Given the tremendous volatility of commodity prices, models used to test the efficiency of futures markets often contain unstable parameter estimates. This instability may cause the results of hypothesis tests to become sensitive to the sample period. As a result, tests based on constant parameter s...

The WTO inspired strengthening of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in developing countries remains highly controversial even 15 years after the 1994 TRIPs agreement. This paper employs both theory and empirics to assess how a strengthening of IPRs affects international technology diffusion by alt...

Despite over 20 years of debate, the TRIPs agreement remains very contentious. This paper evaluates the impact of tightening intellectual property rights (IPRs) in developing countries on developed countries' exports over the 1962-2000 period. Colonial origin is used to isolate exogenous variation i...

Rev. of Economy and morality: the philosophy of the welfare state, by Yuichi Shionaya

The question addressed is, have we achieved what Veblen called "evolutionary social science", that is, a systematic account of socioeconomic change? Taking account of different meanings of "systematic" and observing some of scientific systems that have held place in the history of Economics, the aut...

Rev. of Marginal man: the dark vision of Harold Innis, by A.J. Watson. EH.Net Economic History Services

Rev. of A poverty of reason: sustainable development and economic growth, by Wilfred Beckerman

Rev. of The perverse economy, by Michael Perelman