Personal information on individuals is increasingly shared between companies that do not belong to the same industry. Such exchange may occur for purposes of risk assessment, identity veri…cation or cross-marketing. Secondary purposes of data use are regulated under the European Data Protection Directive, but implementation in Europe di¤ers from one country to another. At the EU level, there is...

We have examined the mechanism of thalidomide inhibition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced tumor necrosis factor ot (TNF<~) production and found that the drug enhances the degradation of TNF-oe mRNA. Thus, the half-life of the molecule was reduced from "o30 to ~o17 rain in the presence of 50/zg/ml of thalidomide. Inhibition of TNF-ot production was selective, as other LPS-induced monocyte cyt...

This paper computes a quality adjusted price index for the personal computer CPU from 1996 to 2000. The index is based on the pure characteristics demand model. I …rst compute the quality adjusted price index for the whole market, and show that it is very comparable with the hedonic price index but more sensitive to changes in product quality. Two types of the hedonic index are considered. One ...

The issue of convergence has been hotly debated since the mid 1980s. Only recently certain consensus has arisen around some of the most fundamental issues. It seems hardly surprising, then, to find a large variation in how those issues are taught to undergraduates. This paper is an attempt at clarifying the different concepts of convergence, and their relation to both the neoclassical model of ...

This paper explains market turbulence, such as the recent dot-com boom/bust cycle, as equilibrium industry dynamics driven by the synergy between new and existing technologies. When a major technological innovation arrives, a wave of new firms implement the innovation and enter the market. However, if the innovation complements existing technology, some new entrants later will be forced out as ...

This paper is primarily concerned with the impacts of population aging upon education and skill premium. To study population aging, we utilize an overlappinggeneration model where survival into the old stage is uncertain and population aging is modelled via a higher survival rate. Featuring the household, education and production sectors, our model is analysed under both autarky and two-country...

Education, Governance and Trade-Related Technology Diffusion in Latin America This paper examines the impact on TFP of North-South trade-related technology diffusion in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). North-South R&D flows are constructed based on industry-specific R&D in the North, North-South trade patterns, and input-output relations in the South. The main findings are: (i) Education ...

This article compares and contrasts male immigrant labor market experiences in Sweden and Denmark during the period 1985 1995. Using register-based panel data sets from Sweden and Denmark, a picture of the employment assimilation process of immigrants from Norway, Poland, Turkey, and Iran is brought forth. The comparative approach shows that immigrants in Sweden and Denmark experienced similar ...

This study explores the different implications of patent breadth and R&D subsidies on economic growth and endogenous market structure in a Schumpeterian growth model. We find that when the number of firms is fixed in the short run, patent breadth and R&D subsidies serve to increase economic growth as in previous studies. However, when the number of firms adjusts endogenously in the long run, R&...

This paper builds upon a view of economic organizations as problemsolving arrangements and presents a simple model of adaptive problemsolving driven by trial-and-error learning and collective selection. Institutional structures, and in particular their degree of decentralization, determines which solutions are tried out and undergo selection. It is shown that if the design problem at hand is “c...