This article describes recent events in the governance of standard-setting for 2 areas of US health policy - states' decisions about which prescription drugs to cover under Medicaid and other public programs and making health an aspect of foreign policy - and whether these events offer lessons for policy making. In prescription drug coverage, methodologic advances in research that evaluates hea...

Occupational exposure limits (OELs) were first introduced more than a century ago in Germany [1]. They were based on observations of people exposed at the workplace, and on experimental exposures of humans and animals, all accompanied by analytical determination of airborne occupational toxicants. The "acceptable concentrations for short-term and long-term exposure" were derived using crude sub...

This Policy Brief identifies and discusses the main sources of direct harm to European consumers that can arise as a consequence of standardisation. Harm can occur through too-high prices for consumers, but can also be incurred if incentives to innovate are undermined. A consistent policy by the European Commission capable of tackling all sources of harm should simply be based on Article 102 of...

During the past decade several European organic standard-setting organisations have introduced or considered standards relating to greenhouse gas emissions associated with the supply of certified produce. For the most part, these standards have focused on the transport of fruits and vegetables, and specifically air-freight used in the transport of imports. The focus on air freight is due to its...

It is the policy of the IEEE and many other standard-setting organizations to request that any patented technology incorporated into a technical standard be made available to all users of the standard on reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) terms (see IEEE-SA Standards Board Bylaws, clause 6, available at http:// standards.ieee.org/guides/bylaws/sect6-7. html#6). By the same token, such orga...

This research examines the participants in the de jure standard setting in Japan, so as to understand the benefits and costs that corporations receive from participation. In particular, the research and development (R&D) expenditure to sales (R/S) ratio is used to examine corporations’ relative R&D position in their industry sector, in the following four sectors: (1) production machinery, (2) t...

This column will be one of several concerning presently unresolved legal issues that arise in connection with standard setting and the licensing or enforcement of patents that cover some aspect of the standard. Resolving these issues might require standard-setting organizations to adopt appropriate bylaws. Or companies participating in standards setting might have to submit letters of agreement...

Standard setting has gathered great attention in the academic and policy circles recently. At the heart of the focus are concerns around standard setting organizations and standards essential patents. Questions have been raised about whether there are “too many” standards essential patents, on how and when to access the value of these patents, and whether their owners can cause a potential hold...

Bioavailability is, to an increasing extent, recognised as the key issue linking the increased levels of toxicants to actually occurring adverse effects in ecosystems, whilst taking the modifying effects of the abiotic components of the environment into account. Various factors may affect bioavailability in the field, and these factors are often time and space dependent. This is one of the main...

Recent economic and political science research suggests that the way public policy is set, and in particular the participation of those affected by it, impacts upon the outcome of the policy. Accounting standard setting has long offered such a possibility to participate via the due process approach followed by major standard setters. We review the literature on areas close to financial reportin...