficient reason to buy the item of clothing. For older participants, suitability was a more important factor, while for the eldest people, durability was the most important.     

Employee Participation in Cause-Related Marketing Strategies: A Study of Management Perceptions from British Consumer Service Industries

The purpose of cause-related marketing (CRM) is to publicise and capitalise on a firm??s corporate social performance (CSP) by enhancing its legitimacy in the eyes of its stakeholders. This study focuses on the firm??s internal stakeholders ?C i.e. its employees ?C and the extent of their involvement in the selection of social campaigns. Whilst the difficulties of managing a firm that has lost or damaged its legitimacy in the eyes of its employees are well known, little is understood about the extent to which managers and their social partners listen to and involve their employees in the legitimation process. Through telephone interviews with non-profit organisations and senior managers of service sector firms, the extent of employee involvement in CRM campaigns and the perceived benefits of doing so are investigated.?Amongst other things, we find that (i) the extent of employee participation varies significantly across firms; (ii) larger CRM campaigns tend to be managed centrally with relatively less employee participation than smaller ones and (iii) financial services firms are more likely to make CRM decisions centrally, with relatively less employee participation than retail services firms.