The modern welfare state: Problems and suggested reforms

This article examines some of the major market failures and government failures at work in the modern welfare state and investigates the political reasons for ignoring these failures in formulating welfare state policy. Next, the article examines some recent economic developments that endanger the welfare state: the expansion of international trade, skill-biased technological change, and the restructuring of firms. Finally, it suggests some policy approaches that may help make the welfare state more efficient and equitable.     

Finding "Lost" Profits: An Equilibrium Analysis of Patent Infringement Damages

We examine the impact of patent infringement damages in an equilibriumoligopoly model of process innovation where the choice to infringeis endogenous and affects market choices. Under the lost profitsmeasure of damages normally employed by U.S. courts, we findthat infringement always occurs in equilibrium with the infringingfirm making market choices that manipulate the resulting marketprofit of the patent holder. In equilibrium, infringement takesone of two forms: a "passive" form in which lost profits ofthe patent holder are zero and an "aggressive" form where theyare strictly positive. Even though the patentee's profits areprotected with the lost profits damage measure, innovation incentivesare reduced relative to a regime where infringement is deterred.     

Explaining post‐IPO venture performance through a knowledge‐based view typology

We extend the knowledge‐based view with a new typology and its application to post‐IPO firm performance. The typology categorizes knowledge development activity along the dimensions of familiarity (whether the firm has experience with the knowledge or it is new) and source (whether the firm creates it independently or with partners). We use this typology to determine direct and interaction effects of knowledge development activity on survival, RoA, and Tobin's q of newly public firms. Using a sample of 1,056 high‐technology manufacturing IPOs in 1990–2005, we find that focused, internal knowledge development correlates with higher performance. We also find a positive interaction effect in combining focused, internal and diversifying, alliance‐based knowledge development, and a negative interaction effect in combining diversifying, internal and alliance‐based knowledge development. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An experimental investigation of facilitation in an EMS decision room

Electronic meeting systems (EMS) provide a way for information technology to support groups meeting together for a variety of tasks. Some systems have been designed to depend on facilitators to guide groups through EMS use, whereas others have been designed to be used without facilitators. Yet little empirical research has been conducted to determine the differences between facilitated and nonfacilitated EMS use. This article describes an experiment that compared facilitated and nonfacilitated EMS groups. No differences were found between these two modes of EMS use for the number of alternatives generated, decision quality, ability to reach consensus, or satisfaction with the group process. However, if the number of alternatives generated is treated as a covariate, facilitated groups made better decisions, but nonfacilitated groups were more likely to reach consensus.This research was supported by several grants from IBM and AT&T. Additional funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.     

Looking Attractive until You Sell: Earnings Management,Lockup Expiration,and Venture Capitalists

Earnings management occurs when managerial discretion allows managers to influence reported earnings and thus mislead some investors about the underlying economic performance and quality of the firm. This study considers how potential investors may guard against earnings management by observing negative stock price reaction at the lockup expiration period of initial public offering (IPO) firms as a negative signal. Findings from a sample of 160 newly public firms show that earnings management behaviour is stronger in IPO firms backed by venture capitalists (VCs). Moreover, VC reputation negatively moderates this relationship such that IPO firms backed by reputable VCs are less likely to manage earnings, suggesting that reputable VCs serve an auditing function following an IPO. Overall, we provide insights into signalling theory by examining negative signals arising from the behaviour of multiple agents in an IPO firm.     

Bounding quantile demand functions using revealed preference inequalities

This paper develops a new approach to the estimation of consumer demand models with unobserved heterogeneity subject to revealed preference inequality restrictions. Particular attention is given to nonseparable heterogeneity. The inequality restrictions are used to identify bounds on counterfactual demand. A nonparametric estimator for these bounds is developed and asymptotic properties are derived. An empirical application using data from the UK Family Expenditure Survey illustrates the usefulness of the methods.