In this article we address the issue of consistency in standard setting in the context of an augmented state testing program. Information gained from the external NRT scores is used to help make an informed decision on the determination of cut scores on the state test. The consistency of cut scores on the CRT across grades is maintained by forcing a consistency model based on the NRT scores and...

We present a model of standard setting and patent pool formation. We study the effects of alternative standard-setting and pool-formation rules on technology choice, prices and welfare. We find three main results. First, we show that allowing patent pools may reduce welfare when standards are negotiated and patent pools need to be ex-post incentive compatible. Second, we show that it is not pos...

Medical teachers must not only continue to accommodate and assimilate constant changes in medical knowledge, they must also assimilate new approaches to assess both students’ declarative knowledge and procedural skills. Medical schools, postgraduate training programs and licensing bodies (e.g. the General Medical Council) must provide and oversee valid and reliable assessments for students’ com...

Shared technology platforms are often governed by standard setting organizations (SSOs), where interested parties use a consensus process to address problems of technical coordination and platform provision. Economists have modeled SSOs as certification agents, bargaining forums, collective licensing arrangements and R&D consortia. This paper integrates these diverse perspectives by adapting El...

The process of environmental regulation is usually a two-step one. In the first step, a standard for environmental quality is set. Then, in the second step, a regulatory mechanism is put in place to achieve the standard. In this paper I show how renewal theory can be used to set the quality standard optimally. JEL Classification: D81, Q20

Among the novel chemotherapeutic drugs introduced in the 1990s, the taxanes have emerged as the most powerful compounds in breast cancer. Both compounds, paclitaxel and docetaxel, have been evaluated in metastatic settings before adjuvant trials proceeded. Docetaxel was shown in several phase III trials to be superior, particularly in terms of survival, for salvaging polychemotherapies after fa...

The modern standards development infrastructure is largely the product of the industrial age, and evolved to address the needs of such an economy. The requirements of a world that is increasingly based upon information and communications technology, however, are far different, and include demands for faster standards development, less vulnerability to uncooperative owners of necessary patent cl...

Richard Stern’s Micro Law column in the May-June 2005 issue of IEEE Micro (“The Antitrust Ghost in the Standard-Setting Machine”) captured the essence of a long-running obstacle to addressing the anticompetitive patent “hold-up” (the term refers to the practice of pointing a gun at someone to induce him to share his wealth) that undermines the open-standards objectives of standards developing o...

Elements of arbitrariness in the standard setting process are explored, and an alternative to the use of cut scores is presented. The first part of the paper analyzes the use of cut scores in large-scale assessments, discussing three different functions: (1) cut scores define the qualifications used in assessments; (2) they simplify the reporting of achievement distributions; and (3) they allow...