Increased spatial dependency of economic activities, as well as spatial differentiation of production and consumption, has implication for environmental policy. One of the issues that has gained importance is the responsibility for the emissions from products that cross national boundaries...

Autonomous vehicles are coming. The only questions are how quickly they will arrive, how we will manage the years when they share the road with conventional vehicles, and how the legal system will address the issues they raise. This Article examines the impact the autonomous vehicle revolution...

This paper models an entrepreneur's choice between investing in a safe activity or experimenting with a new risky one, and how much to invest in "entrepreneurial capital" that permits more effective use of arriving information on the latter - how much to learn how to learn. Optimal investment...

Patents in the life sciences sector have sparked considerable debate over the past years. The grant of a series of patents for the screening of breast cancer (BRCA) genes led to wide controversy in Europe, the US and Australia. The grant of patents for plants resulting from essentially...

Concerns have been expressed that gene patents might result in restricted access to research and health care. The exponential growth of patents claiming human DNA sequences might result in patent thickets, royalty stacking and, ultimately, a ‘tragedy of the anti-commons’ in genetics. The...

Patents are a key element of our knowledge based economy. They are meant to operate as an instrument for fostering innovation by generating incentives through the grant of temporary exclusive rights. The present paper starts by describing some major trends in patent law and practice and throws...

The present paper examines the relationship between price differentiation and intellectual property rights (IPRs). We explore this relation from two opposing, yet complementary angles. First, we investigate whether IPRs form a barrier to differential pricing. Do pharmaceutical patents hinder the...

Recent years have seen a remarkable increase in patents in the field of information, communication and entertainment (ICE) technology and biotechnology. The growth of patents in those areas has triggered serious concern about access to ICE and genome related inventions, as the rise of patents...

This paper aims to relate the principles of Ronald Coase Theorem with negative impacts of biotechnology, taking cases of specific research groups and medium-sized companies in biotechnology. We consider an application of economic theory on transaction costs (TC) provides a good foundation for...