Introduction: The Battle over the Surplus from Innovation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Stephen H. Haber ◽  
Naomi R. Lamoreaux

Do patents facilitate or frustrate innovation? Our starting point for exploring this question is the recognition that patent systems are products of battles over the economic surplus created by innovation. The features of these systems take shape as contending interests at different points in the production chain seek advantage in any way they can, and consequently they are riven with imperfections. The most interesting intellectual issue is not how patent systems are imperfect, but why historically US-style patent systems with all their imperfections have come to dominate other methods of encouraging inventive activity. The essays that follow this introduction suggest that the creation of a tradable but temporary property right facilitates the transfer of technological knowledge and thus fosters a highly productive decentralized ecology of inventors and firms.

Do patents facilitate or frustrate innovation? Lawyers, economists, and politicians who have staked out strong positions in this debate often attempt to validate their claims by invoking the historical record—but they typically get the history wrong. The purpose of this book is to get the history right by showing that patent systems are the product of contending interests at different points in production chains battling over economic surplus. The larger the potential surplus, the more extreme are the efforts of contending parties, now and in the past, to search out, generate, and exploit any and all sources of friction. Patent systems, as human creations, are therefore necessarily ridden with imperfections; nirvana is not on the menu. The most interesting intellectual issue is not how patent systems are imperfect, but why historically US-style patent systems have come to dominate all other methods of encouraging inventive activity. The answer offered by the essays in this volume is that they create a temporary property right that can be traded in a market, thereby facilitating a productive division of labor and making it possible for firms to transfer technological knowledge to one another by overcoming the free-rider problem. Precisely because the value of a patent does not inhere in the award itself but rather in the market value of the resulting property right, patent systems foster a decentralized ecology of inventors and firms that ceaselessly extends the frontiers of what is economically possible.


Trictrac ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Danciu ◽  
Petru Adrian Danciu

The axes of the creation and birth of the imaginary as a mythical language. Our research follows the relationships of the concepts that are taking into account creation on the double axis of verticality and horizontality. We highlight those symbolic elements which would later constitute the mythical language about the sacred space-temporality. Inside this space-temporality a rich spectrum of mythical images develops; images capable of explaining the relationships of the creation plans. Without a religious perception of the temporality, the conceptualization of the axis would remain a philosophical approach. Through our point of view, the two are born simultaneously. Thanks to them, creation can be imagined. The first “frozen” formula of the mystical human spirit can be thought, brought to a palpable reality, expressed in an oral and then a written form. Studied together, temporality (sacred or not) and space are permanently imagined together. For example, a loss of mundane temporality in the secret ecstasy that offers to the soul an ascending direction does not mean getting out of universal temporality, but of its mundane section. In the sacred space the soul relates to time. Even the gods are submitted by the sacred, Aeon sometimes being synonymous to destiny. The universal creator seems to evade every touch, but not consistently, only when he avoids the descent into its created worlds. In sacredness, time and space seem or become confused, both expressing the same reality, by the immediate swing from thinking to deed. The mythical imagery conceives the displacement in the primary space-temporality by the spoken word. So, for something to appear and live, the spoken word is required. Even the divine dream appears as a pre-word of a creator’s thought. The thought follows the spoken word, the spoken word follows the gestures which finally indicate the meanings of the creative act, controlling the rhythm of the creation days. These three will later be adapted through imitation in rite. We are now situated at the limit of the physical world, a real challenge for the mythical imagery. The general feature of the mythical expression on the creation of the material world is the state of the divinity’s exhaustion, most often conceptualized by sacrifice or divine fatigue. The world geography identifies with the anatomy of a self-gutted god. Practically, material creation is most likely the complete revelation of God’s body autopsy. As each body decomposes, everything in it is an illusion. An axial approach of the phenomenon exists in all religious systems. The created element’s origin is exterior, with or without a pre-existing matter, by a god’s sacrifice or only because it has to be that way. This is the starting point of the discussion on the symbolism of axiality as a reason for the constitution of the language of creation, capable of retelling the imaginary construction of myth in an oral and then written form.


2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-76
Author(s):  
Andy Stirrup

This paper considers an implicit trend in youth ministry to present Jesus as the archetypal superhero and asks if this is a valid and a helpful approach. The paper examines the relationship between the biblical category of hero and the contemporary notion of superhero and a broader appreciation of the use of myth for communicating Christian apologetics as seen in Lewis and Tolkien. The starting point for the paper is that an arguable starting point for the creation of Superman is in the epic character of Hercules and the biblical hero Samson. Through an examination of biblical and other Near East material the paper calls for a deeper and more nuanced appreciation of the relevance of modern western myth in the task of communicating theological narratives and concepts.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radosław Trojanek

In the book, an attempt was made to catalogue knowledge concerning the importance of research into the dynamics of housing prices for social and economic development. The analysis of the experience of countries with well-developed real estate markets in the aspect of building price indexes was carried out. Based on original databases of asking and transaction prices, price indexes were built, which were then subjected to numerous resistance tests. The aims of these research tasks were as follows: 1) to examine the quality of offers for sale as a source of information about changes in the real estate market, 2) to find out whether the repeat sales method can be used for building price indexes and to critically assess this method in terms of the stability of the obtained results, 3) to analyze hedonic methods and indicate the preferred one in terms of the ratio of the quality of results to how time-consuming and cost-intensive it is to build such indexes, 4) to establish the importance of methods and sources of information for building price indexes in different time horizons, 5) to identify how important it is for the fluctuation of price indexes if the cooperative property right to a flat is not taken into account. In order to perform the research tasks and accomplish the goals scopes of the work were defined. The subject followed the aim of the study and refers to prices in the secondary housing market, encompassing both the property right and cooperative property right to a flat or house. The broad scope concerns the discussion in the general part, being narrowed down to the secondary market of flats located in multi-family and single-family buildings. The time scope covers the years 2000-2015, which is connected to the range of empirical studies carried out. They focused both on actual transactions and on offers of flats for sale. On this basis, we built databases which served as the starting point for further analyses. The study involved transactions and offers in the area of Poznan.


Author(s):  
Kenneth Prewitt

This chapter demonstrates how assumptions of racial superiority and inferiority tightly bound together statistical races, social science, and public policy. The starting point of this is constitutional language. The U.S. Constitution required a census of the white, the black, and the red races. Without this statistical compromise there would not have been a United States as it is today. In the early censuses slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person, a ratio demanded by slaveholder interests as the price of joining the Union. A deep policy disagreement at the moment of founding the nation was resolved in the creation of a statistical race. Later in American history the reverse frequently occurred. Specific policies—affirmative action, for example—took the shape they did because the statistical races were already at hand.


Capital ◽  
2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Marx

The circulation of commodities is the starting-point of capital. The production of commodities, their circulation, and that more developed form of their circulation called commerce, these form the historical ground-work from which it rises. The modern history of capital dates from the creation in...


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Schimmelpfennig

In 1898, two railways serving the south-east of England agreed to be managed by a joint committee. This paper finds clear statistical evidence of the negative impact this had on total economic costs, including opportunity costs of capital, as well as working expenditure. Thus, additional support was provided for the then British railway policy already strongly suspicious of railway mergers on competition grounds. At the same time the findings could reopen the discussion on the wisdom of today’s British rail privatisation philosophy. In particular, one could argue that, instead of separating infrastructure and train operations, the creation of vertically-integrated regional duopolies along the pre-1899 networks might lead to genuine competition, require less regulation, reduce costs, and thus increase economic surplus.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-386
Author(s):  
Doan Winkel ◽  
Justin Wilcox ◽  
Atul Teckchandani

The 60-minute minimum viable product (MVP) exercise teaches critical aspects of the entrepreneurial mind-set and lean start-up methodology, namely, the iterative process of hypothesis testing through the creation of MVPs. In 60 minutes, with no prior technical expertise, students will work in teams to design a landing page, create a teaser video, and set up a way to gather information from prospective customers. The resulting low-fidelity MVP can subsequently be shared with prospective customers to gauge interest and be used as a starting point for the hypothesis testing process used in the lean start-up methodology. This is an immersive exercise that activates students, builds confidence, and teaches important entrepreneurial principles.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 376-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria L. Granados ◽  
Souad Mohamed ◽  
Vlatka Hlupic

Purpose This paper aims to explore what social enterprises (SEs) in the UK know and how they acquire, convert, apply and protect this knowledge. This will enable them to manage their knowledge effectively and, hence, improve their practices and maximise the creation of social, environmental and economic value. Design/methodology/approach This study follows a qualitative approach, comprising 21 interviews with founders and senior members of SEs in the UK. Findings The results show that the investigated SEs have knowledge management (KM) practices similar to the already identified in SMEs, associated with informality, reliance on external sources and focus on socialisation activities, but they have unique challenges on managing their knowledge related to their hybrid mission, to include social and economic objectives and their closed relationship with stakeholders. Research limitations/implications As there is limited research on KM practices in SEs; they were defined based on previous studies in large, private and public companies. Therefore, not all practices may be included. This research is a starting point in the study of KM in SEs. Practical implications This study identifies knowledge activities that enable the creation of social, environmental and economic value in SEs. This allows SEs, small firms and non-profit organisations to review their current practices and develop plans for their further improvement. Originality/value This paper is one of the first empirical studies exploring KM practices in SEs, highlighting their informal nature as well as their impact in and on the enterprise.


2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Grimaldi ◽  
Alessandro Grandi

This paper examines the role of university business incubators (UBIs) in supporting the creation of new knowledge-based ventures. UBIs are described as effective mechanisms for overcoming weaknesses of the more traditional public incubating institutions. They offer firms a range of university-related benefits, such as access to laboratories and equipment, to scientific and technological knowledge and to networks of key contacts, and the reputation that accrues from affiliation with a university. The empirical analysis is based on the Turin Polytechnic Incubator (TPI) and on case studies of six academic spin-offs hosted at TPI. While TPI does not effectively resolve such problems as inadequate access to funding capital and the lack of management and financial skills in its tenant companies, the networking capacity of incubating programmes is seen as a key characteristic that may help new knowledge-based ventures to overcome such difficulties.


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