This paper examines how demand for prescription drugs is influenced by different types of insurance. In order to understand demand characteristics and the competitiveness of pharmaceutical markets, both intermolecular (therapeutic) and intramolecular (generic) substitutions are studied in the...

Breaking up a monopoly may have stimulated innovation in oil refining over decades. In the shorter run, the immediate demand for oil may have spurred more innovation.

Academic institutions, involved in technology transfer to industry, are always concerned about the "fairness" of the royalty rate payable to them. The common method used by practitioners is the "Industry-Standard Approach" which is based mainly on past experience. However such approach is very...

The role of intellectual property (IP) as an important value determinant is widely recognized. This article tries to quantify the role of IP in companies valuation by comparing a sample of biotechnology companies (46 companies included in the Genetic Engineering News Index:GEN-Dex) to the...

In Europe the demand of functional foods varies remarkably from country to country, on the basis of the alimentary traditions, the enforced legislation and the different cultural heritage that people have acquired. The opportunities of expansion on the market seem to be quite favorable and the...

Technology transfer agreements between universities and industrial companies usually involve royalties, sublicensing considerations and allocation of equity. This article extends the analysis of my previous one ("The Economic Sense of Royalty Rates", ewp-fin/970903)to deal with sublicensing...

This paper presents a micro-model of knowledge creation through the interactions among a group of people. Our model incorporates two key aspects of the cooperative process of knowledge creation: (i) heterogeneity of people in their state of knowledge is essential for successful cooperation in...

Retail payment methods are in a stage of rapid development. New service providers and technological developments enable new payment services through a variety of channels. Payment solutions are being developed based eg on the Internet and on mobile phones. Presumably, the use of paper-based...

The growth effects of intellectual property right (IPR) protection are examined in a quality-ladder model of endogenous growth. Stronger IPR protection, which reduces the probability of imitation, raises the reward for innovation. However, stronger protection reduces the number of competitive...

The Washington Consensus suffers from fundamental inadequacies, and that a more comprehensive framework of the economic process is needed to guide the formulation of country-specific development strategies. The following five propositions summarise the set of interrelated arguments made in this...