EPTD Discussion Papers contain preliminary material and research results, and are circulated prior to a full peer review in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment. It is expected that most Discussion Papers will eventually be published in some other form, and that their content may also be revised. THE ECONOMICS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS UNDER IMPERFECT ENFORCEMENT: DEVELOPING...

Reverse share tenancy, wherein poorer landlords rent out land to richer tenants on shares, is a common phenomenon. Yet it does not fit existing theoretical models of sharecropping and has never before been modeled in the economics literature. We explain share tenancy contracts using an asset risk model that incorporates Marshallian inefficiency and thereby provides a credible explanation for sh...

Proponents of the emerging knowledge-based (resource-based, competencebased, etc.) theory of the firm have subjected more traditional economics of organization theories to strong critiques. Rather than directly answering this critique, we examine key ideas of the knowledge-based approach, and argue that these are not necessarily in conflict with basic ideas from organizational economics (partic...

A central challenge in securing property rights is the subversion of justice. We present a model polluter whose discharges harm multiple owners, and we compare rules, liability regulation on efficiency grounds. provide conditions under which rules are preferred to thus verifying Calabresi-Melamed conjecture. Regulation that enforces partial abatement may be either extreme rules. An empirical an...

Do Southern intellectual property rights (IPRs) affect Northern innovation? There is much theoretical debate on the impact of IPRs in the South on the incentives of Northern firms to innovate and transfer technologies to the South. While empirical research exists on the effects of Southern IPRs on Northern technology transfers, empirical evidence on the effects of Southern IPRs on Northern inno...

I study the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in a model of endogenous growth with sequential innovation. The model mimics the innovation process in hi-tech sectors where many of the techniques and products used in R&D are recent discoveries themselves. Depending on the structure of the patent system, some of these discoveries might still be protected by a patent. In this context IPRs...

Recent months have seen intensified global calls for an intellectual property waiver of COVID-19 related vaccines, treatments and products. Where one side the debate elevates Intellectual Property Rights as on obstacle to affordable expeditious access vaccines treatments, other points existing TRIPS flexibilities such compulsory licensing, necessity future innovation well factors manufacturing ...