Strategic technology editing of the patent stage: lesson from a case of inkjet printer development

Patents are conventionally regarded as representing post-procurement of rights based on results of research and development (R&D). Patents can also be regarded as factors promoting R&D itself. In this study, the author examines the strategic meaning of patents in R&D through analyses of the R&D processes at Canon Inc., which is widely considered to submit patents strategically. The author identified characteristic behaviour related to patent acquisition in the R&D of inkjet printers. Canon constructed a strong patent group precisely by editing patents submitted earlier. Characteristic patent submissions were also identified: they elevated the obtained R&D results to higher concepts as milestones of R&D. These findings are discussed from the viewpoint of the meaning of patents for R&D and the possibility of effective R&D at the patent stage.     

Legal migration and illegal migration: the effectiveness of qualitative and quantitative restriction policies

By considering the optimal behaviour of illegal mi grants who must confront the various enforcement techniques adopted by the host country, we show that an increase in penalties, in travel cost, or in the possibility of detection, would be effective in the 'qualitative ' objective but not in the 'quantitative' objective. Moreover. when a host country starts accepting skilled legal migrants, if the required skill level is relatively low and the possibility of detection is sufficiently high , an increase in penalties will be effective in both objectives.     

Pasinetti after Sen: Towards a Capability Approach to Structural Dynamics of Consumption

Pasinetti's theory of structural dynamics has, as well as the capability approach, normative implications about income distribution and economic growth. Compared with the latter, however, the individual character of consumption is rather neglected in Pasinetti's framework, but the macro‐economic viability is examined here more intensively as a main issue. In this paper, we will show it possible and fruitful to consistently integrate both complementary approaches and present an analytical foundation of a normative theory of the structural dynamics of consumption.     

Diffusing the Cloud: Cloud Computing and Implications for Public Policy

Cloud Computing is rapidly emerging as the new information technology platform. It is, however, much more than simply a new set of technologies and business models. Cloud Computing is transforming how consumers, companies, and governments store information, how they process that information, and how they utilize computing power. It can be an engine of innovation, a platform for entrepreneurship, and driver of corporate efficiency. While an increasingly commonly term, confusion remains over what exactly constitutes Cloud Computing, how the markets are unfolding, and what forces will drive their evolution and diffusion. This paper provides an overview and conceptual tools for business leaders, policymakers, and non-specialist scholars to identify, distill, and easily understand the core aspects of how Cloud Computing service markets are developing, and how an array of policy issues will influence how this new computing platform unfolds across the world.     

Do industries contain predictive information for the Fama–French factors?

We examine whether the returns of US industry portfolios predict the returns and volatility of Fama and French's small-minus-big (SMB) and high-minus-low (HML) factors. The analysis reveals that all 30 industry returns strongly forecast one-month-ahead SMB factor returns. Moreover, a significant number of industry returns predict the volatility of the SMB and HML factors by up to two or three months. These findings suggest that US industry returns contain profitable information on Fama–French SMB and HML factors, and since most investors cannot extract the profitable information contained in industry returns in a timely manner, this information gradually diffuses in equity markets.     

Marketing Channels and Retail Store Density in East Asia*

By measuring retail store density with regard to population, several studies have indicated that marketing channels in Asia are different from those in the USA and European countries. The present paper investigates to what extent a model similar to Flath and Nariu (1996) can empirically predict retail densities in Japan and China. The results suggest that the secular decline in the number of retail stores in Japan primarily results from the proliferation of car ownership and the expansion in the average size of a dwelling. We also demonstrate that the model accounts for the large variations in China's retail density.     

An implementation of the HJM model with application to Japanese interest futures

In this paper, we propose a new specification of the forward rate model of Heath, Jarrow and Morton [5] and apply it to the Japanese 3 month interest rate futures. Our empirical result shows that the model we propose can capture the forward interest rate movement.     

Long-Term Memory and Applying the Multi-Factor ARFIMA Models in Financial Markets

Exploiting the classical R/S and modified R/S analysis, we first reveal theevidence of long-term memory in liquidity, volume, and volatility. Thereafter,we estimate the fractionally integrated autoregressive movingaverage ARFIMA models by both the exact-maximum likelihood (EML) and themodified-profile likelihood (MPL) methods. Furthermore, based on the theoryof financial economics, we extend the simple ARFIMA models to the Multi-FactorARFIMA models by incorporating the mutual relationships among financial marketvariables and present the effectiveness of the Multi-Factor ARFIMA models infinancial markets.     

Trans-boundary Pollution and Brain Drain Migration

The economic effects of international brain drain migration in the presence of trans‐boundary pollution are analyzed. In autarky, both skilled and unskilled workers are expected to migrate from the less developed foreign country to the developed home country, if permitted. Surprisingly, under certain conditions, all workers, apart from skilled foreign ones, will gain (lose) from the migration of unskilled (skilled) foreign workers. Moreover, if skilled foreign workers are employed as unskilled domestic workers, then skilled foreign workers will gain but unskilled workers in both countries will lose. Whether or not skilled domestic workers will gain depends on the magnitude of the pollution spillover parameter. Brain drain migration persists under free trade if the demand for manufactured goods is strong.     

A dynamic linear economy with characteristic-based endogenous technical coefficients

We develop a characteristic-based model for the endogenous determination of technical coefficients in a linear economy and use it to describe the dynamics of the economy as driven by changes in knowledge. The use of the characteristic approach to determine technical coefficients makes our model suitable to be interpreted as a first attempt towards the formulation of a formal knowledge-based model of technology.