Competition Issues in the Seed Industry and the Role of Intellectual Property

Research and Development (R&D) and innovation are crucial features of the seed industry. To support large R&D investments by the private sector, strong intellectual property rights, such as patents, are necessary. The exclusivity granted by patents naturally creates market power positions and raises difficult and unresolved competition issues in an antitrust context.�

Pharmaceutical and Industrial Traits in Genetically Modified Crops: Co-Existence with Conventional Agriculture

This paper discusses the implications of using genetically modified crops to biomanufacture pharmaceuticals and industrial compounds from the perspective of their co-existence with conventional agriculture. Such plant-made pharmaceuticals and plant-made industrial products rely on exciting scientific and technological breakthroughs and promise new opportunities for the agricultural sector, but they also entail novel risks. The management of the externalities and of the possible unintended economic effects that arise in this context is critical and poses difficult questions for regulators.

Incentives and Outcomes in a Strategic Setting: The 3-Points-For-A-Win System in Soccer

We exploit a major structural change that has occurred in world soccer to study the impact of incentives on outcomes in a strategic setting. A game-theoretic model is developed that captures some essential strategic elements of soccer vis-à-vis the number of points awarded to a win. The observable implications of the model are tested using a large dataset that spans 30 years and 35 countries. The empirical results support the theoretical model and show that the 3-point system has led to a statistically significant increase in the expected number of goals and a decrease in the fractions of drawn matches.Association football; Nash equilibrium; panel data; strategic incentives; supermodularity; tournaments

Production Risk and the Estimation of Ex Ante Cost Functions

Cost function estimation under production uncertainty is problematic because the relevant cost is conditional on unobservable expected output. If input demand functions are also stochastic, then a nonlinear errors-in-variables model is obtained and standard estimation procedures typically fail to attain consistency. But by exploiting the full implications of the expected profit maximization hypothesis that gives rise to ex-ante cost functions, it is shown that the errors-in-variables problem can be effectively removed, and consistent estimation of the parameters of interest achieved. A Monte Carlo experiment illustrates the advantages of the proposed procedure as well as the pitfalls of other existing estimators.

Competition Issues in the Seed Industry and the Role of Intellectual Property

Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, L1, L4, O3, Q1,

Flexible Multistage Demand System Based on Indirect Separability, A

The notion of indirect separability is exploited to derive a new multistage demand system. The model allows a consistent parameterization of demand relations at various budgeting stages and it fulfills the requirement of flexibility while satisfying separability globally. Two propositions are derived to characterize flexible and separable functional forms, which lead to the specification of a flexible and separable translog (FAST) demand system. The model is particularly attractive for modeling large complete demand systems and is illustrated with an application to Canadian food demand.

Quality Certification by Geographical Indications, Trademarks and Firm Reputation

 We develop a reputation model to study the concurrent use of trademarks and certification for food products with a regional identity, known as geographical indications (GIs). The model extends Shapiro’s (1983) approach to modeling reputation to a situation in which two technologies for the production of quality are available, one of which is available only in the GI region and has a cost advantage for the production of higher quality levels. In this setting, trademarks capture firm-specific reputations whereas GI certification captures a notion of collective reputation. The model shows that GI certification improves the ability of reputation to operate as a mechanism for assuring quality when it is linked to some inherent attributes of a particular production area. We discuss some welfare implications of introducing GI certification and show that an EU-style sui generis GI certification is preferable to the US-style approach based on certification marks. asymmetric information; certification; geographical indications; reputation; quality; trademarks.

U.S. Universitiesï¾’ Net Returns from Patenting and Licensing: A Quantile Regression Analysis

In line with the rights and incentives provided by the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, U.S. universities have increased their involvement in patenting and licensing activities through their own technology transfer offices. Only a few U.S. universities are obtaining large returns, however, whereas others are continuing with these activities despite negligible or negative returns. We assess the U.S. universitiesï¾’ potential to generate returns from licensing activities by modeling and estimating quantiles of the distribution of net licensing returns conditional on some of their structural characteristics. We find limited prospects for public universities without a medical school everywhere in their distribution. Other groups of universities (private, and public with a medical school) can expect significant but still fairly modest returns only beyond the 0.9th quantile. These findings call into question the appropriateness of the revenue-generating motive for the aggressive rate of patenting and licensing by U.S. universities.

A LINEAR INVERSE DEMAND SYSTEM

We present an inverse demand that can be estimated in a linear form. The model is derived from a specification of the distance function which is parametrically similar to the cost function underlying the Almost Ideal Demand System. Simulation results suggest that this linear inverse demand system has good approximation properties.Demand and Price Analysis,

Trace Hardy--Sobolev--Mazy'a inequalities for the half fractional Laplacian

In this work we establish trace Hardy-Sobolev-Maz'ya inequalities with best Hardy constants, for weakly mean convex domains. We accomplish this by obtaining a new weighted Hardy type estimate which is of independent inerest. We then produce Hardy-Sobolev-Maz'ya inequalities for the spectral half Laplacian. This covers a critical case left open in \cite{FMT1}