This paper discusses the economic merits of direct or indirect governmental support for open source projects. Software markets differ from standard textbook markets in three important respects that may give rise to market failures: (i) large economies of scale, (ii) crucially important innovations, (iii) significant network effects and switching costs. We analyze the differences between proprie...

This paper projects the future of knowledge economy (KE) in SSA and MENA countries using the four components of the World Bank’s Knowledge Economy Index (KEI): economic incentive, education, ICTs and innovation. The empirical evidence provides the speeds of integration as well as the time necessary to achieve full integration. Findings broadly indicate SSA and MENA countries with low levels in ...

Focusing on the electronics industry, this paper verifies and compares how bipolar R&D policy contributed to growth in productivity in Korea and Taiwan. Two implications are derived from the empirical results. First, in Korea, government’s business group-centered R&D policy encouraged private R&D expenditure rather than public R&D infrastructure. Second, and in contrast, publicly funded R&D inf...

To study how governments can improve the quality of patent screening, we develop an integrative framework incorporating four main policy instruments: patent office examination, preand post-grant fees, and challenges in the courts. We show that examination and pregrant fees are complementary, and that pre-grant fees screen more effectively than post-grant fees. Simulations of the model, calibrat...

We study how competition affects innovation (and welfare) when firms compete both in the product market and in innovation development. This relationship is complex and may lead to scenarios in which a lessening of competition increases R&D and consumer welfare in the long run, contradicting arguments provided by antitrust agencies in recent merger cases. We provide conditions for when a merger ...

We use a change in Canadian tax law to examine how small private firms respond to the R&D tax credit. Our estimates imply an R&D user-cost elasticity above unity. Contract R&D expenditures are more elastic than the R&D wage bill. Firms that perform contract research or recently invested in R&D capital are more responsive to a change in the after-tax cost of R&D. We interpret the latter findings...

This paper surveys the econometric evidence on the effectiveness of fiscal incentives for R&D. We describe the effects of tax systems in OECD countries on the user cost of R&D — the current position, changes over time and across different firms in different countries. We describe and criticize the methodologies used to evaluate the effect of the tax system on Ž . R&D behaviour and the results f...

The reaction of pepper breeding lines under organic production conditions to Verticillium wilt, viruses and phytoplasma was observed at Maritsa Vegetable Crop Research Institute, Plovdiv, Bulgaria during two successive years. diseases severity recorded, when symptoms dahliae, Phytoplasma were deeply expressed. dahliae attack index for early varied widely from 15.04% line O58/14 43.83% O26/16. F...

We use cluster analysis to describe the regional linkages that arise through funding of research contract networks in the EU. We nd ve signi cantly di erent kinds of networks, that we label as follows: 1) Technological development, 2) Basic research, 3) Quasi-elite, 4) Elite and 5) Southern. These networks are described in terms of three basic dimensions: quality, type of partners, and size com...