The Determinants of Open Source Quality: An Empirical Investigation

Open source (OS) licenses differ in the conditions under which licensors and OS contributors are allowed to modify and redistribute the source code. While recent research has explored the determinants of license choice, we know little about the impact of license choice on project success. In this paper, we measure success by the speed with which programming bugs are fixed. Using data obtained from SourceForge.net, a free service that hosts OS projects, we test whether the license chosen by project leaders influences bug resolution rates. In initial regressions, we find a strong correlation between the hazard of bug resolution and the use of highly restrictive licenses. However, license choices are likely to be endogenous. We instrument license choice using (i) the human language in which contributors operate and (ii) the license choice of the project leaders for a previous project. We then find weak evidence that restrictive licenses adversely affect project success.open source software, property rights, copy-left

Impact of Intellectual Property Rights Reforms on the Diffusion of Knowledge through FDI

This paper examines the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) reforms on the technology flows between the U.S. and countries where U.S. multinationals have established affiliates. We use patent citations as a proxy for knowledge spillovers to examine whether the diffusion of new technology between the host countries and the U.S. is accelerated by the reforms. We test the hypothesis that strengthening patent protection facilitates knowledge flows (in the form of patent citations) between U.S. multinationals and their subsidiaries in the reforming countries and between other U.S. firms and reforming countries domestic firms. Our results suggest that the reforms favor innovative efforts of domestic firms in the reforming countries rather than U.S. affiliates efforts. In other words, reforms mediate the technology flows from the U.S. to the reforming countries.intellectual property rights, patents, spillovers, R&D, FDI

Outward R&D and Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence Using Patent Citations

FDI is believed to be a conduit of new technologies between countries. Many have studied the cross-border knowledge diffusion due to outward FDI, but this paper is the first to study the advantages of outward FDI for the home country of multinationals conducting R&D abroad. To address this issue, we use patent citations as a proxy for technology spillovers and we bring empirical evidence that supports the hypothesis that a US subsidiary conducting R&D overseas facilitates the flow of knowledge between its host and home countries.patents, spillovers, R&D, FDI

Modeling risk using elements of game theory and fractals

Where did the money go? This is the question that managers of financial institutions that collapsed have been facing during the actual global crisis. Is the risky behavior of players on the market to be blamed or the network effect of the interdependence of financial institutions, created for the purpose of dividing risk among players on the market. What role does risk play in the results of gambling through strategic behavior in economic activity. Do the classical premises of rationality in minimizing risk on unit of expected value or profit, still hold today? The purpose of this paper implies modeling risk on economic decision- making, by using elements of game theory and fractal theories.decision - making, risk theory, fractals, strategic behavior

PREMISES FOR A MODEL OF DECISION – MAKING ON THE FINANCING OF A PROJECT

The classical theory of finance is based on the premises of rationality and maximizing profits that accompany economic decision-making. Complementarily, the modern theory of behavioral finance studies the effect of emotional and psychological factors of decision- maker on the choice of financing sources for economic activities. In opposition with the classical perspective, the contemporary theory of finance brings up to the stage various aspects of decision making, including elements of strategic behavior towards risk. All these contradictory elements are used as premises for modeling the decision making process of financing a project.decision - making, behavioral finance, strategic behavior

CHAOS OR TURBULENCE ON THE VOLATILITY OF PUBLIC REVENUES

In an intuitive attempt to define financial distress in the public sector, it can be represented by the turbulence over the normal rhythm of indicators’ evolution in the public revenues, due to the influence of exogenous factors coming from the real economy, the behavior of taxpayers as well as to other influencing factors. This way of defining financial distress makes it possible to measuring its composing elements, such as: the turbulence and the influence of exogenous factors. The application of financial distress tests for the public budgetary indicators and the notification of its existence can be of real use for the central and local governments, taxation policy.local government revenues, public taxation, financial distress

Architecture competitions – a space for political contention. Socialist Romania, 1950–1956

This is an account of the relationship between architecture and power in Romania during the Stalinist period. A cursory glance at Arhitectura – the only specialist magazine to resume publication after the change in regime – suggests compliance with political direction, and professional interest in translating the theoretical method of Socialist Realism into a specific, culturally localized architectural language. Architecture competitions are a medium of intersection between theory and practice, power and the profession, ideology and economy – a space where political contention based on professional knowledge becomes possible even in totalitarian regimes. Between 1950 and 1956, Arhitectura published several competitions which, far from reinforcing Socialist Realism as the dominant architectural discourse, exposed the method’s internal contradictions and utopianism. In the ensuing confusion, there emerged a creative, practice-based counter-discourse centered on previously hegemonic dialects (the ‘national’). Based in equal amounts on the pre-established dynamics of professional culture, and on the willingness and ability of the architecture field to speculate the rules of the political game, this counter-discourse gradually led to the dismantling of Socialist Realism into alternative readings of Socialist architecture