In this policy brief, Jean Pisani-Ferry and Bruno van Pottelsberghe show that although the crisis originated in the US, Europeâ??s outlook has deteriorated faster and more sharply leading to the worst crisis observed during the post-war era. However, the length of the crisis matters at least as...

Senior Resident Fellows Reinhilde Veugelers and Bruno van Pottelsberghe provide recommendations for the term of new Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes in this supplement to Bruegel's Memos to the New Commission: Europe's Economic Priorities 2010-2015. They argue that Kroes should move past...

In this Policy Brief, Bruno van Pottelsbergh addresses two challenges: First, Europe is failing to live up to the target set in the Lisbon agenda to increase public and private-funded investment in R&D to 3 percent of GDP. Can Europe catch up? Second, since countries have different industrial...

These Memos, addressed to the next Commission President and to the new European commissioners, are written by Bruegel Scholars and edited by Senior Research Fellow André Sapir and focus on key economic aspects of EU policy-making. The new Commission will enter office at a challenging time for...

This policy contribution by Bruno van Pottelsberghe and Gaétan De Rassenfosseargue that the number of priority filings should be used as a patent-based measure of EuropeÂ?s innovation performance.  The paper identifies several policies that may affect the R&D-patent relationship.

In his blueprint, Bruno van Pottelsberghe first looks at the performance of patent arrangements in Europe, especially their cost effectiveness and the consistency of rules and remedies across countries. He then looks at current attempts at global patent cooperation to see if they will help or...

In this Policy Brief, Bruegel Senior Fellow Bruno van Pottelsberghe makes the argument in favour of a single EU patent system. The author explains that the absence of a one-stop-shop for EU-wide patents hampers innovation and will pose serious challenges to small and medium-sized companies in...

Bruno van Pottelsberghe argues that the consequences of the fragmentation of the European patent system are more dramatic than the mere prohibitive costs of maintaining a patent in force in many jurisdictions. The authors first show that heterogeneous national litigation costs, practices and...

This working paper empirically investigates if corporate governance practices affect the resources firms devote to R&D. The authors Florence Honoré, Federico Munari and Bruno van Pottelsberghe found that an executive remuneration system that is linked to the firm's financial performance has a...

Bruno van Pottelsberghe analyses the potential consequences of the recently ratified London Agreement, which reduces the patent translation requirements in 15 out of 34 EPC Member States. The simulations suggest that the cumulated costs of patenting have been reduced by 20 to 30 percent thanks...