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Journal Article
Business method patents take center stage at Atlanta Fed conference
A recent Atlanta Fed conference focused on the economic and legal issues surrounding business method patent developments in the U.S. financial services industry.
Working Paper
Intellectual property rights and standard setting in financial services: the case of the Single European Payments Area
For many reasons, payment systems are subject to strong network effects; one of those is the necessity of interoperability among participants. This is often accomplished via standard-setting organizations. The goal of the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) is to establish modern cross-boarder consumer payment systems for Europe. This too will require a standard-setting arrangement. But patents are also becoming an important feature of electronic payment systems and thus standard setting under SEPA should incorporate a policy to address the ownership and licensing of essential intellectual ...
Report
Rent-seeking and innovation
Innovations and their adoption are the keys to growth and development. Innovations are less socially useful, but more profitable for the innovator, when they are adopted slowly and the innovator remains a monopolist. For this reason, rent-seeking, both public and private, plays an important role in determining the social usefulness of innovations. This paper examines the political economy of intellectual property, analyzing the trade-off between private and public rent-seeking. While it is true in principle that public rent-seeking may be a substitute for private rent-seeking, it is not true ...
Journal Article
Research spotlight : Fine-tuning
Report
The economics of ideas and intellectual property
Innovation and the adoption of new ideas are fundamental to economic progress. Here we examine the underlying economics of the market for ideas. From a positive perspective, we examine how such markets function with and without government intervention. From a normative perspective, we examine the pitfalls of existing institutions, and how they might be improved. We highlight recent research by ourselves and others challenging the notion that government awards of monopoly through patents and copyright are ?the way? to provide appropriate incentives for innovation.
Journal Article
The Tenth District's brain drain: who left and what did it cost?
Most of the Tenth Federal Reserve District states experienced a brain drain, or an outmigration of highly educated people, during the last half of the 1980s. Fortunately, the recent tide of migration appears to have turned for some district states. Yet, it is still important for policymakers to understand the full impact of a brain drain on a state's economy. Highly educated people are prone to move, based on their region's economic performance relative to other parts of the country. Thus, current favorable migration trends in the district could easily be reversed.
Journal Article
Intellectual property protection in a globalizing era