University R&D and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Italy

Ed Mansfield wrote several papers on the private returns to basic research (e.g. Mansfield, 1980) and the influence of academic research on industrial innovation (e.g. Mansfield, 1991). We extend this line of research by assessing the impact of university research on total factor productivity growth of Italian manufacturing firms. The econometric analysis is based on reduced-form estimation of the R&D capital stock model, including controls for two potential sources of sample selection bias, as proposed by Crepon et?al (1998) and Piga and Vivarelli (2004). Our results suggest that while there are positive returns to collaborative research with other firms, collaborative research with universities does not appear to directly stimulate productivity. We interpret this result as consistent with recent evidence (e.g. Hall et?al 2001, 2003) suggesting that firms engage in collaborative research with universities when appropriability conditions are weak.     

The Economics of Science and Technology

This paper provides a non-technical, accessible introduction to various topics in the burgeoning literature on the economics of science and technology. This is an interdisciplinary literature, drawing on the work of scholars in the fields of economics, public policy, sociology and management. The aim of this paper is to foster a deeper appreciation of the economic importance of science and technology issues. We also hope to stimulate additional research on these topics.     

Judging a Judge: A Reappraisal of Lord Mansfield and Somerset’s Case

This article presents an occasion on which moral judgement can, and should, take place. When the chief justice of the court of king’s bench – William Murray, first earl of Mansfield – was presented with the case of Somerset v Stewart in 1772, he was presented with choices that unveiled aspects of his character. By first establishing the ambiguity of the legal context and the multifarious political pressures that preceded Somerset’s case, this article identifies the extent of Lord Mansfield’s ‘room for manoeuvre’ with respect to three elements of his conduct: the delay and reluctance in making a decision, the choices regarding the substantive decision and the manner of expressing that decision. To what extent did Mansfield have freedom of action, and how did he exercise it? Are those free actions worthy of praise or condemnation? Through an essential questioning of previous historians’ assumptions and omissions, this article sharpens the strokes through which a complex portrait of Mansfield may be rendered.     

Flexibility and Endogenous Innovation

The trail I want to follow leads from Stigler to Mansfield with few, if any, intermediate stops. That should sound like a pretty good genealogy.     

The Economic Problem of Fixed Costs and What Legal Research Can Contribute

The antitrust laws demand competition but, in general, no competitive outcome is possible in markets characterized by substantial fixed costs. Consequently, restrictions on competition may have an efficiency defense, and a prohibition of cartel agreements may entail costs as well as benefits. Giving examples, this essay illustrates the problem that fixed costs pose for competition, long recognized in economics, and discusses implications for real-world industries. The author addresses Wiley's recent criticism of theoretical and empirical work on the fixed cost problem and outlines an agenda for legal research that can help illuminate the underlying economic and antitrust policy issues posed by industries with high fixed costs.     

The nisi prius Trial Notes of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke

The trial notes of Chief Justices William Mansfield and Dudley Ryder have proved to be rich sources for the study of common law judicial process in the decades after 1750. Equally valuable, but hitherto unanalyzed, are the trial notes of Philip Yorke, Lord Hardwicke, compiled when he was Chief Justice of King's Bench in the mid-1730s. This study provides an account of Hardwicke's notes, comparing and contrasting their style and substance to those of Mansfield and of Ryder, thereby enlarging our appreciation of the character and treatment of civil litigation in the royal courts under George II and George III.     

Evaluating Public Sector R&D Programs: The Advanced Technology Program's Investment in Wavelength References for Optical Fiber Communications

Griliches (1958) [Journal of Political Economy,66: 419--431] and Mansfield et al. (1977) [Quarterly Journal of Economics 91: 221--240] pioneered the application of fundamental economic insight to the development of measurements of private and social rates of return to innovative investments. This paper illustrates field-based methods for measuring the social rates of return to innovative investments by the public sector. The case study described herein relates to the development of an improved standard reference material for the measurement of the wavelength of light in an optical fiber network.     

Comment on Franz Von Benda-Beckmann, “anthropological approaches to property law and economics”

This comment deals with criticisms of law and economics analysis as they can be formulated from the point of view of an anthropologist. These criticisms are taken seriously. The author first addresses so-called defects of law and economics analysis which should be considered underdeveloped areas of the approach. Secondly, and more specifically, weaknesses of the property rights approach are taken up. In the author's view, they should be dealt with in future law and economics work. Finally, methodological issues are being addressed which, if not considered with circumspection, could impair the scientific integrity of the law and economics approach.     

Is there a place for economics in criminology and criminal justice?

It is argued that the study of economics is appropriate for, and would make a significant contribution to, criminal justice degree programs by enriching the understanding and augmenting the technical expertise of students who undertake that study. Economics is based on a very different philosophy of human behavior. From the economist's philosophy has evolved a theory of human behavior which is, to a striking extent, complementary to that of traditional criminology in its choice of endogenous and exogenous variables, and in its assumptions concerning the nature and structure of the relations linking the former to the latter. Methodologically, economics is distinguished from traditional criminology by its greater stress on formal, logical deduction. The discipline also offers, through econometrics, a powerful instrument for empirically estimating and testing theoretical prepositions. A survey of recent criminological research that uses the economist's paradigm is provided.     

Mansfield's Missing Link: The Impact of Knowledge Spillovers on Firm Growth

The purpose of this paper is to provide a link between two of the seminal contributions of Edwin Mansfield. The first focuses on the determinants of firm growth and the second is concerned with university-based knowledge spillovers. By linking both firm-specific characteristics as well as access to knowledge spillovers from universities, the empirical evidence found in this paper suggests that knowledge spillovers as well as firm-specific characteristics influence firm growth.     

海盗行为和海上恐怖主义行为的比较研究

海盗行为和海上恐怖主义行为受国际政治经济因素的影响,近年来在国际上呈现愈演愈烈之势。本文通过对国际条约中有关两者的定义和主要管辖机制的对比分析,试图找出两者的共同之处,以期对打击两种犯罪提出建议。     

The judge,the academic and the public intellectual: the totemic scholarship of Richard A. Posner

Richard A. Posner plays a totemic role within law and economics, and not only. His scholarship is so wide to the point that it is quite impossible to face any topic without finding a seminal contribution by him. This introduction presents a special issue devoted to Posner’s scientific and academic work.     

Industrial R&D Laboratories: Windows on Black Boxes?

This paper provides an overview of the survey-based literature on industrial Research and Development (R&D) laboratories, beginning with the work of Edwin Mansfield. Topics covered include R&D projects, new products, and new processes; the appropriability of intellectual property; the limits of the firm in R&D; and spillovers of knowledge from other firms and universities into the laboratories. I discuss the value of collecting information from industrial R&D managers, who participate in a wide range of R&D decisions and are the natural best source of information on these decisions. I also emphasize gaps in our knowledge concerning R&D from past studies, such as the private and social returns to R&D, the nature of firms' R&D portfolios, and other topics. The paper closes with a discussion of the benefits from building a national database on R&D laboratories that could be shared among researchers and that could take this area of research to a new and higher level of achievement.     

The Insurance Act 2015: Rebalancing the Interests of Insurer and Assured

The Insurance Act 2015 is the first piece of legislation since the eighteenth century to seek to lay down new principles governing the formation and operation of insurance contracts. Exactly 250 years after Lord Mansfield articulated the routinely‐cited principle of utmost good faith in insurance law in Carter v Boehm (1766) 2 Burr 1905, that principle has been recast, with important implications for both the pre‐ and post‐contractual duties of the parties. The Insurance Act has also imposed important restrictions on the enforcement of policy terms by insurers, and clarifies the law affecting fraudulent claims. The Marine Insurance Act 1906, a codifying measure, looks increasingly outmoded.     

法学视野中"人民币"改称"中元"的必要性论析

在近年的"两会"上,部分政协委员分析了"人民币"名称的缺陷并提出将"人民币"改称为"中元"的合理性.但他们多是从经济学的角度或只是感性地提出这一问题,从法律角度比较系统地探讨这一问题的还不多见.从民法、商法、经济法、法经济学、法人类学等视角审视了"人民币"改称"中元"的必要性和意义,并得出初步的结论.     

Posner versus Kelsen: the challenges for scientific analysis of law

Law & economics scholars claim, among other things, to provide explanations of how law impacts behaviour. The aim of this article is to shed light on the conceptual and methodological difficulties related to analysis of the impact that law has on behaviour. The analysis advanced in the paper takes as its starting point a commentary on Richard Posner’s interpretation of Hans Kelsen’s pure theory of law. The work of Kelsen is treated as a meta-theoretical analysis that reveals some of the presumptions of theoretical approaches to law that claim to be scientific and, in particular, that claim to scientifically analyse the law’s influence on behaviour. The article concludes with a methodological proposal on how to approach the identified methodological challenges and conceptual tensions that law & economics contends with.     

Behavioral Economic Analysis of Crime: A Critical Review

Behavioral economic analysis of law is about bringing recent research about behavior and choice together with classical law and economics. In this essay we assess its relevance for the theory of optimal law enforcement. It is our view that criminal law is an area where behavioral analysis has a role to play. Notwithstanding the results so far provided by the behavioral approach are somehow disappointing.     

The economic analysis of public law

Law and economics in the United States and Europe focuses on private law. With the exception of work on antitrust and corporate finance, public law has been largely ignored. Yet economics is central to the understanding of social problems, such as environmental protection and occupational health and safety. Lawyer-economists need to study the relationship between government structure and policy outcomes. Economists must consider goals, such as democratic accountability and participation, which do not fit an efficiency framework.Lawyers and public officials need to recognize the social benefits of efficiency. Such legal-economic analysis can reveal failures in the way public law accommodates the practical reality of today's pressing social problems. It can also suggest solutions. In particular, economics can help with the design of substantive policies and with the analysis of government structures and process.     

经济行为研究的模式与方法

在现代意义上,经济学说到底是一门研究人的经济行为的科学。倡导并注重对人的经济行为的研究,为现代经济学建构了一个“充满人性和人类价值”的理论框架,使经济学成为人的科学,人成为经济学的主体,这一价值取向达到了科学与人性有机地融合,是经济学上的一场“行为革命”。本文拟对关于经济行为研究的模式与方法作一介绍。     

Comment on Roger Cotterrell “Sociological interpretations of legal development”

In this comment I try to point to some connections between law and society research on the one hand and law and economics work on the other. In emphasizing general similarities, I am trying to connect different bodies of literature that stem from different disciplinary backgrounds but in complementing each other might be fruitfully combined in interdisciplinary law and economics-law and society projects.