"Insuring" the continued solvency of pharmaceutical companies in the face of product liability class actions

Costly product liability lawsuits continue to plague the pharmaceutical industry, and insurance to cover these losses is severely inadequate. Furthermore, questionable regulation of drugs exists once a pharmaceutical has passed FDA approval. This article describes a plan that uses a capitalistic, rather than a governmental, approach to solve both the insurance and the quality control problems. Although the proposed plan has never been used to insure pharmaceutical companies, different permutations of it have been used to insure other litigation-prone industries. Success from the proposed insurance entity results from the combined knowledge of scientists and actuaries to provide both protection from product liability lawsuits for the pharmaceutical industry and enhanced post-market surveillance of pharmaceuticals.     

The nature of innovation in emerging industries in China: an exploratory study

In China, traditional manufacturing industries have been world leaders in low-cost manufacturing for overseas multinationals. It is well-known that these “traditional industries” depend on overseas parent firms for innovation. In recent decades, China’s desire is to encourage and promote innovation-based emerging industries within its borders. By definition, “emerging industries” are composed of domestic Chinese firms without an overseas parent firm. We know very little about the innovation practices in these emerging Chinese industries; we hypothesize that the innovation practices in these firms are quite different from traditional Chinese industries with overseas parents. The Kunshan region in China has attracted both traditional and emerging industries that have contributed to unparalleled economic growth in the region. This is a significantly large region with a population of 1.65 million with a regional GDP of USD 32 billion (2010). In this study, we use survey data from companies in this thriving region to compare R&D and innovation practices of the firms in the traditional and emerging industries in this region. We do not know enough about the innovation practices of emerging industrial firms in China, who may have a profound influence on the industrial China of the future much like South Korean firms such as KIA, Hyundai, Samsung, etc. The findings of this exploratory study based on data collected from the Kunshan region enables us to recommend avenues for future research.     

Exploring the Patent Explosion

This paper looks more closely at the sources of patent growth in the United States since 1984. It confirms that the increase is largely due to U.S. patenters, with an earlier surge in Asia, and some increase in Europe. Growth has taken place in all technologies, but not in all industries, being concentrated in the electrical, electronics, computing, and scientific instruments industries. It then examines whether these patents are valued by the market. We know from survey evidence that patents in these industries are not usually considered important for appropriability, but are sometimes considered necessary to secure financing for entering the industry. I compare the market value of patents held by entrant firms to those held by incumbents (controlling for R&D). Using data on publicly traded firms 1980--1989, I find that in industries based on electrical and mechanical technologies the market value of entrants' patents is positive in the post-1984 period (after the patenting surge), but not before, when patents were relatively unimportant in these industries. Also, the value of patent rights in complex product industries (where each product relies on many patents held by a number of other firms) is much higher for entrants than incumbents in the post-1984 period. For discrete product industries (where each product relies on only a few patents, and where the importance of patents for appropriability has traditionally been higher), there is no difference between incumbents and entrants.     

中国制造产业发展态势研究——基于ROXY指数的分析

运用ROXY指数的分析方法,对1994-2003年中国制造业各产业的发展态势进行测算,结果表明,在此期间中国制造业中大多数产业处于加速扩张的发展态势.其中,技术密集型制造产业扩张势头最迅猛,资源密集型制造产业次之,而劳动密集型制造产业扩张速度相对缓慢.据此,我国应当调整好不同类型制造产业发展的节奏和步伐,加快制造产业优化升级,并选择合适的制造产业政策,顺应各类制造产业加速扩张的发展态势.     

Developing a sustainable competitive advantage: absorptive capacity,knowledge transfer and organizational learning

This study proposes a theoretical model to investigate a sustainable competitive advantage (CA) by developing the absorptive capacity (AC), knowledge transfer (TR), organizational learning (OL) and in Taiwan’s financial and high technology industries. Structural equation modeling is employed to examine the influence between each variable and whether their relationships are varied in these two different industries. The study population comprises the top 100 financial and top 1000 high-technology enterprises in Taiwan published by Common Wealth Magazine in 2012. A total of 345 valid responses were collected. The research results indicate that OL serves as partial and full mediators between AC, TR and CA respectively. In addition, moderating effect exists in different industries on the theoretical model. Finally, discussion and implications are described for concluding research findings.     

障碍与释疑:反垄断法适用于银行业的理论澄清

法律适用的明晰是开展法律规制实践的必要前提。虽然反垄断法的适用障碍表现出法律效力的"自我否定"倾向,但是这种制度设计源于对行业发展规律和合理规则方法的尊重。伴随市场经济的发展和管制行业的开放浪潮,反垄断法适用障碍具有主客观两方面的消弭倾向,其适用范围不断扩张。市场化进程的推进使得作为垄断性行业的银行业逐渐回归市场竞争的发展本质,"新型"的反垄断规制和"传统"的金融规制也会因此产生此消彼长的态势转变。《反垄断法》适用于银行业的实然逻辑在于既有法律规则范畴下的解释合法性、银行业市场发展演变的行业合理性以及我国反垄断规制发展脉络下的可期待性。     

Technological Strengths in Mature Sectors--An Impediment or an Asset for Regional Economic Restructuring? The Case of Multimedia and Biotechnology in Baden-Wurttemberg

Baden-Württemberg's innovation system, which is characterised by a high degree of institutionalisation as well as a predominance of incremental innovations and medium technology finds itself in a profound process of transition. The paper discusses whether Baden-Württemberg's strength as an industrial district dominated by mature industries is an impediment or rather an asset with regard to developing new promising technological sectors in the region. The paper focuses on two newly emerging sectors: multimedia and biotechnology. Because of the strong orientation of actors in Baden-Württemberg to established companies in the core industries and the dominance of established organizational networks there is a lack of stimuli for developing new industries. Thus, institutional innovation and new networks are required to speed up the growth of the new industries. Baden-Württemberg can be expected to cope with the transition to the extent that it builds a close connection between its existing sectoral strengths and the new growth industries.     

禁止下的规制：性产业在日本的法律境遇

日本法律明确禁止卖买淫行为,但由于法律本身和社会现实的原因,日本没有成为现实的性产业禁止国。日本性产业的法律制度主要体现在禁止卖淫与卖淫者保护更生、其他性产业的规制、青少年保护和警察监督四个方面。卖淫的劝诱行为与助长行为、"儿童买春"行为等受到法律制裁。除卖买淫之外的其他性产业具有合法地位。在日本流变成现实的性产业规制国后,青少年保护成为其性产业相关法律的最高现实价值。     

Business dynamics,industry productivity growth,and the distribution of firm-level performance: evidence for the role of ICT using Dutch firm-level data

We present evidence on industry productivity growth and business dynamics in Dutch industries for the period 2007–2012, and investigate whether there is a role for ICT intensity in explaining differences across industries. Moreover, we relate ICT intensity to various distributional characteristics of firm performance, such as the dispersion of labor productivity and turnover, concentration and turbulence of market shares, and the efficiency of resource allocation. In the first part of the paper we follow a decomposition approach, whereas in the second part we apply a regression based analysis. The results suggest that productivity growth is higher in ICT production and industries with high ICT usage, but that ICT also increases differences in firm performance and leads to concentration of markets. In addition, there is evidence that markets are more efficient in ICT intensive industries.     

Small business size standards; health care. Small Business Administration. Final rule

The Small Business Administration is adopting new size standards for 19 Health Care industries and retaining the existing $5 million size standard for the remaining 11 Health Care industries. The North American Industry Classification System classifies Health Care industries under Subsector 621, Ambulatory Health Care Services; Subsector 622, Hospitals; and Subsector 623, Nursing and Residential Care Facilities. These revisions are made to more appropriately define the size of businesses in these industries that SBA believes should be eligible for Federal small business assistance programs.     

论我国贸易救济的范围和制度构建

在国际贸易自由化背景下,从事产品生产的国内产业和提供服务的国内产业,都可能受到国际贸易的损害。其中,从事产品生产的国内产业,可能因为同类进口产品的倾销、补贴或数量增加而受到损害,也可能因为其产品出口被其他国家或地区实施不正当、不合理进口限制而受到损害;提供服务的国内产业,可能因为外国服务提供者参与国内服务市场竞争而受到损害,也可能因为其服务输出遭遇其他国家或地区的服务贸易壁垒而受到损害。这些损害,都应当属于贸易救济的范围。要全方位救济国际贸易对国内产业的损害,我国不仅应当有针对进口产品的反倾销、反补贴和保障措施等进口救济制度,也应当有针对其他国家或地区不正当、不合理进口限制的出口救济制度,同时还应当建立完备的国际服务贸易救济制度。     

When Money is not Enough: Reggae,Dancehall, and Policy in Jamaica

This study highlights another disjuncture in the internationalization of the creative industries policy discourse, a postcolonial disjuncture. Despite reggae’s global popularity and the Jamaican government’s adoption of creative industries discourse, policies supporting the music industry remain lacking. This article demonstrates that economic value alone is not always enough to make a creative sector worthy of policy support, even after adoption of creative industries discourse. The sociocultural history and position of the creative sector are equally important. This article, by highlighting the social and cultural embeddedness of creative sectors, questions the social inclusion benefit assumed of creative industries-led development.     

THE LAW AND ECONOMICS OF REGULATING RATINGS FIRMS

Consumers and producers frequently rely on product ratings,such as college rankings, restaurant reviews, and bond ratings.While much has been written about the structure of ratings inparticular industries, little has been written on the generalstructure of different ratings industries and whether governmentintervention is typically needed. This paper begins that inquiryby examining the market structure of different ratings industries,and considering the circumstances under which firms that provideratings should be regulated. We find that most ratings firmsoperate in highly concentrated markets. We also find that mostratings firms determine their own testing standards and methods,although some industries have self-governing oversight bodiesthat offer their own accreditation standards. Despite the findingthat many ratings industries are concentrated, our analysissuggests that market forces generally appear to be an effectivemechanism for providing consumers and producers with usefulratings.     

Examining exclusionary conduct of HMOs and PPOs: a case comment on Northwest Medical Laboratories v. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oregon.

As the climate of the health care industry has changed to one of cost-containment and competition through the growth of HMOs and PPOs, health care providers have become the subjects of antitrust litigation. One such case, Northwest Medical Laboratories v. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oregon, involved a medical laboratory and a radiology center who claimed that they were victims of an illegal group boycott after defendant's pre-paid health plan denied them preferred provider status. The Oregon Court of Appeals, using the traditional antitrust analysis applied to other industries for decades, failed to consider the intricacies that exist within the health care industry. This result led to an inaccurate market share computation and an inadequate rule of reason analysis. This Comment examines the shortcomings of the Northwest Medical opinion and argues that, in applying the antitrust laws to the health care industry, courts in future cases must recognize and respect the unique features of the business of providing health care.     

Is there J-Curve effect in the commodity trade between Korea and rest of the world?

Previous studies that investigated the short-run and long-run effects of depreciation of the Korean won on the Korean trade balance with the rest of the world have not been able to discover significant effects. Suspecting that these studies suffer from aggregation bias, we disaggregate Korean trade flows with the rest of the world by commodity and consider the response of trade balances of 148 industries to changes in the real effective exchange rate of the won. We find that in the short run the trade balance of 91 industries are affected by exchange rate changes. However, the short-run effects last into favorable long-run only in 26 industries, a unique finding that is absent from the literature.     

政府推进创意产业发展的制度创新与服务策划

创意产业是伴随高新技术的发展而衍生的一种新兴的、智慧与科技融合的经济形态，随着创意产业在国民经济发展过程中地位的逐步提升，我国各地创意产业的发展方兴未艾。为了实现从传统产业向现代产业的跨越，增强创新力和综合竞争力．树立现代城市形象，无论是自发聚集还是产业整合，发挥政府对创意产业的推动作用，制定科学而有效的政策，应当成为催化经济转型、推动城市功能改变和经济增长方式转变的重要战略举措。     

国防科技工业吸纳民营资本的法律规制

党的十六大召开至今,国防科技工业以投资体制的改革为核心进行了一系列的制度创新。近几年,随着相关政策的逐步出台,国防科技工业建设领域吸纳民营资本的步伐正在加快。但目前来看,民营资本要顺利地进入国防科技工业建设领域仍需解决许多问题,而西方发达国家在这一方面有经验可资借鉴。我国要彻底打开民营资本进入国防科技工业建设领域大门,必须修正原有的法律制度,建立以国防科技工业企业股份制为核心的新的制度体系,并完善军事订货制度,同时辅以军品税收优惠制度、建立民营高科技基金、调整和改革军品生产规范和标准。     

A further procedure for ordering an input-output matrix: some empirical evidence

In a recent paper Ghosh and Sarkar [5] have developed a model of input-output systems as spatial configurations. Roy has proposed a more efficient solution method; but computation time still increases factorially which rules out its use for large matrices. [15] This note shows that the problem they have formulated belongs to a class of discrete programming problems known as placement or assignment problems. Several natural extensions are briefly discussed. More importantly, an efficient algorithm for the quadratic assignment problem is used to compute the optimal ordering of five comparable input-output matrices (US, Norway, Japan, Italy, India). These preliminary empirical results do show rather stable assignment patterns for the industries; and certain clusters of industries are shown to emerge as hypothesized by Ghosh and Sarkar.     

Pollution and international trade in services

Two central topics in recent rounds of international trade negotiations have been environmental concerns and services trade. While each is undoubtedly important, they are unrelated. In this paper, I show that the services-environment link is small, for two reasons. First, services account for only a small fraction of overall pollution. For none of five major air pollutants does the service sector account for even 4% of total emissions; for three of the five services account for less than 1%. Second, those service industries that do pollute are the least likely to be traded internationally. Those services for which the United States collects and publishes international trade data—presumably those services that are traded internationally—are less polluting than services for which trade data do not exist—presumably because the services are not traded. Even if we limit attention to the services that are traded across borders, the service industries most intensively traded are the ones that pollute the least. The bottom line is simple. International services trade bears little relation to the environment, because services in general contribute relatively little to overall pollution, and those industries that are traded internationally are among the least polluting.     

Towards measuring allocative efficiency in selected industries of India

This paper examines trends in allocative efficiency over the period 1960–1961 to 1986–1987 in seven Indian industries, namely refining and manufacture of sugar; petroleum refining; manufacture of chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides locomotives and parts, locomotives, and cotton textiles. We discover that allocative inefficiency has been non zero in each industry for every year. Allocative inefficiency has not declined over time in those industries where prices are administered, whereas in industries where prices are not administered it has. Industries that are predominantly in the public sector are not necessarily characterized by greater allocative inefficiency than those that are predominantly in the private sector.