28 research outputs found
Vertical integration, competition, and financial exchanges: is there grain in the silo?
We investigate the incentives for vertical or horizontal integration in the financial security service industry, consisting of trading, clearing and settlement. We thereby focus on firmsâ decisions but also look on the implications of these decisions on competition and welfare. Our analysis shows that the incentives for vertical integration crucially depend on industry as well as market characteristics. A more pronounced demand for liquidity clearly favors vertical integration whereas deeper financial integration increases the incentives to undertake vertical integration only if the efficiency gains associated with vertical integration are sufficiently large. Furthermore, we show that market forces can suffer from a coordination problem that end in vertically integrated structures that are not in the best interest of the firms. We believe this problem can be addressed by policy measures such as the TARGET2-Securities program. Furthermore, we use our framework to discuss major industry trends and policy initiatives. Keywords: Vertical Integration , Horizontal Integration , Competition , Trading , Settlement JEL Classification: G15, L13, L2
Do women behave more reciprocally than men? Gender differences in real effort dictator games
We analyze dictator allocation decisions in an experiment where the recipients have to earn the pot to be divided with a real-effort task. As the recipients move before the dictators, their effort decisions resemble the first move in a trust game. Depending on the recipients' performance, the size of the pot is either high or low. We compare this real-effort treatment to a baseline treatment where the pot is a windfall gain and where a lottery determines the pot size. In the baseline treatment, reciprocity cannot play a role. We find that female dictators show reciprocity and decrease their taking-rates significantly in the real-effort treatment. This treatment effect is larger when female dictators make a decision on recipients who successfully generated a large pot compared to the case where the recipients performed poorly. By contrast, there is no treatment effect with male dictators, who generally exhibit more sefish behavior. --Gender,Reciprocity,Dictator Game,Real Effort
Anreize, systemische Risiken und Intransparenz : Lehren aus der Finanz- und Staatsschuldenkrise ; Sondierungsstudie im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums fĂŒr Bildung und Forschung
Sondierungsstudie im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums fĂŒr Bildung und Forschung: Die jĂŒngste Finanzkrise und die darauf folgende Staatsschuldenkrise hat sowohl wirtschaftlich als auch gesellschaftlich tiefgreifende Spuren hinterlassen. Dabei wurden auch sehr deutliche LĂŒcken in der Forschung offenbar. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, aufbauend auf dem aktuellen Forschungsstand weiteren Forschungsbedarf in den wesentlich mit Finanzkrisen verbundenen Bereichen aufzuzeigen. Es werden fĂŒnf Forschungsbereiche mit jeweiligen Unterthemen vorgeschlagen. Diese fĂŒnf Forschungsbereiche gehen unmittelbar aus der Struktur und den Mechanismen der Finanz- und Staatsschuldenkrise hervor. Dabei wird besonderes Augenmerk auf die wirtschafts- und regulierungspolitische Relevanz der Themen sowie dem Umstand getragen, dass die Beantwortung vieler der Fragen interdisziplinĂ€re Zusammenarbeit erfordert.
Finanzkrisen sind inherent mit dem Bankenmodell verbunden. Aufgrund von Verbindungen der Banken untereinander können Probleme einzelner Institute auf andere Institute ĂŒbertragen werden. Diese systemischen Risiken können das gesamte Finanzsystem destabilisieren. Das Finanzsystem nimmt durch die Kreditvergabe und Bereitstellung von Transaktionssystemen eine herausragende Stellung in einer Volkswirtschaft ein, wodurch stabilisierende Eingriffe der Politik notwendig werden können. Eingriffe zur Wiederherstellung von StabilitĂ€t können sehr kostspielig sein und, wie aktuell eindrucksvoll belegt, die stabilisierenden Staaten selbst destabilisieren. Die alternativen Eingriffe vorab betreffen neben der Geldpolitik vor allem regulatorische Eingriffe. Im besonderen sind die Corporate Governance von Finanzinstituten und die Informationsbereitstellung bzw. Transparenz innerhalb des Finanzsektors von Bedeutung. In den vergangen Jahren wuchs vor dem Hintergrund von Regulierung zudem ein paralleles Schattenbankensystems heran, das in seiner Bedeutung dem traditionellen Bankensystem nur unwesentlich nachsteht.
Zwar sind die groben ZusammenhĂ€nge und Auswirkungen in den einzelnen Bereichen bekannt, jedoch ist fĂŒr ein tiefgreifendes VerstĂ€ndnis als Grundlage zur Vermeidung bzw. EindĂ€mmung zukĂŒnftiger Krisen sowie zur FolgenabschĂ€tzung von Regulierung weitere Forschung unabdingbar
Creating a National Champion: International Competition and Unbundling in Rail Transportation
This article investigates the incentives to unbundle operations and infrastructure in the railway industry in
a two-country model with international network effects from the viewpoint of national governments. The
analysis shows that the decision to unbundle institutionally or organizationally with separated accounts
depends crucially on the importance of cross-border transportation. For a sufficiently high importance
of cross-border transportation, national governments choose accounting separation. However, national
governments are stuck in a Prisoners' dilemma and would be better off coordinating on a separated
industry structure. This result justifies major policy initiatives by the European Union but explains also
actions of national governments in implementing these initiatives
Investing in legal advice â What determines the costs of enforcing intellectual property rights?
This paper studies the determinants of investment in legal advice by plaintiffs in patent
litigation. A hand-collected sample of US patent litigation cases is used to identify the
empirical factors that determine the number of legal counsels employed by the plaintiffs.
It turns out that more valuable patents lead to a higher investment in legal advice. Large
firms, and plaintiffs with large patent portfolios employ more counsels, whereas individual
litigants employ fewer. Software patents are related to a lower investment by the plaintiffs.
These findings help not only to understand the cost drivers of litigation but have also
important implications for the discussions on software patents, and the role of the litigant
status for litigation success
Patent trolls, litigation and the market for innovation
We examine the role of non-practicing entities (NPEs), often called patent trolls, in patent litigation.
We present a theoretical model that predicts that cases with NPE patentees resolve faster. We test this
prediction using a hand-collected data set of US patent litigation cases. We find that NPEs challenge
larger and more technology intensive firms, and use more valuable patents from technology areas that
have a less fragmented ownership base compared to the control group. Controlling for these factors, we
find that NPE cases are indeed resolved faster. NPEs help to increase the speed of diffusion of technology
into the economy; therefore, increasing the effectiveness of the market for innovation.
Keywords: litigation, patents, patent trolls, technology diffusion
Classroom experiments on technology licensing: Royalty stacking, cross-licensing and patent pools
We present two classroom experiments on technology licensing. The first classroom experiment introduces the concept of royalty stacking. The students learn that non-cooperative pricing of royalties for complementary intellectual property rights leads to a double-marginalization effect. Cooperation solves the problem and is welfare improving. The second classroom experiment introduces students to cross-licensing. It shows that reciprocal royalty payments dampen competition. The classroom experiments stimulate discussions of technology licensing, intellectual property rights, different royalty structures, patent pools and technology standards. We present the experimental procedures, and suggests routes for the discussion
Software vulnerabilities and bug bounty programs
Many software developers employ bug bounty programs that award a prize for the detection of bugs in their software. We analyze, in a model with asymmetric information, under which conditions a bug bounty program is beneficial for a software developer. In our model, a bug bounty program allows developers to perfectly discriminate between different types of bugs, and help to avoid reputation costs of exploited bugs. We find that the benefits of bounty program do not only depend on the characteristics of the underlying software but also that a bounty program crucially interacts with other elements of the security strategy
Using machine learning to predict patent lawsuits
We use machine learning methods to predict which patents end up at court using the population of US patents granted between 2002 and 2005. We analyze the role of the different dimensions of an empirical analysis for the performance of the prediction - the number of observations, the number of patent characteristics and the model choice. We find that the extending the set of patent characteristics has the biggest impact on the prediction performance. Small samples have not only a low predictive performance, their predictions are also particularly unstable. However, only samples of intermediate size are required for reasonably stable performance. The model choice matters, too, more sophisticated machine learning methods can provide additional value to a simple logistic regression. Our results provide practical advice to everyone building patent litigation models, e.g., for litigation insurance or patent management in more general
The Effect of Social Distancing Measures on Intensive Care Occupancy: Evidence on COVID-19 in Scandinavia
Understanding the effectiveness of social distancing on the spread of COVID-19 is crucial to justify economically costly social distancing measures. We present a case study focusing on the three Scandinavian countries. Whereas Denmark and Norway imposed relatively strict measures, Sweden follows an extraordinarily lenient approach. We use an event-study approach in which Sweden serves as a counterfactual to Denmark/Norway to estimate the measuresâ effectiveness. We estimate that in the counterfactual in which Denmark/Norway implemented Swedenâs more lenient measures the number of hospitalizations would have peaked between around 15-20 days later. The peak number of hospitalizations in Denmark (Norway) would have been 133 (231) percent higher, and the peak number of ICU patients would have increased by 107 (140) percent