Intellectual property (IP) protection involves a trade-off between the undesirability of monopoly and the desirable encouragement of creation and innovation. Optimal policy depends on the quantitative strength of these two forces. We give a quantitative assessment of current IP policies. We...

More than half a decade has passed since the most significant economic crisis of our lifetimes and a plethora of different interpretations has been offered about its origins. This paper consolidates the stylised facts put forward so far into a concise and coherent meta-narrative. The paper...

China was the largest economy in the world before the end of the 19th century; then became one of the poorest countries in the world in a few decades. Now China is returning to its historical past. To understand China’s development, and to understand where and how far China will move forward,...

This book provides a rigorous course to the theory of intermediate microeconomics. It includes not only the basic traditional theory, but also a ¡°From the Literature¡± box in each chapter directing students to applications of the theory. The theory is developed axiomatically, with optional...

The efficiency of the crude oil futures market and the forecasting accuracy of futures prices are investigated. The accuracy of forecasts using futures prices is compared with that of forecasts using alternative techniques, including time series and econometric models and judgmental forecasts....

We conduct an update of the ranking of economic journals by <link>Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, and Stengos (2003)</link>. However, our present study differs methodologically from that earlier study in an important dimension. We use a rolling window of years between 2003 and 2008, for each year counting the...

This paper is a non-technical and somewhat philosophical essay, that seeks to investigate the relationship between economics and reality. More precisely, it asks how reality in the form empirical evidence does or does not influence economic thinking and theory. In particular, which role do...

Pursuant to the reproduction theory and the set theory the concept was elaborated, that throughout the historical evolution of mankind five basic forms of society (called by the author - forms of the sustaining sphere) have emerged consecutively: consumptionarity, protoeconomy, economy, market...

More advanced technologies demand higher degrees of specialization - and longer chains of production connecting raw inputs to final outputs. Longer production chains are subject to a "weakest link" effect: they are more fragile and more prone to failure. Optimal chain length is determined by the...