The debate between the North and the South about the enforcement of intellectual property rights is examined within a dynamic general equilibrium framework in which the North invents new products and the South imitates them. A welfare evaluation of a policy of tighter intellectual property rights is provided by decomposing its response into four items: (1) terms of trade; (2) production composition; (3) available products; and (4) intertemporal allocation of consumption The paper proceeds in stages. It begins with an exogenous rate of innovation in order to focus on the first two elements. The following two components are added by endogenizing the rate of innovation. Finally, foreign direct investment is added to the model

Keith C. Brown, W. V. Harlow, Seha M. Tinic, The Risk and Required Return of Common Stock following Major Price Innovations, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Mar., 1993), pp. 101-116

The influence of Schumpeter's notion of "creative destruction" may have led to an overemphasis on substitution between technologies in recent models of endogenous innovation. Historical examples of technological change suggest that new technologies may just as frequently complement older technologies, creating, rather than destroying, rents. Acknowledgment of the potential for both substitution and complementarity among inventions allows for a much richer characterization of the growth process, creating the possibility of threshold effects and multiple equilibria and bringing to the forefront the important role played by the expectations of inventive entrepreneurs

Reviews the book "Financial Reporting in the Nineties: Regulation and Innovation at a Crossroads," edited by Martin N. Hoogendoorn and Lilliane B. Bijl

Product liability ideally should promote efficient levels of product safety, but misdirected liability efforts may depress beneficial innovations. This paper examines these competing effects of liability costs on product R & D intensity and new product introductions by manufacturing firms. At low to moderate levels of expected liability costs, there is a positive effect of liability costs on product innovation. At very high levels of liability costs, the effect is negative. At the sample mean, liability costs increase R & D intensity by 15 percent. The greater linkage of these effects to product R & D rather than process R & D is consistent with the increased prominence of the design defect doctrine

Product liability ideally should promote efficient levels of product safety, but misdirected liability efforts may depress beneficial innovations. This paper examines these competing effects of liability costs on product R & D intensity and new product introductions by manufacturing firms. At low to moderate levels of expected liability costs, there is a positive effect of liability costs on product innovation. At very high levels of liability costs, the effect is negative. At the sample mean, liability costs increase R & D intensity by 15 percent. The greater linkage of these effects to product R & D rather than process R & D is consistent with the increased prominence of the design defect doctrine

Reviews the book "Cost Management in the New Manufacturing Age: Innovation in the Japanese Automotive Industry," by Yasuhiro Monden

This paper investigates the role of induced innovation in the development of American agriculture from 1880 to 1980. The induced innovation hypothesis, most closely associated with the work of Hayami and Ruttan, argues that successful economies develop technologies in accordance with market price signals to loosen constraints on growth imposed by factor scarcities. Our analysis employing new state and regional level data fails to find support for Hayami and Ruttan's hypothesis. This paper suggests that many of the fundamental generalizations about American agricultural development need to be reconsidered and redirects attention to the role of settlement, changing crop patterns, and biological investments in explaining changes in factor utilization in American agriculture

This paper investigates the role of induced innovation in the development of American agriculture from 1880 to 1980. The induced innovation hypothesis, most closely associated with the work of Hayami and Ruttan, argues that successful economies develop technologies in accordance with market price signals to loosen constraints on growth imposed by factor scarcities. Our analysis employing new state and regional level data fails to find support for Hayami and Ruttan's hypothesis. This paper suggests that many of the fundamental generalizations about American agricultural development need to be reconsidered and redirects attention to the role of settlement, changing crop patterns, and biological investments in explaining changes in factor utilization in American agriculture

I characterize the optimal design of a new futures market (an innovation) by an exchange in the presence of market frictions. Futures markets are characterized by both the contract and the level of trader participation; both can be determined by an exchange. A game in which exchanges simultaneously design markets is considered, and a particular equilibrium (not necessarily unique) is constructed. A game in which exchanges sequentially design markets (and incur design costs) is also considered and the (generically unique) equilibrium is constructed. The nature of equilibrium with multiple exchanges is discussed in these simultaneous and sequential settings, illustrating the role played by liquidity considerations both in market design and in the nature of competition between exchanges