This paper asks whether adversity spurs the introduction of process innovations and increases the use of managerial incentives by firms. Using a large panel data set of workplaces in Canada, our identification strategy relies on exogenous variation in adversity arising from increased border...

This paper asks whether adversity spurs the introduction of process innovations and increases the use of managerial incentives by firms. Using a large panel data set of workplaces in Canada, our identification strategy relies on exogenous variation in adversity arising from increased border...

This paper asks whether adversity spurs the introduction of process innovations and increases the use of managerial incentives by firms. Using a large panel data set of workplaces in Canada, our identification strategy relies on exogenous variation in adversity arising from increased border...

This paper asks whether adversity spurs the introduction of process innovations and increases the use of managerial incentives by firms. Using a large panel data set of workplaces in Canada, our identification strategy relies on exogenous variation in adversity arising from increased border...

The effects of performance pay in routine, easy to measure tasks are well-documented, but they are much less understood in knowledge creation. This paper studies the effects of explicit and implicit, career concerns incentives common in knowledge work in a multitasking model, and estimates their...

This paper explores several characteristics of patents in the biotechnology field, comparing and contrasting them to patents in other fields of research. We find that biotechnology patents face a longer lag between application and grant date, and their secrecy would be heavily affected if...

Standard innovation theory assumes that intellectual property protection is a prerequisite to the development of technological advances. A strong intellectual property system, composed of both laws that establish intellectual property protection and a judicial or other adjudicative system to...

The inventive step is the critical variable in determining balance between patent costs and patent benefits. Set at the right level it ensures that the knowledge spillovers from new inventions offset the costs of restraining competition. But asking the question "is it obvious?" sets a far lower...

Drawing on case law and the results of an empirical study, this paper demonstrates that the height of the inventive step in Australia is close to zero and substantially different from the "significant advance over what is known" advised to the Australian parliament in 2011. To "raise" the height...