England's “Age of invention”: The acceleration of patents and patentable invention during the industrial revolution

Estimation of a varying parameter model reveals that the trend of patents issued in England accelerated markedly in 1757. Similar results are obtained when patents are weighted by the number of production processes in which the patented invention may be used. There is no evidence that the rules or regulations regarding patents changed around 1757, and investigation of the propensity to patent in individual industries, and of the industrial distribution of patents, does not reveal a systematic change in the propensity to patent. Therefore, an acceleration in patentable invention must have caused the acceleration in patenting. The increase of the growth rate of patenting preceded an increase of the growth rate of total factor productivity, suggesting a causal relationship. Additionally, the fluctuation of patents around trend is much smaller after 1757, which reflects a widely based increase in patentable invention. Finally, the 1762 to 1851 period was characterized by an increased growth rate of patents and invention per person; England had entered her “Age of Invention.”     

An investigation of the determinants of cue utilization

Consumers' evaluations of subjective attributes are frequently accomplished using surrogate indicators as cues. An experiment was conducted to test the impact of three independent variables suggested by the literature to be central to the cue utilization process. Support for the notion that predictive value and confidence value interact to determine the influence of a cue on the evaluation of subjective attributes was obtained. The study results also indicate that the effect of predictive value and confidence value is consistent for both intrinsic and extrinsic cues.     

World food futures — growth with redistribution?

The authors contend that the world has the capacity to support both the present population and any likely increase in population, relatively comfortably for at least the next 100 years. Although millions are malnourished today, world food production is sufficient to feed them, and problems in distribution are the cause of their misfortune. The reasons behind this paradox are examined in the context of the world futures debate, and some implications for policy are suggested. As Gross National Product rises, the poorest nations and income groups within nations need protection against ever-increasing demand for food by wealthier groups.     

Portfolio Choice in the Presence of Personal Illiquid Projects

Personal projects, such as a private business or the purchase of a home, influence individuals' portfolio choice. We conduct a theoretical analysis of this influence when financial assets are required to provide liquidity to personal projects. Due to this liquidity consideration, individuals behave in a more risk-averse fashion when there is a large penalty for discontinuing or underinvesting in the final stages of the projects. In addition, using data from the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances, we find that households that are saving to invest in their own businesses or in their own homes indeed have significantly safer financial portfolios.     

Introducing International Accounting Standards to an emerging capital market: relative familiarity and language effect in Egypt

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of relative familiarity and language accessibility on the International Accounting Standards (IASs) disclosures when IASs are first introduced in an emerging capital market. The study focuses on the annual reports of listed non-financial companies in Egypt when IASs were first introduced. The method used applies a disclosure index measurement to a sample of listed company annual reports and evaluates relative compliance with IASs in relation to corporate characteristics. The results show that for relatively less familiar requirements of IASs, the extent of compliance is related to the type of audit firm used and to the presence of a specific statement of compliance with IASs. A lower degree of compliance with less familiar IASs disclosure is observed consistently across a range of company characteristics. Consideration of agency theory and capital need theory would lead to prior expectation of a distinction in disclosure practices between different categories of companies. The results were, therefore, counterintuitive to expectations where the regulations were unfamiliar or not available in the native language, indicating that new variables have to be considered and additional theoretical explanations have to be found in future disclosure studies on emerging capital markets.