Personal computer prices decline rapidly with age. The price of a four-year-old used computer is almost one tenth of the price of a new one. This paper provides new evidence on why prices of personal computers decline so rapidly as they age, using online auction data from eBay. An innovative...

The issue of optimal patent protection is of great importance since the inclusion of the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights accord into the purview of the World Trade Organization. Hitherto, the literature has focused on the optimal patent regimes from the perspective of...

The central prediction of the Aghion, Bloom, Blundell and Howitt model is an inverted U-shaped relationship between innovation and competition. The model is built on the assumption of a product market and has not yet been tested on the service sector. Using detailed firm-level data on Swedish...

In this paper, we assess the determinants of information and communication technology (ICT) investment at the macro-level, for a panel of 10 advanced countries, in the period 1992-2005. We investigate the idea that, since ICTs are general purpose technologies, the decision to invest in these...

This paper aims to search the threshold point during the technology accumulation process and investigate the interaction mechanism for human capital and technology acquisition. Related data of patent application and invention patent granted suggests that there is a significant paradigm shift...

This article addresses an issue that is debated in the economics of innovation literature, namely the existence of increasing returns to R&D expenditures and firm size, in product innovation. It explores further how the firm's structural characteristics and contextual factors affect the...

The aim of this paper is to discuss and to provide evidence for the existence of pecuniary knowledge externalities, considered here as the main cause of positive disequilibrium experience by downstream producers. The last effect, confirmed by the empirical analysis performed here, enriches the...

This paper examines the effect of control rights over whether to publish or patent research results. University researchers have substantial discretion over disclosure, while management in non-academic organizations often direct researchers to patent their findings. Thus, the effect of control...