Appropriating signs and meaning: The elusive economics of trademark

This paper deals with economic analysis of trademark. Its presence in markets is originally connected with the problem of information asymmetries and the need to provide information for assisting exchanges, so as to avert the market failure brought about by adverse selection. However this information-conveying function is also accompanied by a differentiation effect, arising from the power of persuasion that signs can exert on individuals. The exploitation of differentiation has given rise to the practice of branding, which ties markets and consumption to the realms of meaning and experience. Branding is so all-pervasive in today's economy as to have somehow transfigured it, so that the role of persuasion is now pre-eminent. Nonetheless, the mainstream economic theory tends to resist acknowledging this change, which would to a large extent call into question well-established hypotheses and theoretical tools. The general response has therefore been to assume that the informational role of trademark predominates, and to use this hypothesis to construct models, welfare evaluations and policy prescriptions that bear little or no relation to the actual markets. The opposing approach - in the shadow of the Nelson's and Arrow's seminal papers on economics of information - is recognising the idiosyncratic character of information, and therefore drawing conclusions and devising solutions that, while still based upon the welfare criterion, also incorporate a wider awareness and a deeper representation of the scenario under study. The present work attempts to move in this direction, showing how different disciplines can provide some key epistemological tools for enabling economists to effectively evaluate the welfare outcomes of the introduction and progressive alteration of a particular intellectual property right within the realm of signs and meanings.trademark, brand, intellectual property, economics of information, signs,economic welfare

Are the solutions to the high unemployment puzzle?

The crisis of the welfare state could hinder the right to work sanctioned by the Constitution, and could make the already precarious realization of other aspects of the social contract even more difficult. This being the situation, in which we can consider the problem of unemployment as being long-term and widespread, there are three possible sceneries, each having their own particular interventional policies. Policies of the first sort aim to change the supply for work both through a radical deregulation of the industrial relationship system, and through a reduction in social expenses. The second possible scenery proceeds from the belief that an increasing demand for private goods and services is inadequate, and suggests solutions that rely on the demand for goods, while developing at the same time the advanced infrastructures and the supply for collective services. Meadès notion of Citizen's Income represents the third alternative scenery, where the social contract is no longer founded on the right to a job, but on the right to an income. The introduction of the idea of Citizen's Income could favour the distinction of productivity from security problems, it would inable considering work not as a condemnation, but rather as a matter choice, motivated by profit or direct utility; favouring a more liberal production of collective goods thereby limiting a too intrusive political power, while increasing those liberties granted to citizens.

Economics and business economics.

The comparison between Economics and Business Management allows the clarification of some of their characteristics and limits as regards method, language, and objectives. Secondly, it allows the verification of the reciprocal contribution relating to research. For such a comparison, the object of study, the method, and the objectives of Economics and Business Management are taken into consideration distinguishing; so far as Business Management is concerned, between the Italian and American tradition which has generated Management Science. Management Science has a close affinity to Business Management but differs greatly regarding the method of study which, using the instruments of analysis and reasoning, makes it more similar to Economics.

Experimental Demonstration of Dual Polarization Nonlinear Frequency Division Multiplexed Optical Transmission System

Multi-eigenvalues transmission with information encoded simultaneously in both orthogonal polarizations is experimentally demonstrated. Performance below the HD-FEC limit is demonstrated for 8-bits/symbol 1-GBd signals after transmission up to 207 km of SSMF

PREDICTIONS ON THE SEISMIC RESPONSE OF MONUMENTAL TOWERS ON SOFT SOIL

After the damages to the cultural heritage caused by the most recent earthquakes, the protection of ancient buildings is an urgent and relevant theme in Europe, especially in the Mediterranean countries, characterized by high seismic hazard. The fine tuning of the seismic protection requires analyses on refined models in order to catch the dynamic behaviour of the soil–foundation– structure system in a lifelike way. Neglecting soil structure interaction effects, in fact, may be conservative or not, depending on the structural pattern and the nature of the subsoil. Focusing on the historical towers, the most symbolic building among monuments, a method is here proposed for preliminary predictions on the variation of natural period and damping ratio due to the dynamic interaction between soil and structure. The simplified approach is then applied to three cases of monumental towers on soft soil, located in three European cities, characterized by high seismic hazard

Dual polarization nonlinear Fourier transform-based optical communication system

New services and applications are causing an exponential increase in internet traffic. In a few years, current fiber optic communication system infrastructure will not be able to meet this demand because fiber nonlinearity dramatically limits the information transmission rate. Eigenvalue communication could potentially overcome these limitations. It relies on a mathematical technique called "nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT)" to exploit the "hidden" linearity of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation as the master model for signal propagation in an optical fiber. We present here the theoretical tools describing the NFT for the Manakov system and report on experimental transmission results for dual polarization in fiber optic eigenvalue communications. A transmission of up to 373.5 km with bit error rate less than the hard-decision forward error correction threshold has been achieved. Our results demonstrate that dual-polarization NFT can work in practice and enable an increased spectral efficiency in NFT-based communication systems, which are currently based on single polarization channels

The Fall of a Giant. Chemical evolution of Enceladus, alias the Gaia Sausage

We present the first chemical evolution model for Enceladus, alias the Gaia Sausage, to investigate the star formation history of one of the most massive satellites accreted by the Milky Way during a major merger event. Our best chemical evolution model for Enceladus nicely fits the observed stellar [$\alpha$/Fe]-[Fe/H] chemical abundance trends, and reproduces the observed stellar metallicity distribution function, by assuming low star formation efficiency, fast infall time scale, and mild outflow intensity. We predict a median age for Enceladus stars $12.33^{+0.92}_{-1.36}$ Gyr, and - at the time of the merger with our Galaxy ($\approx10$ Gyr ago from Helmi et al.) - we predict for Enceladus a total stellar mass $M_{\star} \approx 5 \times 10^{9}\,\text{M}_{\odot}$. By looking at the predictions of our best model, we discuss that merger events between the Galaxy and systems like Enceladus may have inhibited the gas accretion onto the Galaxy disc at high redshifts, heating up the gas in the halo. This scenario could explain the extended period of quenching in the star formation activity of our Galaxy about 10 Gyr ago, which is predicted by Milky Way chemical evolution models, in order to reproduce the observed bimodality in [$\alpha$/Fe]-[Fe/H] between thick- and thin-disc stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter