We develop a framework in which: (i) a firm can have a new product tested publicly before launch; and (ii) tests vary in toughness, holding expertise fixed. Price flexibility boosts the strong positive impact on consumer beliefs of passing a tough test and mitigates the strong negative impact of...

The underlying motivations for envy or related social preferences and their impact on agricultural innovations are examined by combining data from money burning experimental game and household survey from Ethiopia. In the first stage of the money burning experimental game, income inequality is...

This paper examines the impact of envy or related social preferences on agricultural innovation in Ethiopia by combining experimental and household survey data. In the first stage of a money burning game, income inequality is induced by providing differential endowments and enabling subjects to...

We run an experiment in Ethiopia where farmers can use their own money to decrease the money of others (money burning). The data support the prediction from an inequality aversion model based on absolute income differences; but there is no support for an inequality aversion model based on...

This paper explores whether the patent law and intellectual property rights (IPR) system have resulted in innovation in China during the reform period. It appears that the patent laws have produced a stock of patents, where the success rates of patent applications are fairly uniform across the...