Entry and Exit With Information Externalities

In the paper we analyze how the possibility of revealing information to a competitor alters the entry/investment behavior of a first entrant. We show that once it has entered the market, the firm might refrain from making further profitable investments in order to hide information from the competitor. Moreover, we show that before entering the market, the first entrant anticipates that there is a strategic advantage in choosing an initially small scale of entry: in this way it 'commits' itself to revealing the true state of the market with its subsequent decisions and this fact is beneficial since it induces the competitor to postpone entry into market.Entry, Information Externalities, Wait and See, First Entrant, Strategic Behavior

Dual licensing in open source software markets

Dual licensing has proved to be a sustainable business model for various commercial software vendors employing open source strategies. In this paper we study the main characteristics of dual licensing and under which conditions it represents a profitable commercial strategy. We show that dual licensing is a form of versioning, whereby the software vendor uses the open source licensing terms in order to induce commercial customers to select the proprietary version of the software. Furthermore, we show that the software vendor prefers dual licensing to a fully proprietary strategy when the customers are very sensitive to the reciprocal terms of the open source license

On the role of public policies supporting Free/Open Source Software: an European perspective

Available in the .pd

Open Source vs Closed Source Software: Public Policies in the Software Market

This paper analyses the impact of public policies supporting open source software (OSS). Users can be divided between those who know about the existence of OSS, the "informed" adopters, and the "uninformed" ones; the presence of uniformed users yields to market failures that justify government intervention. We study three policies: i) mandatory adoption, when government forces public agencies, schools and universities to adopt OSS, ii) information campaign, when the government informs the uninformed users about the existence and the characteristics of OSS and, iii) subsidisation, when consumers are payed a subsidy when adopting OSS. We show that the second policy enhances welfare, the third is always welfare decreasing while mandatory adoption can be either good or bad for society depending on the number of informed and uninformed adopters. We extend the model to the presence of network effects and we show that strong externalities require "drastic" policies.software market, open source software, mandatory adoption, information campaign, subsidisation, network externalities

Termination Clauses in Partnerships

In this paper, we prove that two firms may prefer not to include a termination clause in their partnership contract, thus inducing a costly termination in case of failure of the joint project. This ex-post inefficiency induces partners to exert large levels of non-contractible efforts (investments) in order to decrease the probability of failure. Therefore, the absence of a termination clause works as a "discipline device" that mitigates the hold-up problem within the partnership. We show that writing a contract without a termination clause is a credible commitment even when partners can add such a clause in the contract in any moment of their relationship. Comparative statics analysis suggests that contracts lacking a termination clause are suited to alliances in R&D, when partners are not rivals or when they have strong technological complementarities.hold-up; termination clauses; partnerships; joint ventures

Sequential innovations with unobservable follow-on investments

We consider a cumulative innovation process in which a follow-on innovator invests in R&D activities that influence both the expected commercial value as well as the novelty of its innovation. When the second innovator investments are not servable,licensing of the first innovation never occurs efficiently, and, at the equilibrium, the follow-on innovator either underinvests or overinvests. We show that a large patent breadth may be harmful for the first innovator too, and therefore Pareto-dominated;as long as the undervinvestment problem becomes more pronounced, the value generated by the follow-on innovator reduces, and so do the licensing revenues of the first inventor.sequential innovation, patents, licensing, intellectual property

Termination Clauses in Partnerships

In this paper, we prove that two firms can choose not to include a termination clause in their partnership contract, thus inducing a costly termination in case of failure of the joint project. This ex-post inefficiency induces partners to exert large non-contractible efforts (investments) to decrease the probability of failure. Therefore, the absence of a termination clause works as a ``discipline device''\ that mitigates the moral hazard problem within the partnership. We show that writing a contract without a termination clause is a credible commitment even when partners can add such a clause in the contract in any moment of their relationship.moral hazard, termination clauses, partnerships, joint ventures

From Planning to Mature: on the Determinants of Open Source Take-Off

Thanks to a recent and vast empirical literature, we know in details how the most popular open source projects are organized and why they succeed. However open source is not only Linux: in this paper we use a large data-set obtained from SourceForge.net to estimate the main determinants of the progress in the development of a stable and mature code of an open source software. We show that projects geared towards sophisticated users (i.e. system administrators) or projects aimed at developing tools for the Internet, multimedia and software have greater chances to reach an advanced development stage. On the contrary, projects devoted to the production of applications for games and telecommunication as well as projects distributed under highly restrictive licensing terms (GPL) have a significantly smaller probability to advance. Interestingly, we find that the size of the "community of developers" increases the chances of progress but this effect decreases as the community gets larger, a signal of possible coordination problems. Finally, we show that the determinants of projects' development stage change with the age of the project in many dimensions thus supporting the common perception of open source as an extremely dynamic phenomenon.software market, open source software, development status, intended audience, license

La revista "Chicas", un reflejo del ideal femenino de la posguerra española

Los medios de comunicación en España actuaron durante el franquismo como instrumentos de adoctrinamiento del régimen político instaurado tras la Guerra Civil. Desde su llegada al poder, el gobierno franquista se impuso la tarea de borrar cualquier vestigio de las políticas liberales republicanas, desterrando aquellas referidas a la igualdad de mujeres y hombres. Las revistas dirigidas a niños y jóvenes en los años de posguerra supusieron un marco inestimable para lograr el encuadramiento de las jóvenes generaciones en el ideario dominante que implantó sus propios valores éticos y morales. El estudio que abordamos presta especial atención a la que fue la primera revista femenina dirigida a las adolescentes en la posguerra, Chicas, la revista de los 17 años y a la figura de su editora y creadora Consuelo Gil Roësset

The case for the return of the Parthenon Marbles

When we speak of the Parthenon, we are speaking about the birth of western civilisation, the birth of democracy and the symbol of Greece. The Marbles were and remain an integral part of the Parthenon as a monument to the glory of Classical Greece and the civilisation it gave to the world. Ownership might never be resolved but present intransigence attracts increasing diplomatic pressure. Surveys of British MPs reveal 66% support for the return of the Marbles. This paper will look at the legality of the ownership of the Marbles, the preservation of them and the current position. The Acropolis Museum allows Britain to show goodwill on this important cultural property issue