One of the objectives of patent systems is to disclose information which other agents can build on in further inventions and in their decision-making. While some observers take it as given that real-world patent systems serve this objective, we argue in this article that patent systems are...

One of the objectives of patent systems is to disclose information which other agents can build on in further inventions and in their decision-making. While some observers take it as given that real-world patent systems serve this objective, we argue in this article that patent systems are...

This paper discusses a recent decision of the Louisiana Supreme Court, Smitko v. Gulf South Shrimp, and explores the soundness of the court’s reasoning. Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Mennonite Board of Missions v. Adams, Louisiana courts have begun to adopt an interpretation that...

As the modern workplace increasingly adopts technology, that technology is being used to surveil workers in ways that can be highly invasive. Ostensibly, management uses surveillance to assess workers’ productivity, but it uses the same systems to, for example, map their interpersonal...

The growth of business, especially small and medium scale enterprises are critical for employment generation in less developed countries. This study seeks to identify the role of the institutions of contract enforcement for business performance. Specifically, this paper, using a nationally...

Numerous intermediate courts of appeal across the nation are faced with insufficient budgets to manage increasing case loads. As a result, it is necessary to identify best practices among appellate courts, so that courts can consider and, if appropriate, adopt identified best practices to...

Corporate success often resembles a snowball. We show how initial luck in hiring talented people, the resulting technological advantage, superior corporate culture, and status-seeking by workers can make small initial differences generate large differences over time.

This paper studies how producers' idiosyncratic risks affect an industry's aggregate dynamics in an environment where certainty equivalence fails. In the model, producers can place workers in two types of jobs, organized and temporary. Workers are less productive in temporary jobs, but creating...

We report the results of the first comparative study of the determinants and effects of patent oppositions in Europe and of re-examinations on corresponding patents issued in the United States. The analysis is based on a dataset consisting of matched EPO and US patents. Our analysis focuses on...