Business Regulation in International Comparison – Aggregating World Bank “Doing Business” Data

Unternehmensregulierung, Management, Rangstatistik, Vergleich, Regulated firm, Comparison

The Impact of Entry and Competition by Open Source Software on Innovation Activity

This paper presents the stylized facts of open source software innovation and provides empirical evidence on the impact of increased competition by OSS on the innovative activity in the software industry. Furthermore, we introduce a simple formal model that captures the innovation impact of OSS entry by examining a change in market structure from monopoly to duopoly under the assumption that software producers compete in technology rather than price or quantities. The paper identifies a pro-innovative effect of OSS competition.open source software, innovation, strategic interaction

The Impact of Entry and Competition by Open Source Software on Innovation

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Monetary Transmission in the New Economy: Service Life of Capital, Transmission Channels and the Speed of Adjustment

This paper evaluates the consequences of accelerated technical progress for monetary transmission and the speed of adjustment in the real economy. With a decreasing service life, the long term rate relevant to real demand will resemble more closely the money market rate. We make the investment decision explicitly dependent on a long-term rate for a credit contract of finite maturity. This, along with perfect foresight, leads to a differentialdifference equation for the dynamics of transmission, which is new to the economics literature. Our analysis shows that a reduced service life of capital leads to an increased speed of adjustment of the real sector, which goes along with a reduced volatility of the exchange rate. Wherereas the interest channel becomes stronger, the exchange-rate channel loses importance. The grip of monetary policy becomes more direct: while demand will react more sharply at the beginning, the transmission process will be completed earlier. All in all, our answers as to the feasibility of monetary policy and the stability of the financial system are rather optimistic. -- Diese Arbeit untersucht die Folgen eines beschleunigten technischen Fortschritts für die monetäre Transmission und die Anpassung auf den Gütermärkten. Mit abnehmender Kapitalnutzungsdauer wird der für die aggregierte Nachfrage relevante langfristige Zins dem Geldmarktzins ähnlicher. Wir betrachten die Investitionsentscheidung in Abhängigkeit von einem langfristigen Zinssatz bezüglich eines Kreditvertrags mit beschränkter Laufzeit. Dies, gemeinsam mit perfekter Voraussicht, führt zu einer neuartigen Differenzen- Differentialgleichung für den Transmissionsprozess. Unsere Untersuchung zeigt, daß eine abnehmende Kapitalnutzungsdauer zu einer erhöhten Anpassungsgeschwindigkeit auf den Gütermärkten führt, was eine verminderte Volatilität auf den Devisenmärkten bedingt. Während der Zinskanal stärker wird, verliert der Wechselkurskanal an Gewicht. Die geldpolitische Wirkung wird direkter: Zu Beginn reagiert die Nachfrage stärker, und der Transmissionspozeß ist früher abgeschlossen. Insgesamt sind unsere Ergebnisse bezüglich geldpolitischer Kontrolle und Stabilität der Finanzmärkte recht optimistisch.Monetäre Transmission,Zinsstruktur,New Economy,Monetary Transmission,Interest-Rate Structure,New Economy

Competition and Innovation in a Technology Setting Software Duopoly

Recently the software industry has experienced fundamental changes in market structure through the entry of open source competitors, e.g. Linux's entry into the operating systems market. In a simple model we examine the effects of such a change in market structure from monopoly to duopoly under the assumption that software producers compete in technology rather than price or quantities. The model includes the presence of technological progress and menu costs of adjusting existing software, i.e. innovation. It is found that: (i) moving from monopoly to duopoly does increase the technology level set by firms in the software industry; (ii) a duopoly adjusts more readily to global technological progress than a monopolist. Furthermore, results are presented comparing open source versus for-profit firms in terms of technology levels and innovation.open source software, strategic interaction, duopoly, menu costs

Bug-Fixing and Code-Writing: The Private Provision of Open Source Software

Open source software (OSS) is a public good. A self-interested individual would consider providing such software, if the benefits he gained from having it justified the cost of programming. Nevertheless each agent is tempted to free ride and wait for others to develop the software instead. This problem is modelled as a war of attrition with complete information, job signaling, repeated contribution to the public good and uncertainty in programming. The resulting game does not feature any delay: software will be provided swiftly, by young, low-cost individuals who gain considerably by signaling their programming skills; the startup (and collapse) of an OSS project displays bandwagon dynamics.open source software, war of attrition, public goods

Intrinsic Motivation in Open Source Software Development

This papers sheds light on the puzzling evidence that even though open source software (OSS) is a public good, it is developed for free by highly qualified, young and motivated individuals, and evolves at a rapid pace. We show that once OSS development is understood as the private provision of a public good, these features emerge quite naturally. We adapt a dynamic private-provision-of-public-goods model to reflect key aspects of the OSS phenomenon. In particular, instead of relying on extrinsic motives (e.g. signaling) the present model is driven by intrinsic motives of OSS programmers, such as user- programmers, play value or 'homo ludens' payoff, and gift culture benefits. Such intrinsic motives feature extensively in the wider OSS literature and contribute new insights to the economic analysis.open source software, public goods, homo ludens, war of attrition

Intrinsic Motivation versus Signaling in Open Source Software Development

This papers sheds light on the puzzling fact that even though open source software (OSS) is a public good, it is developed for free by highly qualified, young, motivated individuals, and evolves at a rapid pace. We show that when OSS development is understood as the private provision of a public good, these features emerge quite naturally. We adapt a dynamic private-provision-of-public-goods model to reflect key aspects of the OSS phenomenon. Apart from extrinsic motives (namely signaling), the present model also contains intrinsic motives of OSS programmers, such as play value or homo ludens payoff, userprogrammers’ and gift culture benefits. Such intrinsic motives feature extensively in the wider OSS literature and contribute new insights to the economic analysisopen source software; public goods; homo ludens; war of attrition