This paper proposes an empirical study of the skill repertoires of 290 sectors in the United States over the period 2002–2011. We use information on employment structures and job content of occupations to flesh out structural characteristics of industry-specific know-how. The exercise of...

The paper analyzes how the structure of interaction networks affects the diffusion patterns and market shares of different products in case of local network externalities and imperfect information. The diffusion of the different products/technologies in the market is modelled as the result of...

This work provides a deeper account of an increasing phenomenon characterising the European Union in recent years, i.e. software patenting. To this purpose we present a novel database of software patents providing a reliability check. According to that, more than 30 000 software patents have...

We analyze changes in the skill content of occupations in US four-digit manufacturing industries between 1999 and 2010. Following a ‘task-based' approach, we elaborate a measure of Non-Routine skill intensity that captures the effects of industry exposure to both technology and international...

Background: Data on the cocaine market appear to be inconsistent, as they tend to show declining prices vis-a-vis a steady or increasing demand and a declining supply. This paper proposes an explanation for this trend by providing evidence that there is an under-estimation of the supply of...

The paper analyzes how the structure of social networks affects product diffusion and competition under different information regimes. Diffusion is modeled as the result of idiosyncratic adoption thresholds, local network effects, and information diffusion broadcasting and word-of mouth by...

A large number of studies has been canvassed by the growing rates of diffusion of Open Source Software. However, a formal analysis of the process of competition between open–source and proprietary software is still missing. We propose an epidemic model of innovation diffusion to deal with the...