Convergence Among the U.S. States: Absolute, Conditional, or Club?

This paper attempts to ascertain which of the convergence hypotheses – absolute, conditional, or club – best describes the economic development of the U.S. states since 1950. We use regression tree analysis to identify convergence clubs among the states and argue that the club characterization of the data dominates the other two. We find three convergence clubs with a state's age and it's initial densities of post offices and telephone cable determining club membership. Abstracting from catch-up effects, those states with higher densities tend to grow faster.

The Welfare Implications of Unauthorized Reproduction of Intellectual Property in the Presence of Demand Network Externalities.

This paper finds that unauthorized reproduction of intellectual property in the presence of demand network externalities can not only induce greater firm profits relative to the case where there is no copying, it can lead to a Pareto improvement in social welfare. Ceteris paribus, when network externalities are present, firms have a greater incentive to expand output because marginal revenue is higher and/or they may wish to create preemptive installed bases. This paper suggests that unauthorized copying can be a relatively efficient means of achieving this by allowing the firm, in effect, to 'price discriminate' among different classes of consumers. Copyright 1994 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Strategic Vertical Differentiation and Durable Goods Monopoly.

This paper considers a novel and strategic use of quality as a means for solving the durable-goods time inconsistency problem. It demonstrates how durable-goods producers can exploit the cannibalization of high-quality markets by low-quality goods. Relative to the static product line solution, this strategic dimension of quality choice implies higher quality levels of low-end goods and the production of some low-end products that would not otherwise be produced. In some cases, low-end goods may rationally be sold below cost. The paper, therefore, offers a purely Coasian explanation for vertical product differentiation. Copyright 2002 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Copyright enforcement and product quality signaling in markets for computer software

This paper considers the impact of consumer copying of computer software when there is asymmetric information about product quality. In particular, the paper: (1) examines how the presence of copying can enhance the feasibility of production of high quality software when quality is a priori unknown to consumers and (2) explores the novel possibility that a software producer can signal product quality via its copyright enforcement decision. Under certain conditions, when there is asymmetric information about product quality, providers of high quality software can be made strictly better off with less than full copyright enforcement; in some cases, they do not produce at all in the absence of copying.Piracy Copying Intellectual property Software Product quality Signaling Copyright

Convergence Among the U.S. States: Absolute, Conditional, or Club?

absolute, conditional, or club – best describes the economic development of the U.S. states since 1950. We use regression tree analysis to identify convergence clubs among the states and argue that the club characterization of the data dominates the other two. We find three convergence clubs with a state's age and it's initial densities of post offices and telephone cable determining club membership. Abstracting from catch-up effects, those states with higher densities tend to grow faster

Initial conditions and economic growth in the US states

Abstract This paper uses regression trees to examine the role of initial conditions in the economic development of the US states since 1950. We seek to ascertain whether existing di!erences in state per capita incomes re#ect temporary deviations from a common stochastic steady state or the permanent e!ects of di!erences in initial conditions. We assume that the states share a common set of economic fundamentals so that, absent di!erences in initial conditions, they ought to share a common steady state. We allow the members of a large set of potentially important initial conditions to de"ne convergence clubs among the states. 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classixcation: O40; O5