Do Property Rights Presuppose Scarcity?

Do improved property rights decrease violence against women in India?∗

This paper uses the staggered implementation of a legal change in inheritance law in India to estimate the effect of women’s improved access to inheritance on violence against women. I find that the aggregate rate of violence against women ( including female suicides) fell. This fall is due to changes in police-reported violence as well as in female mortality. The law did not change male mortal...

Commercializing Open Source Software: Do Property Rights Still Matter?

II. THE LANDSCAPE ..............................................................................5 A. The Proprietary Software Model..................................................5 1. Formation and Maturation of the Proprietary Software Industry ...............................................................................5 2. Software Licensing Under Proprietary Models ........................

Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights

We study the determinants of patent suits and their outcomes over the period 1978-1999 by linking detailed information from the U.S. patent office, the federal court system, and industry sources. The probability of being involved in a suit is very heterogeneous, being much higher for valuable patents and for patents owned by individuals and smaller firms. Thus the patent system generates incent...

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property Rights Policy

C hronic hunger persists in most African countries even as crop production reaches peak levels on other continents (Johns Hopkins 2000). In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 600 million people live on small farms measuring no more than a few hectares each. Low productivity due to biotic and abiotic factors is responsible for food insufficiency and malnutrition. The rapid increase in population (nea...