Cost-benefit analysis for global public–private partnerships: an evaluation of the desirability of intergovernmental organizations entering into public–private partnerships

This paper explains the use of cost-benefit analysis for the evaluation of global public–private partnerships that combine international intergovernmental organizations with national governments, businesses, and the non-profit organizations of civil society. The partnerships allocate resources to projects that are socially desirable from an international perspective, yet without the global partnerships will not be performed. Cost-benefit analysis can identify and compare the social and the private costs and benefits of the projects, thereby identifying cases where global public–private partnerships will provide socially desirable results when markets alone will not. Cost-benefit analysis can assess the necessity and the sufficiency of strategies proposed by the partnerships. The paper discusses modifications to cost-benefit analysis required for its use in evaluations of the global public–private partnerships, explaining the need for market-centered valuations, but also explaining the role of alternative social valuations.     

Foreign Aid and Global Public Goods: Impure Publicness,Cost Differentials and Negative Conjectures

Recently, politicians stressed the relevance of an old international policy to raise the provision of international or global public goods: foreign aid. Among such international or global public goods is the provision of climate policy, protection of the ozone layer and international waters. In this paper, we analyze the effect of foreign aid on international climate policy. We take account of cost differentials among countries in producing the public good, ancillary benefits of climate policy, alternative technologies independently generating ancillary benefits and non-zero conjectures.JEL classification:H41, Q28     

Creative internationalization: widening the perspectives on analysis and policy regarding international R&D activities

Internationalization in R&D is further growing; it is changing its geographical balance, as it is shifting somewhat to the Far East, and its nature, increasing the global quest for talent and good research conditions as well as for low cost R&D. This paper focuses on the European perspective, i.e. it discusses current challenges Europe faces vis-à-vis trends in industrial R&D, but the findings and arguments are more general ones. It argues that our perspective on internationalization is still shaped too much by a zero sum-rationale, whereby one location wins R&D capacity that another location loses. It develops a cost–benefit matrix in order to capture the overall costs and benefits of international R&D activities more broadly. The paper argues that more creativity is needed, that our perspective needs to be broadened to tackle all variables conditioning international activities in R&D (including local conditions of demand and discourse) and to stress the importance of the absorption of global knowledge by as many actors within an innovation system as possible. On the basis of recent survey data the paper furthermore concludes that public research should be thought of as a trans-national transmission belt of knowledge and as the prime factor that shapes the attractiveness and effectiveness of a location for business R&D. Finally, it is argued that policy schemes geared towards international R&D need to accept and tackle the issue of co-ordination of governance and to take advantage of the flexible possibilities offered at the European level, beyond the logic of the European Framework Programme.

Venturing into uncharted financial waters: an essay on climate-friendly finance

This paper explores links between global financial imbalances and tensions around reserve currency along with climate change. Currently, risky levels of private and public debts coexist with vast amounts of savings that “do not know where to go.” Long-term climate-oriented financial products could enhance investors’ confidence in low-carbon projects (LCP) and channel to them large amounts of private savings. The paper outlines a financial architecture, the cornerstone of which is an agreement on the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) integrated into a project’s appraisal and acting as a surrogate for a carbon price. This SCC would be the value of carbon certificates issued by the government and delivered to banks to issue credit facilities reducing the risk-adjusted costs of LCPs. These carbon certificates could be gradually transformed into legal reserve assets of the banks after verification of the reality of the projects. Finally, the paper considers whether such certificates would be recognized as genuine international reserve assets, backed by the rising value of carbon over time. It shows how emerging countries could then diversify their foreign exchange reserves through an asset based on the international recognition of climate as a global public good.     

Transferring Public Research: The Patent Licensing Mechanism in Agriculture

Technology transfer policies can bring public R&D to potential users, reduce burdens on public resources, and influence technology development. Patent licensing offers transparency, potentially higher research returns, and possible increased adoption of socially desirable technologies. However, it limits access to research results, and raises concerns that public institutions will alter their agendas. A review of the US Department of Agriculture's patent and licensing program addresses the types of technologies disseminated, social benefits associated with them, institutions licensing technologies, the importance of exclusivity, and whether research priorities have become oriented to private interests. Results suggest that USDA's patent licensing is not revenue driven, and its research agenda has not changed in response to the program. Licenses vary with respect to four important social benefits. Licensing program priorities are closer to those of the private sector than the USDA's research program. Partial or limited exclusivity may be sufficient to attract technology developers.     

The science commons in health research: structure,function, and value

The “science commons,” knowledge that is widely accessible at low or no cost, is a uniquely important input to scientific advance and cumulative technological innovation. It is primarily, although not exclusively, funded by government and nonprofit sources. Much of it is produced at academic research centers, although some academic science is proprietary and some privately funded R&D enters the science commons. Science in general aspires to Mertonian norms of openness, universality, objectivity, and critical inquiry. The science commons diverges from proprietary science primarily in being open and being very broadly available. These features make the science commons particularly valuable for advancing knowledge, for training innovators who will ultimately work in both public and private sectors, and in providing a common stock of knowledge upon which all players—both public and private—can draw readily. Open science plays two important roles that proprietary R&D cannot: it enables practical benefits even in the absence of profitable markets for goods and services, and its lays a shared foundation for subsequent private R&D. The history of genomics in the period 1992–2004, covering two periods when genomic startup firms attracted significant private R&D investment, illustrates these features of how a science commons contributes value. Commercial interest in genomics was intense during this period. Fierce competition between private sector and public sector genomics programs was highly visible. Seemingly anomalous behavior, such as private firms funding “open science,” can be explained by unusual business dynamics between established firms wanting to preserve a robust science commons to prevent startup firms from limiting established firms’ freedom to operate. Deliberate policies to create and protect a large science commons were pursued by nonprofit and government funders of genomics research, such as the Wellcome Trust and National Institutes of Health. These policies were crucial to keeping genomic data and research tools widely available at low cost.

The Regional Innovation Paradox: Innovation Policy and Industrial Policy

This paper explores the regional innovation paradox and its policy implications. The regional innovation paradox refers to the apparent contradiction between the comparatively greater need to spend on innovation in lagging regions and their relatively lower capacity to absorb public funds earmarked for the promotion of innovation and to invest in innovation related activities compared to more advanced regions. Empirical analysis of the nature of the paradox shows that there are strong complementarities between business, education and government spending on R&D and that technology/innovation policy and industrial policies tend to work in opposite directions. Our analysis suggests that resolution of the paradox requires policies that: (i) increase the innovation capacity of regions by working both on the demand and the supply side of the system to increase both private and public sector investment in innovation activity; and (ii) integrate technology policy and industrial policy by encouraging expenditure on innovation activity within mainstream industrial policy programmes. The penultimate section of the paper outlines and assesses policy initiatives/experiments along these lines and suggests how they might be developed in the future.     

Implementation in International Business Self‐regulation: The Importance of Sequences and their Linkages

Self‐regulation by business is increasingly common internationally, but the effective implementation of international rules often continues to be seen as something that only states can carry out. We argue that more exclusively private forms of effective implementation can be constructed in self‐regulation. Drawing on research in private international law, public policy implementation and self‐regulation, we identify four distinct implementation sequences: monitoring, compliance, adjudication, and sanctioning. These sequences are sometimes constituted in response to deliberate integrated plans, but also come together in a decentralized manner. Many international business actors devise ways to carry out the sequences in order to implement rules that are important for them, reflecting a functional logic of implementation that is creative and pragmatic, and together constitute an important stage in the policy process of self‐regulation.     

Global social media vs local values: Private international law should protect local consumer rights by using the public policy exception?

This article focuses on the relationship between forum selection clauses, choice of law clauses and data protection and privacy protection. In particular, it discusses the question whether and why jurisdiction and choice of law clauses used in the terms of social media providers should not be enforced against social media users located in a different jurisdiction. The article distinguishes between the contractual, private law analysis and the application of public policy as part of the private international law analysis. The contract law analysis is centred on doctrines such as unconscionability, which in turn examines issue such as fairness and overwhelming bargaining power of one party. By contrast, the public policy analysis in private international law focuses on fundamental rights, legality of contractual clauses according to the local law of the forum and the interests of justice. It is argued here that both aspects (contractual and public policy doctrines) are paramount for achieving not only justice between the parties of a dispute but also ensuring good administration of justice in the public interest.     

Nanotechnology in Global Medicine and Human Biosecurity: Private Interests, Policy Dilemmas, and the Calibration of Public Health Law

This paper considers how best to approach dilemmas posed to global health and biosecurity policy by increasing advances in practical applications of nanotechnology. The type of nano-technology policy dilemmas discussed include: (1) expenditure of public funds, (2) public-funded research priorities, (3) public confidence in government and science and, finally, (4) public safety. The article examines the value in this context of a legal obligation that the development of relevant public health law be calibrated against less corporate-influenced norms issuing from bioethics and international human rights.     

国际私法条约解释的路径依赖与方法展开

国际条约的文本制订及其为当事国接受仅实现了条约的形式统一,而条约的实质统一则需要通过一致解释和适用来达致。国际公法条约解释更多针对的是国家的权利和义务,而国际私法条约解释更多关涉的是私人的权利和义务,且没有相应的管辖国际私法条约的国际争议解决机构,故存在当事国解释的多样性风险。国际私法条约解释在路径上依赖条约解释的习惯法规则的同时,必须坚持自洽性和统一性解释要求。当事国在司法实践中对国际私法条约的解释,倾向于采用约文解释和目的解释方法,要求法官学会自我克制和比较借鉴,使用补充资料作为辅助手段,同时处理好多种约文文本和公共政策条款的解释问题。     

国内公法对国际法的影响

国际法包括私法意义上的国际法和公法意义上的国际法。近现代国际法本质上是一种私法意义上的国际法,但国际交往的日益频繁与复杂必然要求建立某种形式的等级制与集中化架构,公法意义上的国际法应运而生。作为一种后发的法律秩序,国际法受到较为成熟的国内法的影响是很自然的。在借鉴国内公法发展国际法时面临某些重要的障碍,也会产生不可忽视的风险,应该予以充分的注意。国内公法日益影响国际法的趋势对于中国的国际法理论与实践将产生重要的影响。     

The structure and dynamics of the global network of inter-firm R&D partnerships 1989–2002

Research and development (R&D) partnerships are formed to share the risks and benefits of R&D. At the macro level, they result in a globe-spanning network that can be a valuable source of international knowledge spillovers. This network is the subject of a considerable body of literature. Often-made claims are that R&D collaboration is an important activity in a competitive environment, but that the importance of international partnerships has declined over time. Furthermore, it is claimed that collaborations are disproportionally concentrated within the developed economies. However, this literature fails to account for variations in the sizes of underlying firm populations between countries and over time. We argue that these population sizes create an opportunity structure of available collaboration partners for firms, and that ignoring variations in this structure potentially leads to erroneous conclusions about the structure and dynamics of the R&D network. To address this problem, we study the structure and dynamics of the global R&D network on an international and cross-industry scale using longitudinal data for 1989?C2002. We integrate data on public firms and their R&D partnerships and confront earlier findings with our data and a set of methods, which enables us to correct for the structure and dynamics in the firm population. While our study confirms previous findings concerning the worldwide trend in collaborative activity, it also shows that results on individual countries need correction. In particular, the importance of R&D collaboration for US companies is overestimated, while their openness towards foreign partners is underestimated.     

Public and private regulation of organ transplantation: liver allocation and the final rule

The allocation of cadaveric organs for transplantation in the United States is governed by a process of private regulation. Through the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), stakeholders and public representatives determine the substantive content of allocation rules. Between 1994 and 2000 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted a rule making to define more clearly the public and private roles in the determination of organ allocation policy. Several prominent liver transplant centers that were losing market share as a result of the proliferation of transplant centers used the rule making as a vehicle for challenging the local priority for organ allocation inherent in the OPTN rules. The process leading to the final rule provides a window on the politics of organ allocation. It also facilitates an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of private rule making. Overall, private rule making appears to be relatively effective in tapping the technical expertise and tacit knowledge of stakeholders to allow for the adaptation of rules in the face of changing technology and information. However, the particular system of representation employed may give less influence to some stakeholders than they would have in public regulatory arenas, giving them an incentive to seek public rule making as a remedy for their persistent losses within the framework of private rule making.     

Social networks in R&D program evaluation

This paper introduces the social network methodology as a tool for evaluating important aspects of research and development (R&D) programs. It uses two detailed examples to illustrate the application of network concepts in program appraisal. By studying relationships, exchanges, network location and status, network structure and evolution, and participant characteristics and roles in the network, this approach provides a lens to important aspects of the longer-lasting, more sustainable contributions of public policy in affecting organisational capabilities to innovate. A key challenge currently is the integration of social network analysis with causal empirical models and more traditional economic approaches geared to assessing the outputs and impacts of R&D.     

Public (Interest) or Private (Gain)? The Curious Case of Network Rail's Status

This paper develops Whitehouse's 2003 examination of the creation of Network Rail, a case study of New Labour's attempt to operationalize the 'third way'. Significant changes have occurred since 2003 which make Network Rail's position as a private company with private sector debt appear increasingly anomalous. These changes include: the reclassification of the debt of another rail company from private to public, and the introduction of'imputed debt'into public sector debt measurement; new funding arrangements for Network Rail which make it heavily dependent on public support; and important rail regulatory policy changes. The paper analyses these changes, and revisits White-house's conclusions. In particular, this paper challenges Whitehouse's contention that Network Rail's creation led to the de facto renationalization of the railway infrastructure at a reduced public cost. The paper demonstrates that Network Rail is a very expensive mechanism for channelling public money to private companies, and argues that the Labour government's attempt to maintain the company's private sector status as part of its third way approach is ultimately untenable.     

Measuring the economic impact of research joint ventures supported by the EU Framework Programme

The objective of this paper is to analyse the effects of international R&D cooperation on firms?? economic performance. Our approach, based on a complete data set with information about Spanish participants in research joint ventures supported by the EU Framework Programme during the period 1995?C2005, establishes a recursive model structure to capture the relationship between R&D cooperation, knowledge generation and economic results, which are measured by labour productivity. In the analysis we take into account that the participation in this specific type of cooperative projects implies a selection process that includes both the self-selection by participants to join the consortia and the selection of projects by the European Commission to award the public aid. Empirical analysis has confirmed that: (1) R&D cooperation has a positive impact on the technological capacity of firms, captured through intangible fixed assets and (2) the technological capacity of firms is positively related to their productivity.     

The challenge and imperative of private sector cybersecurity: An international comparison

Attacks on computers and information networks, both public and private, are disclosed in the news daily. Most recently, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter acknowledged that they were attacked and were now taking additional measures to secure their networks. In January of 2013, Kaspersky Labs reported discovering malware that not only targeted government information in Eastern Europe, former Soviet republics, and Central Asia, but also had been actively doing so since 2007. The scope of global cyber attacks is staggering and the solutions to securing property and protecting national security are illusive, in large part because infrastructure is owned and operated by private, rather than public, entities. Nations struggle with choosing the most effective strategy and potential regulation of the private sector in order to reduce overall cybersecurity risk. This paper reviews the nature of cyber threats, and compares the United States and European approach to promoting cybersecurity in the private sector. Furthermore, the paper discusses how different approaches can affect cybersecurity risk, and suggests a framework for visualizing the impact of law and strategy on security.     

Public research and the innovation performance of new technology based firms

Assessing the role of publicly funded scientific research in entrepreneurial ecosystems is of great interest for science and entrepreneurship policy. Knowledge from academic research flows into the private sector through publications, patents, and researcher mobility as well as through direct interactions between founders and researchers at public research institutions (PRIs). New technology-based firms (NTBFs) are generally praised for high innovativeness despite their resource constraints and liability of newness. This study therefore investigates the impact of direct interactions with PRIs on NTBFs’ innovation success. In a large sample of NTBFs in Germany, we find that those firms engaging in such knowledge interactions are more likely to introduce new products and services to the market. The strength of this association, however, depends on interaction persistency, internal R&D and the founders’ academic backgrounds. Non-academic start-ups benefit more from continuous informal interactions if they pursue own R&D, which suggests that absorptive capacity matters. In academic start-ups, higher intensities of both formal and informal interactions are associated with greater innovation likelihood. Moreover, continuous informal interactions complement formal ones in the absence of own R&D activity.

     

The role of the Asia Pacific Partnership in discursive contestation of the international climate regime

After withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, the US Bush Administration and the Australian Howard Government pursued an international climate change policy focussed on voluntary international agreements outside the UN climate negotiations. This strategy included the formation of several climate agreements directed at technology development, including the 2005 Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP). The APP provides a model for international climate change policy directed at voluntary national greenhouse gas intensity targets, technology development through sectoral public–private partnerships and technology diffusion through trade. This article situates the APP within these US and Australian inspired climate agreements formed outside the UN negotiations. Bäckstrand and Lövbrand’s (in M. Pettenger (ed.) The social construction of climate change: power knowledge norms discourses, 2007) discourse analysis in relation to the international climate negotiations is used to explore differences between the APP and UN climate treaties. We find the APP embodies a discourse of what we call ‘deregulatory ecological modernisation’ that promotes limited public funding to ease informational failures in markets for cleaner technologies and management practices. The deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse is a deeply intensive market liberal approach to international climate change policy, which contests binding emission reduction targets and the development of a global carbon market. The USA, Australia, Japan and Canada represented a core group of countries that used the APP to promote the deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse and thereby contest any deepening of developed nations' emission reduction targets for the post-2012 period. However, with changes of leadership and new parties in power in the USA and Australia, it appears that the deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse has lost ground compared to a reengagement with discourses supportive of developed country emission reduction targets and equity-based adaptation and technology transfer assistance for developing nations.