This paper analyzes the decision of a group of specialized workers to form a guild and block the adoption of a new technology that does not require their specialized input. The theory predicts an inverted-U relation between guilds and market size: for small markets, firm profits are insufficient...

This research argues that variations in the interplay between cultural assimilation and cultural diffusion have played a significant role in giving rise to differential patterns of economic development across the globe. Societies that were geographically less vulnerable to cultural diffusion,...

Many high technology goods are based on standards that require access to several patents that are owned by different IP holders. We investigate the royalties chosen by IP holders under different market structures. Vertical integration of an IP holder and a downstream producer solves the double...

We propose two distinct approaches to the measurement of industry upstreamness (or average distance from final use) and show that they yield an equivalent measure. Furthermore, we provide two additional interpretations of this measure, one of them related to the concept of forward linkages in...

One of the main objectives of the new European research and innovation policy agenda is to favour the positive demographics (creation and growth) of EU companies operating in new/knowledge-intensive industries, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). These companies play an important...

This report provides an analysis of the state of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Research and Development activities in the European Union. This is the fourth report of a series which is published annually. This year’s report provides data up to 2008. The report starts with a...

This report analyses R&D investments by top R&D-investing companies from the ICT sector, for the period of 2005-2008. It focuses on the distribution of R&D investments by firms in specific ICT sub-sectors from the five main world regions, paying special attention to R&D investments by ICT...

A firm's decision to establish an R&D centre in a specific location creates externalities affecting other firms and, thus, a random distribution of location choices is unlikely. Expecting that the global distribution of R&D centres fulfils the criteria of a complex network, we apply social...

This report provides evidence on the inventive output of ICT R&D activity in the EU, the US and other regions and proposes an economic modelling framework for analysing the impact of the R&D processes. It uses patent statistics as a measure of output of the R&D process. According to the...

The literature on within-firm organizational change and productivity suggests that firms can make more efficient use of certain technologies if complementary forms of organization are adopted. This issue may be of even greater importance for the case of greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement...