Idea generation: the performance of U.S. States 1997–2007

Regional prosperity increasingly depends on a region’s capacity to have command over the production of ideas. Measuring the production of ideas with patents, the objective of this paper is to analyze how the number of utility patents granted to inventors in U.S. States in different technologies changed between 1997 and 2007 and how States took advantage of the new opportunities and adapted to the changing technology landscape. The paper uses shift-share analysis, traditionally used in employment studies, for analyzing change in patents by technology categories developed by the NBER. The shift-share results show that only a few states were able to take advantage of the information technology driven increases in patents. California dominates in patent production and may be providing spillover benefits to neighboring states. The shift-share decompositions are used as variables in a fixed-effect panel-regression model of state economic growth. The regression results show that the shift-share decompositions provide statistically significant information in explaining growth after accounting for a State’s stock of patents, suggesting that States should concentrate on effective ways to boost their stock of knowledge in rapidly growing technologies to improve state economic growth.     

Data Theft? Cybercrime and the Increasing Criminalization of Access to Data

The use of computers in the commission of crime, so-called ??cybercrime??, presents a considerable challenge to law enforcement. Central to the prosecution of cybercrime is the offence of unauthorised access to a computer, or ??hacking??. Originally conceived of as analogous to trespass, the trend in some jurisdictions has been toward punishing access to computer data per se. This issue also arises under the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime which criminalizes ??offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems??. As the criminal law traditionally provides protection only to limited forms of information, the increasing use of the criminal law to protect computer data therefore confers on it a status not enjoyed by information stored in other forms. Drawing upon the laws of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, this article explores the increasing criminalization of access to computer data. It describes the evolution of cybercrime laws and considers ways in which problems of over breadth may be avoided. Questions will also be raised as to the appropriate role of the criminal law in protecting information.     

Counterterror intelligence operations and terror attacks

We present a formal model of an intelligence agency that must divide its resources between the collection and analysis of information pertaining to terror plots. The model highlights the negative consequences of queues which form when collection exceeds analytic capacity. We incorporate the response of a terrorist organization to the operating characteristics of the intelligence system it faces, and solve for equilibrium strategies for the intelligence system and terrorist organization. Our results demonstrate the importance of properly balancing resources between collection and analysis, and stand in contrast to the observed state of overcollection in US intelligence agencies.