IER Lawrence Klein Lecture: The Case Against Intellectual Monopoly

The 2005 Lawrence R . Klein Lecture : Emergent Class Structure

Ip and the Efficient Allocation of Social Surplus from Creation 45 Intellectual Property and the Efficient Allocation of Social Surplus from Creation

In the modern theory of innovation, monopoly plays a crucial role both as a cause and an effect of creative economic activity. Innovative firms, it is argued, would have insufficient incentive to innovate should the prospect of monopoly power not be present. This theme of monopoly runs throughout the theory of growth, international trade, and industrial organization. We argue that monopoly is n...

The Effect of Litigation on Intellectual Property and Welfare

This paper shows that “wasteful” litigation about intellectual property may be welfare enhancing. The aim of an intellectual property protection system is to solve the trade-off between ex-ante innovation incentive and ex-post monopoly welfare loss. The litigation about intellectual property in court decreases the expected rent from intellectual property, therefore reducing the incentive to inn...

An Economist’s Guide to U.S. v. Microsoft

W hile most antitrust cases proceed in obscurity, the case brought against Microsoft by federal and state antitrust authorities was front-page news. Much of the drama and media hype centered on the struggle between the titan of high technology, personified in Bill Gates, and the titan of government, personified in U.S. Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein. For economists and policymakers, howe...

FINISHING THE JOB OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM IN NEW ZEALAND Comments on Commerce-Treasury’s Discussion Paper

0. Summary of Argument The root cause for the persistent lack of progress toward competition in New Zealand telecommunications can be found in Telecom's origins: privatization and deregulation created a de facto monopoly; Telecom's monopoly is sustainable against competition despite the disappearance of natural monopoly conditions throughout telecommunications markets; Grants of monopoly are ec...