What factors affect the diffusion of new economic institutions? This paper examines this question by exploiting the introduction of the first regularized patent system, which appeared in the Venetian Republic in 1474. We begin by developing a model that links patenting activity of craft guilds...

Hybrid governance structures between markets and hierarchies in many industries, e.g., in energy and telecommunications, challenge antitrust and regulation policy. The paper focuses on the theoretical and methodological basis provided by the New Institutional Economics (NIE) for analyzing the...

This paper ('Sfb-Arbeitspapier') illustrates the links between the self-regulation of transnational business networks and the law by analysing the management of chemical substance risks in the electric and electronic equipment industry. National product regulation (and to some extent regulation...