Can patent family size and composition signal patent value?

Recent research has proposed a method of patent valuation based on weighting patent family size by the market size of the countries in the family. The premise is that inventors tend to seek greater international coverage for their more valuable patents. The paper presents a novel way to test the ability of market size-weighted patent families to predict patent value and compares the method against extant measures of patent valuation based on patent citations and renewal behaviour. We use forecasting techniques to show that the weighted patent family size measure outperforms other methods in terms of predicting patent life and the number of citations. An advantage of the weighted patent family size measure is that it is based on ex-ante information and is easy to construct for purposes of evaluating patent value. We demonstrate this advantage using a large, comprehensive database of international patent families.     

Community development and research: Participatory learning and action ‐a development strategy in itself

For any development facilitator or change agent, a potential paradox can arise when, assisting with self‐reliant participatory development. This paradox occurs when the change agent tries to help and encourage people to develop themselves and, in so doing, undermines their self‐reliance and sustainability, the very aim of development. The theoretical basis for the meaning of development is often at the root of such a paradox: it is argued that theory and the concept of development are in actual fact incompatible within the realm of social reality. It is further argued that Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), which rejects theory as the foundation for development and embraces human consciousness, can offer an appropriate strategy that can avoid such a paradox. This article is inspired by the tenacious efforts of resource‐poor people. It is largely based on PLA initiatives undertaken in the Little Karoo, South Africa and Odibo, Namibia, as well as in various communities in Zambia, and on numerous RDP capacity‐building training initiatives in the Northern Cape Province. South Africa.     

Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Financial Statement Comparability

This study examines whether mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) leads to capital market benefits through enhanced financial statement comparability. U.K. domestic standards are considered very similar to IFRS, suggesting any capital market benefits observed for U.K.‐domiciled firms are more likely attributable to improvements in comparability (i.e., better precision of across‐firm information) than to changes in information quality specific to the firm (i.e., core information quality). If IFRS adoption improves financial statement comparability, we predict this should reduce insiders' ability to benefit from private information. Consistent with these expectations, we find that abnormal returns to insider purchases ― used to proxy for private information ― are reduced following IFRS adoption. Similar results obtain across numerous subsamples and proxies used to isolate IFRS effects attributable to comparability. Together, the findings are consistent with mandatory IFRS adoption improving comparability and thus leading to capital market benefits by reducing insiders' ability to exploit private information.     

Sector and importer determinants of prices for traded intermediates

While the literature on traded goods prices emphasizes final goods prices and related consumer theory to explain variation in goods prices with importer characteristics, trade in intermediates actually constitutes about two thirds of total trade. We propose a mechanism for explaining variations in the prices of intermediates as a function of importer characteristics, wherein production is vulnerable to failure and the probability of failure declines in the quality of intermediates. Higher wages mean a greater opportunity cost of failure, leading to a stronger demand for high-quality intermediates where firms face higher wages. We find empirical support for this mechanism in the case of intermediate goods using IV regressions. In addition, our findings indicate that while the cost of labour explains about one fifth of variation in imported intermediate prices, it is a non-significant determinant of imported final goods prices.     

A THEORY OF WAGES AND LABOR DEMAND WITH INTRA‐FIRM BARGAINING AND MATCHING FRICTIONS*

This article provides a model of labor market equilibrium with search and within‐firm strategic bargaining. We yield explicit closed form solutions with heterogeneous labor inputs and capital. The solution exhibits overemployment. We show that higher relative bargaining power for some groups of workers may lead to overemployment relative to other groups, with such other groups being underemployed instead if they have a lower relative bargaining power. Similarly, the hold‐up problem between capitalists and employees does not necessarily lead to underinvestment in physical capital.     

Measuring Consumer Ethnocentrism: An Assessment of Reliability,Validity and Dimensionality of the CETSCALE in a Developing Market

ABSTRACT

Based on 305 surveyed consumers in Zimbabwe’s two major cities (Harare and Bulawayo), the study sought mainly to measure consumer ethnocentrism and to test psychometric properties of the CETSCALE in Zimbabwe using structural equation modeling. It was established that the construct of consumer ethnocentrism comprises two dimensions, namely negative influence of foreign products, and preference for domestic products. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to be moderately high. The psychometric properties of the CETSCALE tested above the required thresholds. Consumer ethnocentrism was found to negatively influence consumer attitude towards imported poultry products. The study has implications for managers and future researchers.     

Preference Erosion and Multilateral Trade Liberalization

Because of concern that tariff reductions in Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries willtranslate into worsening export performance for the least developedcountries, the erosion of trade preferences may become a stumblingblock for multilateral trade liberalization. An econometricanalysis of actual preference use shows that preferences areunderused because of administrative burdens—estimatedto be equivalent to an average of 4 percent of the value ofgoods traded. To quantify the maximum scope for preference erosion,the compliance cost estimates are used in a model-based assessmentof the impact of full elimination of OECD tariffs. Taking intoaccount administrative costs eliminates erosion costs in theaggregate and greatly reduces the losses for countries mostaffected by preference erosion.     

Import prices,income, and inequality

We compare three theoretical explanations for the positive empirical relationship between importer income per capita and traded goods prices. A first explanation is that consumers with higher incomes demand higher quality goods with higher prices. A second explanation is that wealthier people exhibit an increased willingness to pay for necessary goods as more goods enter the consumption set in a hierarchic demand system, and can thus be charged higher markups. A third explanation is that consumers with higher incomes are more finicky regarding their preferred variety in an ideal variety framework and can thus be charged higher markups. We discriminate between these three theories by focusing on the effect of income inequality on trade prices. Based on a large dataset with bilateral HS6 level data on 1260 final goods categories from more than 100 countries between 2000 and 2004, we find a highly significant negative effect of income inequality on unit values. This contradicts both the demand for quality and finickyness theories, while providing support for the increased willingness to pay theory linked to hierarchic demand. These findings on income inequality do not falsify the quality expansion model and the ideal variety model per se. However, the results do argue for place of importance of hierarchic demand.     

The Cost of Rich (and Poor) Country Protection to Developing Countries

This study confirms that substantial barriers to market accesswill remain in both rich and poor countries following full implementationof the Uruguay Round agreement. The analysis finds that approximately40% of the costs of these barriers to developing countries arisefrom barriers to market access in industrial countries and 60%from barriers in developing countries themselves. The resultssuggest that there would be large gains to almost all regionsfrom a round of negotiations that increased market access inthe North and South. In Africa, the potential static gains frommultilateral reform appear to exceed those from preferentialliberalisation, without the well-known disadvantages of a preferentialapproach.     

Household inequality, social welfare, and trade

Working with Sen social welfare functions (meaning explicit separability between mean income and income dispersion), we develop a generalized dual approach to tracking household inequality aspects of social welfare in general equilibrium. We highlight how household equity can be examined analytically alongside production efficiency in duality-based models, using our dual framework to explore potential trade-offs between efficiency and equity effects of trade policy. Our results complement the set of standard inequality results in trade theory focused on functional rather than household inequality. We also find that the relative distributional impact of tariffs on welfare is conditional on the initial level of inequality.