The article examines to which extent downloading on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks is responsible for the crisis in the music industry. Using the most recent empirical studies, the goal is to estimate the relevance of the two contrasting explanations usually put forward. On the one hand, it is...

What is the best protection, from an economic point of view, for the investments in databases? This is the general question addressed in this article. In particular, one asks whether a database producer can, and should, use contractual arrangements to obtain an additional protection on top of...

Because the patent system is nowadays under criticisms, it is legitimate to question whether patents provide the best incentive mechanism for innovation. Wouldn?t it be preferable to base incentives on a reward system? This is the question addressed in this article, first in a general...

The reform of Patent Law in Europe is an old project. It started with the creation of the European Patent in 1973, but it has now been put to a halt because European States do not manage to implement new reforms. The goal of this article is to present the economic issues underlying these reforms...

Das Internet der Dinge wäre undenkbar ohne den rapiden technologischen Fortschritt in der Telekommunikation während der vergangenen Jahrzehnte von spezialisierten schmalbandigen Netzen hin zu All-IP-Breitbandnetzen. Dadurch wird ein hochvolumiger Transport von Datenpaketen für ein großes...

Canadian apprenticeship policy has recently turned to direct subsidies for participants, including a federal tax incentive for employers. Some assumptions underlying the employer subsidy are: that apprenticeship training is a principal contributor to the skilled trades labour supply; that...

With the dwindling of natural resources, like oil and gas, even resource-rich countries like Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia have to re-adjust their development strategies. Governing knowledge for development (K4D) is seen as a way out of the dilemma of reduced revenues from natural resources....

During the European sovereign debt crisis, most countries that ran into fiscal trouble had Catholic majorities, whereas countries with Protestant majorities were able to avoid fiscal problems. Survey data show that, within Germany, views on the euro differ between Protestants and...

This paper systematically analyzes media attention devoted to terrorist attacks worldwide between 1998 and 2012. Several aspects are related to predicting media attention. First, suicide missions receive significantly more coverage, which could explain their increased popularity among terrorist...

During the European sovereign debt crisis, most countries that ran into fiscal trouble had Catholic majorities, whereas countries with Protestant majorities were able to avoid fiscal problems. Survey data show that, within Germany, views on theeuro differ between Protestants and Non-Protestants,...