infonet-economy

This paper studies the effects of patents and subsidies on R&D investment decisions. The theoretical framework is a two-stage game consisting of an investment and a market stage. In equilibrium, both patents and subsidies induce the same amount of R&D investment, which is higher than the investment without governmental incentives. In the first stage, the firms can invest in a...

Is social capital a substitute or a complement to formal institutions for achieving economic growth? A number of recent micro studies suggest that interpersonal trust has its greatest impact on economic performance when court institutions are relatively weak. The conventional wisdom from most macro studies, however, is that social capital is unconditionally good for growth. On the...

Two computable expressions for the exact density of a ratio of quadratic forms in Gaussian random vectors are derived, one of which is restricted to special cases of the problem. Ratios of this type are ubiquitous in econometrics, but their density, unlike the corresponding cumulative distribution function, has not received much attention to date. The new algorithms complement those...

Distinct regions in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) preferentially support the processing of different word-types (e.g., real words, pseudowords) and tasks (e.g., lexical decisions, phonological decisions) in visual word recognition. However, the functional connectivity underlying the task-related specialisation of regions in the left IFG is not yet well understood. In this...

This paper provides a theoretical rationale for non-binding retail price recommendations (RPRs) in vertical supply relations. Analyzing a bilateral manufacturer-retailer relationship with repeated trade, we show that linear relational contracts can implement the surplus-maximizing outcome. If the manufacturer has private information about production costs or consumer demand, RPRs may...

Le document met la discussion des réserves transférables en relation avec l'exigence politique que les réserves légales minimales soient fixées par canton. A ce propos, il montre l'évolution de la régulation des réserves des 13 dernières années et met en évidence l'augmentation du risque qui y est lié et que l'OFSP a pris en compte de manière quelque peu...

Firms are increasingly becoming interested in harnessing the potential of online social networks for marketing purposes. Marketers are therefore interested in understanding the antecedents and consequences of relationship formation within such social networks and in predicting the interactivity among users. In this paper we develop an integrated statistical framework for...