Academic inventions outside the university: investigating patent ownership in the UK

This paper investigates the ownership of academic patents for a sample of UK academics and challenges the existing definition of the university invention ownership model. The first descriptive results show that 50% of patents are owned by industry, however, 37% of these firm-assigned patents are in fact owned by university spin-offs. We investigate how university policy and funding acquisition impacts industry vs. university ownership, and find that funding from large firms predicts involvement in patenting and, to a lesser extent, firm ownership. University ownership of academic patents is more likely the higher the amount of funding coming from SMEs, and at universities that outsource the filing of patents. Spin-off patents occupy an intermediate position showing strong similarities to both firm and university patents

Weathering the crisis: Evidence of diffuse support for the EU from a six-wave Dutch panel

Political regimes draw legitimacy from diffuse political support. How diffuse is support for the European Union? By focusing on cross-sectional data, the extant literature fails to demonstrate that support for the European Union displays the key defining characteristic of diffuse support: individual-level stability over a time of crisis. I use a six-wave panel data set from the Netherlands to study stability in support for the European Parliament during the 2008 economic crisis. I argue that public support for the European Parliament is highly diffuse. Using three analytical techniques, I find that individual-level support for the European Parliament remained highly stable from 2007 to 2012. These results suggest that in times of crisis, the European Union can draw on mass public support as a source of resilience

Microfinance and entrepreneurship:An introduction

As microfinance gains increasing attention and application as a financing mechanism for entrepreneurs at the base of the economic pyramid, this Special Issue of International Small Business Journal aims to enhance scholarly understanding of how microfinance fosters entrepreneurial activity. Microfinance brings a range of financial services, including microcredit loans, savings, and insurance, within the reach of millions of poor households not served by traditional banks. This introduction summarizes the articles in this Special Issue of International Small Business Journal on ‘Microfinance’, which address a range of topics in this important domain of research and practice

Genetic Deletion of Sost or Pharmacological Inhibition of Sclerostin Prevent Multiple Myeloma-induced Bone Disease without Affecting Tumor Growth

Multiple myeloma (MM) causes lytic bone lesions due to increased bone resorption and concomitant marked suppression of bone formation. Sclerostin (Scl) levels, an osteocyte-derived inhibitor of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, are elevated in MM patient sera and are increased in osteocytes in MM-bearing mice. We show here that genetic deletion of Sost, the gene encoding Scl, prevented MM-induced bone disease in an immune-deficient mouse model of early MM, and that administration of anti-Scl antibody (Scl-Ab) increased bone mass and decreases osteolysis in immune-competent mice with established MM. Sost/Scl inhibition increased osteoblast numbers, stimulated new bone formation and decreased osteoclast number in MM-colonized bone. Further, Sost/Scl inhibition did not affect tumor growth in vivo or anti-myeloma drug efficacy in vitro. These results identify the osteocyte as a major contributor to the deleterious effects of MM in bone and osteocyte-derived Scl as a promising target for the treatment of established MM-induced bone disease. Further, Scl did not interfere with efficacy of chemotherapy for MM suggesting that combined treatment with anti-myeloma drugs and Scl-Ab should effectively control MM growth and bone disease, providing new avenues to effectively control MM and bone disease in patients with active MM

SuperB: a linear high-luminosity B Factory

This paper is based on the outcome of the activity that has taken place during the recent workshop on "SuperB in Italy" held in Frascati on November 11-12, 2005. The workshop was opened by a theoretical introduction of Marco Ciuchini and was structured in two working groups. One focused on the machine and the other on the detector and experimental issues. The present status on CP is mainly based on the results achieved by BaBar and Belle. Estabilishment of the indirect CP violation in B sector in 2001 and of the direct CP violation in 2004 thanks to the success of PEP-II and KEKB e+e- asymmetric B Factories operating at the center of mass energy corresponding to the mass of the Y(4s). With the two B Factories taking data, the Unitarity Triangle is now beginning to be overconstrained by improving the measurements of the sides and now also of the angles alpha, and gamma. We are also in presence of the very intriguing results about the measurements of sin(2 beta) in the time dependent analysis of decay channels via penguin loops, where b --> s sbar s and b --> s dbar d. Tau physics, in particular LFV search, as well as charm and ISR physics are important parts of the scientific program of a SuperB Factory. The physics case together with possible scenarios for the high luminosity SuperB Factory based on the concepts of the Linear Collider and the related experimental issues are discussed.Comment: 22 pages, 22 figures, INFN Roadmap Repor

The role of credit ratings on capital structure and its speed of adjustment: an international study

Using an international dataset, we examine the role of issuers’ credit ratings in explaining corporate leverage and the speed with which firms adjust toward their optimal level of leverage. We find that, in countries with a more market-oriented financial system, the impact of credit ratings on firms’ capital structure is more significant and that firms with a poorer credit rating adjust more rapidly. Furthermore, our results show some striking differences in the speed of adjusting capital structure between firms rated as speculative and investment grade, with the former adjusting much more rapidly. As hypothesized, those differences are statistically significant only for firms based in a more market-oriented economy

Spatial dependence in the growth process and implications for convergence rate: evidence on Vietnamese provinces

Existing studies on Vietnamese provinces (e.g., Anwar and Nguyen, 2010) tend to assume that province-specific growth is independent of that in its neighbours. However, many studies analysing regional economic growth in China, Brazil and Mexico report the existence of spatial spill-over effects. This paper investigates whether this is the case for 60 Vietnamese provinces for the time-period 1999-2010, using a system-GMM estimator and a Solow growth model augmented with human and physical capital and spatial lag covariates. We report that spatial dependence is a significant determinant of growth and conditional convergence in Vietnamese provinces. We also demonstrate that the rate of convergence decreases as the distance between neighbouring provinces increases. Given these findings, we recommend testing for spatial dependence in growth models for Vietnam and beyond to avoid omitted variable bias and inform evidence-based regional policies that take account of spatial externalities