We present an original modeling tool, which can be used to study the mechanisms by which free/libre and open source software developers’ code-writing efforts are allocated within open source projects. It is first described analytically in a discrete choice framework, and then simulated using...

The technology of “the Internet” is not static. Although its “end-to- end” architecture has made this “connection-less” communications system readily “extensible,” and highly encouraging to innovation both in hardware and software applications, there are strong pressures for...

This essay exposes the limitations of the 'logical origins' approach that has found favour among economists who seek to understand the workings of institutions in the past present. It pursues a different approach, applying functionalism in historical context to explain the emergence of the...

Krugman’s models of spatial resource allocation and trade convey robust theoretical insights with a parsimonious lucidity that appeals strongly to modern economists’ tastes. Those great pedagogical virtues also may limit the models’ utility in guiding empirical research on...

EC research programmes are promoting collaborative scientific research in general and “integrated Internet-based collaborations” in particular. New intellectual property rights (IPRs) are being developed to ensure the “intellectual property” of newly developed scientific and...

Radical legal innovations in intellectual property protection have been introduced by the little noticed European Database Directive of March 1996. This initiative, part of the larger institutional transformations initiated in response to the economic ramifications of rapid progress in digital...