Deploying pre-grant patent opposition mechanisms in Africa to monitor abuse of the patent system

This article examines the extent to which African countries could deploy pre-grant patent opposition provisions in their domestic patent regimes to mitigate the abuse of the patent system. The author argues that the public has the right to participate in the patent system in order to oppose the grant of bad patents. Therefore, if African countries were to strengthen legislative provisions on pre-grant opposition civil society and non-governmental organisations that represent the interests and will of citizens would be able to invoke key provisions to challenge any abuse in the patent system in order to protect the public interest.     

Convictions versus Conviction Rates: The Prosecutor's Choice

It is natural to suppose that a prosecutor's conviction rate—theratio of convictions to cases prosecuted—is a sign ofhis competence. Prosecutors, however, choose which cases toprosecute. If they prosecute only the strongest cases, theywill have high conviction rates. Any system that pays attentionto conviction rates, as opposed to the number of convictions,is liable to abuse. As a prosecutor's budget increases, he allocatesit between prosecuting more cases and putting more effort intoexisting cases. Either can be socially desirable, dependingon particular circumstances. We model the tradeoffs theoreticallyin two models, one of a benevolent social planner and one ofa prosecutor who values not just the number of convictions butthe conviction rate and unrelated personal goals. We apply themodel to U.S. data drawn from county-level crime statisticsand a survey of all state prosecutors by district. Convictionrates do have a small negative correlation with prosecutorialbudgets, but conditioning on other variables in regression analysis,higher budgets are associated both with more prosecutions andhigher conviction rates.     

Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for innovation: Evidence from meta‐regression analysis

This article examines the microeconometric evidence on the impact of government support for R&D and innovation. Our meta‐regression analysis uses a dataset of empirical evidence on the effects of government R&D policies on innovation and investigates the factors that may explain the differences in the estimated effects. The meta‐analysis is structured to include both the direct and indirect government support for R&D and innovation. The estimated results reveal the heterogeneity of empirical studies with respect to the type of incentive, data, and econometric methodology used. The results indicate that the output additionality effect is on average stronger for R&D tax incentives than subsidies. Studies that use the subsample of high technology sector show a stronger additionality effect of fiscal incentives on innovation. Moreover, small and medium enterprises have a stronger input additionality effect. The results also suggest that studies considered endogeneity issues have on average stronger additionality effect.     

Pattern and Trend of Deliberate Self-Harm in Western Nepal

Abstract:  Acts of deliberate self-harm (DSH) not only affect the people directly involved, but also have grave psychological and social impact on the family and community. In the present study, a cohort of 173 cases of DSH reported from April 2002 to March 2005 was retrospectively analyzed, by perusing the medicolegal register maintained by the Emergency Department at the Western Regional Hospital, Pokhara in the Western Development Region of Nepal. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS Version 10.1. More than two-thirds of total cases were females. About 60% of cases were observed in the age group of 15–24 years. Poisoning (89.6%) was the most preferred method of deliberate self-harm. Organophosphate pesticides were consumed in nearly two-thirds of the poisoning cases. The majority of cases were reported during the months of May to July and had occurred during the last quarter of the day. More than a twofold increase was observed in the frequency of cases during the 3-year study period. The said observations were compared and contrasted with the available literature across the globe. The presentation is concluded by highlighting the limitations encountered in Nepal and the scope to overcome the same.     

The Future of Belgian Federalism as Seen Through the Eyes of the Social Partners: A Continuing Obstacle to Social Policy Decentralization?

In this article, we take a look at the discussion on the devolution of social policy. Despite the pressure of strong nationalist movements to decentralize socio-economic matters, the federal welfare state does not erode. In their study up to the early 2000s, Béland and Lecours explain this relative standstill by pointing to the institutionalization of neo-corporatistic organizations. These organizations, which are strongly involved in the management of the welfare state, have not split along language lines and prevent the decentralization of socio-economic policies in order to preserve their power. Based on empirical evidence, this paper shows that federal social partners are an important obstacle to social policy decentralization in Belgium while the regional social partners have differing opinions on the devolution debate.