The Welfare Effects of Economic Integration when Products are Patented

This paper presents a model of economic growth where products are invented and patented, and where production involves fixed costs at the location of the plant. The model is used to assess the effects of instantaneous integration of a small, autarkic country into a larger economy on a) consumer welfare and b) the distribution of income. Consumer welfare in the small country rises immediately because of newly available products. Additionally, the welfare of all consumers rises due to economies of scale at the firm level. These latter benefits are gradually replaced by benefits stemming from newly invented products. The distribution of income changes due to a) the asymmetric distribution of patent ownership and b) changes in the ratio’s of skilled to unskilled workers.Economic integration; Income distribution; Product variety

A note on Shannon’s entropy as an index of product variety

This note shows that the antilog of Shannon’s entropy is a suitableindex of product variety for three reasons. First, for symmetricproduct types it is equal to the number of product types. Second, disaggregationof the underlying product set always leads to an increasein measured product variety. Third, the introduction or disappearanceof a marginal type does not cause a discrete change in the variety index.These properties hold for a class of weights that includes, but isnot limited to, frequencies.mathematical economics and econometrics ;

Micro-uncertainty and growth

In this paper idiosyncratic uncertainty is introduced in a model of economic growth with an increasing variety of intermediate products. Both the costs of producing intermediate products and their quality are uncertain for all producers at all times. Using the property of the model that the number of intermediate firms is infinite, uncertainty cancels out in the aggregate. Furthermore, the magnitude of uncertainty has several deterministic effects on long-term economic growth. First, uncertainty causes growth in the heterogeneity of intermediate firms. As heterogeneity grows, the number of very efficient intermediate firms increases. Depending on the degree of competition and the returns to intermediate products, these firms can attract an increasing share of demand by the final sector. This makes final production become more efficient over time. Second, uncertainty changes the rate at which new intermediates are introduced by its effect on the efficiency of final production and by a real-option effect.economics of technology ;

Schooling inequality and the rise of research

During the last twenty years the share of researchers in the workforce has been rising in OECD countries. The consistency of this pattern suggests that it is not a transitional phenomenon. This paper demonstrates that the rise of research can occur in the steady state when schooling inequality is declining. Comparative static analysis of a semi-endogenous growth model with a continuous distribution of skills shows that a reduction in skill inequality can have a variety of effects, which includes a rising share of researchers. Additionally, the height of the growth rate of mean educational attainment is shown to have a positive effect on the proportion of researchers in the workforce, without causing it to grow.Schooling inequality; Economic growth

Neurological signs in infancy:prevalence, pathophysiology and neurodevelopmental outcome

At early age, it is important to determine which children are at high risk of a neurodevelopmental disorder. This makes it possible to start early intervention; a definite diagnosis is not necessary. It is well known that neurological signs may assist early prediction, but knowledge on the contribution of specific signs is limited. This thesis addresses the prevalence and possible underlying mechanisms of specific neurological signs in infancy. We studied two groups of children. The first group comprised low-risk infants from the general Dutch population; the second group consisted of children at very high risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular cerebral palsy (CP). In the low-risk group we found a high, yet with age decreasing prevalence of a prevailing head position to one side during the first 6 months of life. From 4 months onwards a prevailing head position was associated with perinatal risk factors and suboptimal development. Atypical muscle tone in 1 or 2 body parts was common with limited clinical significance, whereas atypical muscle tone in 3 or 4 body parts was clinically relevant. The very high-risk children virtually always presented with atypical muscle tone in early infancy. From 7 months of age onwards, specific atypical tone patterns were associated with CP. Besides, in the very high-risk group, the presence of a tonic knee jerk response during infancy assisted prediction of CP, and infant motor development assisted prediction of developmental outcome at school-age

Innovation policy; Europe or the member states?

Innovation seldom has purely domestic causes and consequences, but how can a European innovation policy complement or substitute national policies? Taking the subsidiarity principle as a starting point, this report discusses the economic rationale of a European innovation policy. Explorative empirical analysis suggests that public R&D and public funding of private R&D are subject to economies of scale and external effects. This is an argument in favour of a European innovation policy but amongst other things, the heterogeneity in social economic objectives on public R&D spending between Member States pleas for national government involvement. In addition, there are scale economies in the protection of intellectual property and in the development of standards. We conclude that a European innovation policy could have, or already has, substantial benefits over purely national policy in these areas. With respect to innovation policies targeted at SMEs, we do not find economies of scale or external effects. It seems to be efficient that these policies are mainly conducted at the national level.

Accelerated gas-liquid visible light photoredox catalysis with continuous-flow photochemical microreactors

In this protocol, we describe the construction and use of an operationally simple photochemical microreactor for gas-liquid photoredox catalysis using visible light. The general procedure includes details on how to set up the microreactor appropriately with inlets for gaseous reagents and organic starting materials, and it includes examples of how to use it to achieve continuous-flow preparation of disulfides or trifluoromethylated heterocycles and thiols. The reported photomicroreactors are modular, inexpensive and can be prepared rapidly from commercially available parts within 1 h even by nonspecialists. Interestingly, typical reaction times of gas-liquid visible light photocatalytic reactions performed in microflow are lower (in the minute range) than comparable reactions performed as a batch process (in the hour range). This can be attributed to the improved irradiation efficiency of the reaction mixture and the enhanced gas-liquid mass transfer in the segmented gas-liquid flow regime

Schooling inequality and the rise of research

During the last twenty years the share of researchers in the workforce has been rising in OECD countries. In the same period, the distribution of schooling has become more equal. This paper proposes that the rise in the proportion of researchers is caused by the decline in schooling inequality. In particular, comparative static analysis of a semi-endogenous growth model demonstrates that a rising proportion of researchers can be a steady state phenomenon when schooling inequality is declining over time. This outcome can be accompanied by a rise in the wages of high-skilled labor compared to low-skilled labor.

VoIP under the EU regulatory framework : preventing foreclosure?

In June 2004, the European Commission (EC) issued an "Information and Consultation Document" (European Commission 2004) that discussed how the Regulatory Framework of the European Union (EU) should be adapted to accommodate Voice over IP (VoIP) and invited relevant parties to comment on the Consultation Document. In our study, we use the responses of the different market parties to identify how incumbents seek to foreclose the market for VoIP telephony. From these responses we conclude that foreclosure is not only attempted by setting high prices for the use of infrastructure, but also by the strategic choice of infrastructure technology, which raises the cost of entry. We label the latter form of foreclosure "technological foreclosure" – as opposed to "market foreclosure". A simple modeling exercise shows that regulators seeking to avoid market foreclosure might trigger technological foreclosure. We argue that this has happened with the unbundling of the local loop in the EU, and that it might happen again with the transition to VoIP. We conclude that the current rights and obligations assigned to telecom companies effectively protect incumbents from competition by VoIP entrants. Moreover, the inaction of regulatory authorities when it comes to numbering and communication protocols is advantageous for incumbents and might obstruct the provision of new services in the future