A ranking of the value of patents granted by legal protection

This paper aims at ranking the value of legal patent protection among countries, using the real options approach. In particular, we manage to overcome the problem of the lack of data for those countries that do not collect patent renewal data. The econometric technique we propose is well grounded in economic theory, specifically in the real options literature. Following this estimation strategy, we rank the value of legal patent protection for seventeen countries, closely reproducing other rankings based on surveys, for instance the PatVal survey by the EU Commission (2006), but relying on macro data publicly available and easy to access.Legal protection, intellectual property, real option, value of patent.

Estimates of the Sticky-Information Phillips Curve for the USA with the General to Specific Method

This paper tests for the time series properties of the variables in the sticky information Phillips curve and estimates it for the US with the general to specific method (GETS). Our results show that the estimates of the stickiness parameter range from 0.25 to 0.42.Sticky information Phillips curve, General to specific method, Stickiness parameter

The Euro Changeover and Price Adjustments in Italy

By estimating a staggered price model over the period 1980q1-2010q2, this paper documents that, after the euro changeover, Italian retailers have increased the number of price adjustments, which has translated into a higher inflation rate, with a detrimental effect on the competitiveness of the Italian economy.Euro changeover, staggered price adjustments, inflation

The Euro Changeover and Price Adjustments in Italy

By estimating a staggered price model over the period 1980q1-2010q2, this paper documents that, after the euro changeover, Italian retailers have increased the number of price adjustments, which has translated into a higher inflation rate, with a detrimental effect on the competitiveness of the Italian economyEuro changeover, staggered price adjustments, inflation

Robustness-Driven Resilience Evaluation of Self-Adaptive Software Systems

An increasingly important requirement for certain classes of software-intensive systems is the ability to self-adapt their structure and behavior at run-time when reacting to changes that may occur to the system, its environment, or its goals. A major challenge related to self-adaptive software systems is the ability to provide assurances of their resilience when facing changes. Since in these systems, the components that act as controllers of a target system incorporate highly complex software, there is the need to analyze the impact that controller failures might have on the services delivered by the system. In this paper, we present a novel approach for evaluating the resilience of self-adaptive software systems by applying robustness testing techniques to the controller to uncover failures that can affect system resilience. The approach for evaluating resilience, which is based on probabilistic model checking, quantifies the probability of satisfaction of system properties when the target system is subject to controller failures. The feasibility of the proposed approach is evaluated in the context of an industrial middleware system used to monitor and manage highly populated networks of devices, which was implemented using the Rainbow framework for architecture-based self-adaptation

Mota-Engil : equity valuation

The purpose of this thesis is to obtain the value of an equity investment through a deep study of the company and industry fundamentals. The selection of the firm was based on my big interest in the construction industry, which I developed from my work experience in a real estate company, as an intern. Particularly, Mota-Engil’s impressive position among the top European players captured my attention leading to the choice of developing a broad analysis of its past and future performance. The valuation methodology results from the analyzed literature review on the topic of equity valuation conciliating the theory and the practice. According to the chosen company specificities, several methods were selected and resulted in an extensive equity valuation project. With this work it has been possible to reach the conclusion that Mota-Engil’s stocks are undervalued in the market with an upside potential of 18% resulting from the obtained price per share of 1,6€. This information can be translated into a Buy recommendation. This is the mirror of the company’s strong international presence in emerging markets and its diversification policy that allows attractive profitability levels