Technology adoption, learning spillovers, and the optimal duration of patent-based monopolies

The paper analyses an often overlooked aspect of the patent system, namely, that a monopoly franchise for production of a new good could lead to a second-best welfare optimum event when there was no future prospect of inventions being induced by the patent. It is shown that a paten may improve economic welfare relative to a regime of competitive supply when there are learning externalities or ‘spillovers’ from experience in the process of production. Comparative statics show that stronger learning effects at low levels of experience tend to strengthen the case for ex post grant of a monopoly franchise.     

A survey of exchange-traded basket instruments

This survey discusses basket financial instruments generically known as Index Participation shares (IPs). An IP is a hybrid instrument that has characteristics similar to those of existing index-futures contracts, options contracts, and stock-index mutual funds. An IP is a contract and does not represent direct ownership over any individual security. Similar to other derivatives, an IP has a clearing house guaranteeing its performance and a zero net supply. The equilibrium market price of an IP will differ from its underlying index's cash price by an amount defined as the IP basis. The IP basis will be determined by the dividend stream of the underlying index and expected short-term interest rates. IP contracts opened trading on the AMEX and PHILX exchanges on May 12, 1989, after the SEC lifted a temporary stay of trading.     

Short-run fluctuations in fertility and mortality in pre-industrial Sweden

This paper describes and interprets annual Swedish data from 1750 to 1869 on weather, harvests, real wages, birth rates, and death rates using vector autogression. Impulses due to unexplained increases in wealth, whether this occurred through increased real wages, improved agricultural yields, or warmer winters, led in the short run to increased fertility and decreased infant and non-infant mortality, and hence to increased rates of population growth. Unexplained or unanticipated fluctuations in infant mortality led to replacement cycles in fertility within one to three years, although only a negligible cumulative effect on fertility persisted after five to ten years. Fluctuations in deaths among persons older than one year evoked a fertility response several years later, but this replacement response persisted after more than a decade. Although vector autoregression is not designed to account for long-term trends and their consequences, the interrelationships found here among exogenous weather shocks and fluctuations in economic conditions and demographic rates provide support for the homeostatic mechanisms hypothesized by classical economists and discussed by Malthus. The methodology of vector autoregression appears useful for studying historical series on climatic, economic and demographic variables where we do not yet have a sufficient theoretical foundation for specifying and estimating structural models.     

Interdisciplinary problems in doing impact assessment : The case of Lake Shelbyville

A multidisciplinary team of biologists, economists, engineers, planners, and sociologists were assembled to do an ex-post facto analysis of a flood control reservoir ten years after initial operations. Within the context of a research university, the authors suggest ways to 1) improve project administration, 2) combat disciplinary chauvinism, 3) facilitate the understanding and exchange of data across disciplines, 4) reward the work of graduate students in a fair and equitable manner, and 5) assist the principal investigator in achieving the goal of an interdisciplinary study. The importance of project associates in the day-to-day operation of the study is reviewed in detail.This paper details the administrative problems of the University of Illinois' interdisciplinary effort to examine the “real” environmental impacts of the Lake Shelbyville reservoir 10 years after it had begun operation. Lake Shelbyville is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir located in east-central Illinois. Land acquisition began in 1962 and the reservoir was in operation by 1971. While not implying that “apples and oranges” don't mix, problems do result when we try to bring together a group of disciplinary researchers. We write with the hope that the suggestions outlined here will keep environmental impact assessment research interdisciplinary. One of the reasons for the present “environmental fix” is the single discipline approach to environmental problems.A true interdisciplinary effort is necessary for a comprehensive assessment of the impacted physical and social environments, yet “interdisciplinary” can easily become a false label. If the principal investigator and researchers are not attentive to project administration on a day-to-day basis, the old saying about integrating findings “with a staple” can easily result. Rather than integrated assessment, the study report may resemble a series of miniature discipline based projects that read like the list of university departments.     

Protecting Know-How

Corporate success is increasingly dependent on the technical and other know-how that employees carry in their heads, consciously or sub-consciously. Firms need to ensure that know-how spreads amongst their staff, but without leaking to competitors. This article investigates ways in which types of employee are matched with types of know-how, together with devices for know-how retention.     

Research instrumentation and institutional innovation in canada

Science policy is being challenged. Conceptions of innovation and the nature of research are rapidly being forced beyond traditional views which see innovation as a linear process and science policy in terms of funding issues. Indeed, the policy challenge is being defined by the tension between trying to conduct or encourage research that is at or near an expanding research frontier, while simultaneously functioning within 'steady state' fiscal environments. One key manifestation of this challenge—which is underpinned by a new social contract between the scientific and government communities—is being expressed in terms of the changing role that research instrumentation is playing with regard to research management, research policy and research planning. This paper examines several Candian example f the changing nature of research, with particular reference to the role of instrumentation; it also outlines the particular challenges that small open econmies must face with respect to instrument-intensive research and offers a possible taxonomy for analyzing innovation and policy options.