Property rights in the knowledge economy: an explanation of the crisis

Some of the roots underlying the recent crisis may be found in the global convergence towards a model characterized by strong property rights and an extremely limited role attributed to "open science". The modern economy has increasingly moved from an open science - open markets model toward a closed science - closed markets model. Paradoxically, while a non-rival resource like knowledge becomes the most relevant input, small firms and new entrants find it increasingly difficult to be competitive with large and well established organizations. Such a model is progressively increasing the costs of investment in new knowledge, with important negative consequences in terms of overall performance of the economy. We argue that in the knowledge economy, overcoming inequality and the economic crisis can be part of a single coherent policy. If some essential knowledge is moved from the private to the public sphere, this is has not only desirable inequality-decreasing consequences but can also contribute to re-launching the economy, creating the conditions for a sustained development. In a knowledge economy, a super-multiplier could couple the traditional effects of Keynesian spending in time of crisis with the multiplying virtues human knowledge, moved from the private to the public sphere.

Pompei. Parco archeologico e valorizzazione

Pompei. Parco archeologico e valorizzazion

Economía del conocimiento, crisis financiera y depresión

Este artículo revisa una rama reciente de investigación que subraya que las actuales instituciones de la economía del conocimiento ponen en peligro la promesa de crecimiento y prosperidad que se atribuye al mayor uso del conocimiento. La privatización excesiva del conocimiento genera círculos viciosos y virtuosos de acumulación de propiedad intelectual e inversión en capital humano que se auto refuerzan y aumentan la desigualdad global. Las actuales instituciones de la economía global también reducen las oportunidades de inversión globales, una de las causas de la actual depresión global. Sin antídotos espontáneos contra esos fenómenos, la política económica y la científica deberían intentar corregir, en forma coordinada y global, el balance entre conocimiento público y privado

The knowledge economy, the crash and the depression

The knowledge economy is generally invoked as the key to progress, development and prosperity. Since the work of Schumpeter (1934; 1942), knowledge production and innovation have been identified as distinctive features of market economies, crucial to overcome societal inertia and, as later recognized by Abramovits’ (1959) and Solow’s (1960) seminal contributions, more relevant than capital accumulation to explain growth. A recent strand of research has, however, emphasized that the present institutions of the knowledge economy, far from being infallible engines of economic growth, embody features that may lead to their own demise, resulting in stagnant growth. In this paper, we survey this strand of research, starting from an analysis of the reasons put forward to explain why the endgame of the knowledge economy may be crash and depression. The paper illustrates the dynamics leading to a reduction of investment opportunities as a consequence of the escalation of knowledge enclosures associated to the strengthening of the intellectual property system and the weakening of the traditional institutions of ‘Open Science’. It also considers the implications of the progressive monopolization of intellectual resources in terms of long-term effects on inequality. The ongoing reduction of the share of publicly available knowledge resources may be explained in political economy terms from both the national and the international perspective. At the national level, large firms’ rent-seeking activities may explain many aspects of the evolution of national IP systems and innovation policies. At the international level, the global commons nature of knowledge resources creates scope for free-riding phenomena whereby each country has an incentive to use the public knowledge of other countries and to over-privatize the knowledge that it is producing. Both at the national and at the international level, the problem is compounded by ubiquitous feedback effects: once IP institutions are in place, firms (countries) find themselves in a prisoner’s dilemma situation whereby patenting (strenghtening patent protection and reducing the scope of publicly available knowledge) is a dominant strategy for all even if choosing a strategy of greater openness would be consistent with joint welfare maximization. Many recent contributions also suggest, however, that the crash of the knowledge economy is not inevitable. Appropriate policy solutions may be devised to remedy the shortcomings of knowledge privatization. Neoliberal prejudices against direct public investments should be abandoned, also in consideration of the fact that public investments have been more important to build the knowledge economy than is usually recognized (Mazzucato, 2013). Efforts could be made to achieve better coordination at the international level, so as to build international institutions redressing the balance between public and private knowledge (Pagano and Rossi, 2009). Trade and industrial policies aimed at promoting positive externalities, as well as creative ways of charging for the utilization of the global knowledge commons may be part of the toolbox (Stiglitz and Greenwald, 2014). Finally, the paper concludes by summarizing the main questions for future research

Economía del conocimiento, crisis financiera y depresión

This paper reviews a recent strand of research emphasizing how the present institutions of the knowledge economy may be jeopardizing the very promise of growth and prosperity that the increased use of knowledge is generally reported to bring about. The excessive privatization of knowledge generates self-reinforcing vicious and virtuous circles of accumulation of intellectual property and investment in human capital, which increase global inequality. The present institutions of the global economy entail also a reduction of global investment opportunities that is one of the causes of the present global depression. Absent spontaneous antidotes to these phenomena, economic and science policies should aim at redressing the balance between public and private knowledge. Because of the distortion of incentives, stemming from uncompensated knowledge externalities at the international level, these policies should necessarily be coordinated at global level.Este artículo revisa una rama reciente de investigación que subraya que las actuales instituciones de la economía del conocimiento ponen en peligro la promesa de crecimiento y prosperidad que se atribuye al mayor uso del conocimiento. La privatización excesiva del conocimiento genera círculos viciosos y virtuosos de acumulación de propiedad intelectual e inversión en capital humano que se auto refuerzan y aumentan la desigualdad global. Las actuales instituciones de la economía global también reducen las oportunidades de inversión globales, una de las causas de la actual depresión global. Sin antídotos espontáneos contra esos fenómenos, la política económica y la científica deberían intentar corregir, en forma coordinada y global, el balance entre conocimiento público y privado

Non-invasive absolute measurement of leaf water content using terahertz quantum cascade lasers

Background: Plant water resource management is one of the main future challenges to fight recent climatic changes. The knowledge of the plant water content could be indispensable for water saving strategies. Terahertz spectroscopic techniques are particularly promising as a non-invasive tool for measuring leaf water content, thanks to the high predominance of the water contribution to the total leaf absorption. Terahertz quantum cascade lasers (THz QCL) are one of the most successful sources of THz radiation. Results: Here we present a new method which improves the precision of THz techniques by combining a transmission measurement performed using a THz QCL source, with simple pictures of leaves taken by an optical camera. As a proof of principle, we performed transmission measurements on six plants of Vitis vinifera L. (cv "Colorino"). We found a linear law which relates the leaf water mass to the product between the leaf optical depth in the THz and the projected area. Results are in optimal agreement with the proposed law, which reproduces the experimental data with 95% accuracy. Conclusions: This method may overcome the issues related to intra-variety heterogeneities and retrieve the leaf water mass in a fast, simple, and non-invasive way. In the future this technique could highlight different behaviours in preserving the water status during drought stress

Terahertz imaging for non-invasive classification of healthy and cimiciato-infected hazelnuts

The development of new non-invasive approaches able to recognize defective food is currently a lively field of research. In particular, a simple and non-destructive method able to recognize defective hazelnuts, such as cimiciato-infected ones, in real-time is still missing. This study has been designed to detect the presence of such damaged hazelnuts. To this aim, a measurement setup based on terahertz (THz) radiation has been developed. Images of a sample of 150 hazelnuts have been acquired in the low THz range by a compact and portable active imaging system equipped with a 0.14 THz source and identified as Healthy Hazelnuts (HH) or Cimiciato Hazelnut (CH) after visual inspection. All images have been analyzed to find the average transmission of the THz radiation within the sample area. The differences in the distribution of the two populations have been used to set up a classification scheme aimed at the discrimination between healthy and injured samples. The performance of the classification scheme has been assessed through the use of the confusion matrix on 50 samples. The False Positive Rate (FPR) and True Negative Rate (TNR) are 0% and 100%, respectively. On the other hand, the True Positive Rate (TPR) and False Negative Rate (FNR) are 75% and 25%, respectively. These results are relevant from the perspective of the development of a simple, automatic, real-time method for the discrimination of cimiciato-infected hazelnuts in the processing industry

Relationship between HDL Cholesterol Efflux Capacity, Calcium Coronary Artery Content, and Antibodies against ApolipoproteinA-1 in Obese and Healthy Subjects

AIMS: To explore the associations between cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC), coronary artery calcium (CAC) score, Framingham risk score (FRS), and antibodies against apolipoproteinA-1 (anti-apoA-1 IgG) in healthy and obese subjects (OS). METHODS AND RESULTS: ABCA1-, ABCG1-, passive diffusion (PD)-CEC and anti-apoA-1 IgG were measured in sera from 34 controls and 35 OS who underwent CAC score determination by chest computed tomography. Anti-apoA-1 IgG ability to modulate CEC and macrophage cholesterol content (MCC) was tested in vitro. Controls and OS displayed similar ABCG1-, ABCA1-, PD-CEC, CAC and FRS scores. Logistic regression analyses indicated that FRS was the only significant predictor of CAC lesion. Overall, anti-apoA-1 IgG were significantly correlated with ABCA1-CEC (r = 0.48, p < 0.0001), PD-CEC (r = -0.33, p = 0.004), and the CAC score (r = 0.37, p = 0.03). ABCA1-CEC was correlated with CAC score (r = 0.47, p = 0.004) and FRS (r = 0.18, p = 0.29), while PD-CEC was inversely associated with the same parameters (CAC: r = -0.46, p = 0.006; FRS: score r = -0.40, p = 0.01). None of these associations was replicated in healthy controls or after excluding anti-apoA-1 IgG seropositive subjects. In vitro, anti-apoA-1 IgG inhibited PD-CEC (p < 0.0001), increased ABCA1-CEC (p < 0.0001), and increased MCC (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: We report a paradoxical positive association between ABCA1-CEC and the CAC score, with the latter being inversely associated with PD in OS. Corroborating our clinical observations, anti-apoA-1 IgG enhanced ABCA1 while repressing PD-CEC, leading to MCC increase in vitro. These results indicate that anti-apoA-1 IgG have the potential to interfere with CEC and macrophage lipid metabolism, and may underpin paradoxical associations between ABCA1-CEC and cardiovascular risk

Anti-ApoA-1 IgGs in Familial Hypercholesterolemia Display Paradoxical Associations with Lipid Profile and Promote Foam Cell Formation

Anti-Apolipoprotein A-1 autoantibodies (anti-ApoA-1 IgG) promote atherogenesis via innate immune receptors, and may impair cellular cholesterol homeostasis (CH). We explored the presence of anti-ApoA-1 IgG in children (5-15 years old) with or without familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), analyzing their association with lipid profiles, and studied their in vitro effects on foam cell formation, gene regulation, and their functional impact on cholesterol passive diffusion (PD)

Effect of early leaf removal on Sangiovese (Vitis vinifera L.) under thermal excess and drought conditions

The early defoliation of the fruiting area is a technique that offers considerable advantages both in relation to the quality of grapes and to pest control; on the other hand, when a very warm summer occurs, the risk of grape sunburn may increase. This paper reports the results of a pre-flowering defoliation trial carried out in the province of Arezzo (Italy) in 2017, an exceptionally hot and dry year. The results confirmed the validity of this technique in limiting yield while achieving a concurrent higher concentration of phenolic compounds without increasing the risk of burns and radiative damages of grapes