Intellectual property (IP) protection involves a trade-off between the undesirability of monopoly and the desirable encouragement of creation and innovation. Optimal policy depends on the quantitative strength of these two forces. We give a quantitative assessment of current IP policies. We...

The case against patents can be summarized briefly: there is no empirical evidence that they serve to increase innovation and productivity, unless productivity is identified with the number of patents awarded—which, as evidence shows, has no correlation with measured productivity. Both theory...

The controversy over Intellectual Property Rights (patents and copyright) is here to stay. The steady accumulation of substantial empirical evidence casting serious doubts on the allegedly beneficial effects that iprs have on innovation and creativity is forcing an increasing number of...

In this paper, we model an overlapping generation economy affected by an unexpected immigration shock and determine how households may insure themselves against “immigration risk”. We use the model to study the impact of immigration on (i) the welfare of different generations, (ii) the...

In this paper, we model an overlapping generation economy affected by an unexpected immigration shock and determine how households would insure themselves against "immigration risks" efficiently. We use the model to study the impact of immigration on (i) the welfare of various generations, (ii)...

We try to build a quantitative-theoretical framework to understand the impact of immigration on the Spanish pension system, both during the last ten years and, more importantly, during the future fifty years. In other words, we look at the recent past in a tentative to predict the future....

This paper evaluates the role of the construction sector in accounting for the performance of the U.S. economy in the last decade. During the Great Recession (2008-09) employment in the construction sector experienced an unprecedented decline that followed the largest expansion in employment...

with below average fertility before WWII and post-WWII capital-people ratios are positively correlated with sizes of ensuing baby booms.

The case against patents can be summarized briefly: there is no empirical evidence that they serve to increase innovation and productivity. There is strong evidence, instead, that patents have many negative consequences.

When credit markets to finance investment in human capital are missing, the competitive equilibrium allocation is inefficient. When generations overlap, this failure can be mitigated by properly designed social arrangements. We show that public financing of education and public pensions can be...