International Cooperation in Pharmaceutical Research

This paper aims at examining whether an increased stringency of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) protection is apt to stimulate international cooperation on research projects between developed and emerging countries. To address this issue, we look both at scientific and technological collaborations within the pharmaceutical domain, and we adopt a gravity framework to assess the impact of the IPR level on bilateral R&D cooperation. The analysis is conducted using data from patent and publication databases, and the results provide a sound test of conflicting theories on IPR enforcement and international collaborations in pharmaceutical research.IPRs, pharmaceutical products, R&D cooperation

Economic Growth and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Italy, 1861-2003

This paper examines the relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in Italy for the period 1861-2003. Using cointegration, rolling regression and error correction modeling techniques, we find that growth and carbon dioxide emissions are strongly interrelated, and elasticity of pollutant emissions with respect to income has been decreasing over time. For the period 1960-2003 EKC estimates provide evidence for the existence of a reasonable "turning point". However, given the heavy dependence of Italian economy upon fossil fuels, meeting the emissions targets in the accomplishing of the Kyoto Protocol is a very challenging task.Environmental Kuznets Curve; Carbon Dioxide Emissions; Time Series Analysis; Italian Economy

Pharmaceutical innovation and parallel trade

This paper proposes a North–South model to study the interaction between price regulation policies and parallel trade, with a particular focus on the pharmaceutical sector. We show that, under parallel trade, R&D investment can rise only when the South government takes into full account its impact both on investment and on the firm's decision to supply the regulated country. This arises because of a complete withdrawal from price regulation. When policy choices are endogenized, indeed the South wants to achieve this level of full commitment when it is large in size. When instead it is smaller in size, the South chooses an intermediate form of commitment whereby it anticipates its effect only on local distribution and delivery, but not on global R&D investment. As a response to these credible levels of price control commitments, the North reacts by allowing parallel imports from the South

Patent policy regulation and public health

This paper analyzes the impact of the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement on social welfare, when the effects on public health are taken into account. In particular, we study how the new international patent policy affects social welfare through the availability of pharmaceutical products. Extending the model developed by Grossman and Lai (Am Econ Rev 94(5):1635–1653, 2004) on optimal patent protection, this paper examines the externality generated by the intellectual property rights enforcement on our definition of public health

Market complexity evaluation to enhance the effectiveness of TRIZ outputs

In the context of innovation consulting activity, it may happen working in technical fields characterized by a high competitiveness level. Although TRIZ allows reaching innovative ideas in any kind of industry, it does not suggest any tool in order to evaluate the success rate of the invention in the reference market. During the last years, TRIZ got methodological contributes to sharpen the matching between the inventive idea and the actual needs of the market, for example the market potential tool. In order to support TRIZ experts in selecting the best innovation strategy, this paper introduces a new tool for the TRIZ toolbox that takes into account the competitiveness level of the market. Several economics works disclose the correlation between the patent-citation triadic relationships and the presence of dominant positions of few competitors. A patent analysis, focused on triads in patent citation, can inform the TRIZ expert about potential critical situation able to prevent the success of an inventive solution. It can generate an important indicator that helps him in selecting the most promising innovation strategy. The method could be integrated in a classic TRIZ activity, using commercial patent searching tools. The case study shows how to extract this kind of indicator from patent citation environment in Machine Learning field

Growth and returns to new products and pack varieties: the case of UK pharmaceuticals

We use quarterly sales data from the UK pharmaceuticals market between 2003 and 2013 and estimate the impact of new introductions, i.e., new products and pack varieties within an anatomical therapy class on business unit growth. Using a dynamic lag adjustment growth model that accounts for endogeneity of new introductions, we find that a new product contributes to 18 per cent growth of the business unit while a new pack variety leads to 7 per cent growth for the business unit in the long run. Further, we find that there is significant variation in growth by size of firm and that the marginal effect of additional products on growth is larger for smaller business units. However, the marginal effect of pack varieties does not differ by firm size

Economic Growth and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Italy, 1861-2003

This paper examines the relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in Italy for the period 1861-2003. Using cointegration, rolling regression and error correction modeling techniques, we find that growth and carbon dioxide emissions are strongly interrelated, and elasticity of pollutant emissions with respect to income has been decreasing over time. For the period 1960-2003 EKC estimates provide evidence for the existence of a reasonable "turning point". However, given the heavy dependence of Italian economy upon fossil fuels, meeting the emissions targets in the accomplishing of the Kyoto Protocol is a very challenging task

Economic Growth and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Italy, 1861-2003

This paper examines the relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in Italy for the period 1861-2003. Using cointegration, rolling regression and error correction modeling techniques, we find that growth and carbon dioxide emissions are strongly interrelated, and elasticity of pollutant emissions with respect to income has been decreasing over time. For the period 1960-2003 EKC estimates provide evidence for the existence of a reasonable "turning point". However, given the heavy dependence of Italian economy upon fossil fuels, meeting the emissions targets in the accomplishing of the Kyoto Protocol is a very challenging task

Feasibility study on the microeconomic impact of enforcement of competition policies on innovation: final report

Following seminal contributions from two of the giants of 20th century economics, Schumpeter and Arrow, the relationship between competition and innovation has long been hotly debated, but the general consensus is that competition, whether for the market or in the market, is an important stimulus to innovation. This provides an important additional justification for competition policy, beyond the static purely price-based perspective. Remarkably however, we know relatively little about how specific competition policy interventions have impacted on firms’ innovation activities. So whilst the impact evaluation literature has made important strides in recent decades in assessing the static gains which have been driven by anti-trust and merger control, there have only been very few studies evaluating the impacts of individual policy decisions in this area. The main objective of this study is to explore whether, and how far, such impact evaluation exercises are feasible for competition and innovation. For this reason DG COMP commissioned a team of academics led by Peter Ormosi at the Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, to review the existing literature, and to propose a rigorous analytical and methodological framework which can be used to evaluate cases. As an illustration of this framework in action, the study provides a pilot evaluation of the Seagate/Samsung and Western Digital/Hitachi mergers. The findings of this case study prove to be interesting in their own right – shedding some new light on these important mergers. But far more important for present purposes, it establishes that the methodology is viable, albeit with important lessons to be learnt. The objective of this study was to offer a detailed literature review, develop a methodological framework, collect data on three different areas (R&D spending, patents, and product characteristics), and analyse it. Our task was to identify what is feasible, what we can learn in terms of the applied methodology, and also to provide preliminary results on how innovation was affected by the 2012 consolidation of the HDD market