Erwerbsverläufe in Deutschland, Großbritannien und Schweden : Ähnlichkeiten, Unterschiede und Veränderungen über die Zeit

This paper aims to provide a descriptive analysis of the changing patterns of labour market participation, non-participation and unemployment in Great Britain, Sweden and Germany. Since the mid 1970s, most European countries have experienced two parallel developments: on the one hand they have witnessed a huge growth in the proportion of women participating on the labour market. On the other however, they have experienced the return of mass unemployment and a growing insecurity of employment for those in work. In this paper, a typology of work histories is constructed using decade periods. Retrospective and panel data from Germany, Britain and Sweden are then used to compare the effects of different employment and welfare regimes on the proportions of respondents with different types of work histories and how these are combined with unemployment

Patent Oppositions

In recent years, patent protection has extended into new areas, giving rise to serious concern about the lack of clear guidelines for patentability. We analyze the effect of introducing a patent opposition process that would allow patent validity to be challenged directly after a patent is granted. In many cases, such a system would avoid costly litigation at a later date. In other cases, the opposition process would increase the cost of conflict resolution, but would also reward holders of valid patents and limit the rewards to invalid patents. Our analysis suggests significant positive welfare gains from the introduction of a patent opposition process

Cost-Reducing and Demand-Creating R&D With Spillovers

This paper analyzes R&D policies when the returns to cost-reducing and demand-creating R&D are imperfectly appropriable and market structure is endogenous. Previous characterizations of appropriability are generalized to permit the possibility that own and rival R&D are imperfect substitutes. We also describe how. equilibrium expenditures on process and product R&D, as well as equilibrium market structure, depend on technological opportunities and spillovers. In contrast to previous work, diminished appropriability does not necessarily reduce R&D expenditures. For example, under some conditions, an increase in the extent of process (product) spillovers will lead to an increase in product (process) R&D. We estimate several variants of the model using manufacturing line of business data and data from a survey of R&D executives.

Contract farming in Swaziland: peasant differentiation and constraints of land tenure

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August 1987Swaziland's Fourth National Development Plan advocates the development of outgrower schemes based on the example of Vuvulane Irrigated Farms as an alternative strategy for rural development (Swaziland government 1985:309). If this recommendation were to be adopted as agricultural policy, it would necessitate land reform in the areas where these schemes are to be established. This is because of the existing division in land ownership between Swazi Nation Land and freehold Title Deed Land. Swazi Nation Land is held by the King "in trust" for "the nation" and allocated through chiefs to Swazi subjects. Private property in land in Swaziland dates to the concessionary era when large scale concessions were made to European land speculators and prospective farmers in the late nineteenth century by King Mbandzeni. Contrary to what has been argued in much of the literature on Swaziland, this land division has not entailed the development of dualism in agriculture, with the "modern" agricultural sector based on freehold title deed land and the "traditional" sector on Swazi Nation Land (SNL). Rather, both the land division and dualism are products of the development of capitalist relations which have generated an uneven and differential development characterised by the evolution of large-scale multinational and South African dominated enterprises on freehold land, and the development of petty commodity production on SNL. One question arising out of the advocation of the development of outgrower schemes and various forms of contract farming in Swaziland relating to land tenure, is whether or not such schemes can be established on SNL. To put it more specifically: is private ownership in land a pre-requisite for the establishment of viable contract farming schemes? This study will show that while freehold land leased out to petty commodity producers is undoubtedly advantageous for the owners of capital, in terms of the extra control which can be exerted over petty commodity producers, this is by no means a pre-requisite for the development of outgrower schemes. While it will be demonstrated that land tenure is not indicative of the form of production which takes place in agriculture, the chief concern of this paper is to examine the extent to which outgrower schemes in Swaziland have succeeded in their stated objectives of bringing "commercial farming" to the peasantry. The key question which emerges is whether or not outgrower schemes facilitate peasant accumulation and create the conditions for the reproduction of a rich and/or middle peasantry. Answers to these questions will be sought through an examination of three outgrower schemes. Two of these, (Vuvulane Irrigated Farms and Mpetsheni Pineapple Settlement Scheme) are on freehold Title Deed Land, while one (Casalee Tobacco Project) is on both freehold and SNL where petty commodity producing participants are based. The paper argues that contract farming and outgrower schemes are best understood in the context of the social relations to which this form of capitalist development in agriculture gives rise. Such schemes have differentiating effects and create the conditions for the reproduction of a middle peasantry, as well as the potential for more systematic accumulation by peasant producers. In Swaziland land tenure both on SNL and freehold title deed land, through restricting the size of land holdings of scheme participants, may have constraining effects on the extent to which accumulation becomes possible for petty commodity producers on such schemes

A Response to Professor Baird’s Essay on Unwritten Law: Writing Some Unwritten Law

Rich Levin comments that Professor Baird makes a useful point about the bankruptcy judge’s policing role and the importance of the boundaries of the field in which the players joust. Levin argues, however, that Baird’s unwritten rules are, in fact, available in writing to all who would search. Levin does not consider case law to be unwritten rules and concludes that we appoint judges to provide the elasticity in the rules so that they are applied sensibly and constructively to achieve fair and equitable results in reorganization cases that are consistent with Congress’s design

Why Bankruptcy?

Thank you for this impressive award, impressive because of the Bankruptcy Hall of Fame luminaries who have previously received it, people who have had a lasting impact on bankruptcy law and practice: Harvey Miller, Professor Frank Kennedy, Judge William Norton, Professor Kenneth Klee, Senator Dennis DeConcini, and Professor, now Senator, Elizabeth Warren, among others. I\u27m honored to be in their presence, let alone in their company

Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development

macroeconomics, industrial research and development, patent law