Following the recent literature on institutions and economic growth, we examine the effects of property rights protection on corporate R&D. Using a unique 2003 World Bank survey of over 2400 firms in ...18 Chinese cities, we obtain the following findings: (1) property rights protection is positively and significantly related to corporate R&D activity (for both process and product R&D); (2) government services and helping hand are conducive to corporate R&D, while informal payments to government officials are not; and (3) government ownership of firms and direct appointment of CEOs are negatively associated with corporate R&D activities. We also find that corporate R&D is positively related to firm size, and access to finance, but negatively related to product market competition and firm age.
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•Organic PCM shows a appropriate phase change point considering the ambient temperature.•Shape stabilisation is the most prevailing incorporation because friendly and cheap ...operation.•Physical properties of PCM composites should get attention as equivalent to thermal properties.•The performance of PCM relies heavily on the ambient condition of construction.
Building construction deserves many attentions due to its huge energy consumption, while Phase Change Materials (PCMs) provide positive solutions for improving energy efficiency and enhancing the thermal properties of construction materials. However, PCMs also present some negative impacts, such as weakening mechanical properties and increasing costs, chemical instability and so on. In this paper, the main characteristics of PCMs, design and incorporating methods, effects on energy consumption and construction reliability are comprehensively reviewed and discussed. Although many materials have the capacity of phase change, some organic PCMs are more suitable due to the higher latent heat and favourable phase change point in buildings, when eutectic PCMs present greater potential to become the optimal one but much effort is required for investigations. Current design methods and application in construction materials can meet the essential requirements, but the effectiveness is inadequate, including low efficiency of phase changing, leading to low energy storage. Subsequently, some promising research direction and critical areas for optimization are also proposed accordingly in this paper. Future development of PCMs, including novel PCM and efficient incorporation, real applications and functions in buildings are proposed. Additionally, multifunctional construction materials combining PCM deserve much attention and possess promising prospect for energy saving in sustainable and energy efficient building construction.
Intellectual monopoly in global value chains Durand, Cédric; Milberg, Wiliiam
Review of international political economy : RIPE,
03/2020, Letnik:
27, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This paper analyses the role of intangibles in global value chains (GVCs). We find that the intensification of the use of intangible assets within these chains has created new sources of market ...power. The analysis builds the notion of Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism, where government protections of intellectual property have the effect of locking in the monopoly power from intangible asset creation. We extend it to 'information rents' arising from the presence of scale economies and network externalities associated with the production of intangible assets. GVC integration requires a dense circulation of information flows to communicate specifications, standards, technical know-how in addition to costs and other operational details. The expansion of GVC trade is thus linked to a rising mobilization and circulation of intangibles and the monopoly dynamics arising from intangibles need to be assessed in this context.
•We develop a theory of wealth-destroying private property rights.•When property decision makers are residual claimants, they privatize assets only when doing so creates social wealth.•When decision ...makers are not residual claimants, they may privatize assets even when doing so destroys social wealth.•Land privatization in Kajiado, Kenya illustrates our theory.•In Kajiado, land privatizers were not residual claimants, and land privatization destroyed social wealth.
According to conventional wisdom, privatizing the commons will create wealth. Yet in cases found throughout the developing world, privatizing the commons has destroyed wealth. To explain this phenomenon, we develop a theory of wealth-destroying private property rights. Privatization’s effect on social wealth depends on whether privatizing an asset confers net gains or imposes net losses on society. The decision to privatize, however, depends on whether privatizing an asset confers net gains or imposes net losses on property decision makers. When decision makers are residual claimants, these effects move in tandem; privatization occurs only if it creates social wealth. When decision makers are not residual claimants, these effects may diverge; privatization occurs if it benefits decision makers personally even if privatization destroys social wealth. We apply our theory to understand wealth-destroying land privatization in Kajiado, Kenya.
When do states choose to adopt a penitent stance towards the past? When do they choose to offer apologies for historical misdeeds, offer compensation for their victims and incorporate the darker ...sides of history into their textbooks, public monuments and museums? When do they choose not to do so? And what are the political consequences of how states portray the past? This book pursues these questions by examining how governments in post-1945 Austria, Germany and Japan have wrestled with the difficult legacy of the Second World War and the impact of their policies on regional politics in Europe and Asia. The book argues that states can reconcile over historical issues, but to do so requires greater political will and imposes greater costs than is commonly realized. At the same time, in an increasingly interdependent world, failure to do so can have a profoundly disruptive effect on regional relations and feed dangerous geopolitical tensions.
This publication addresses the role of national systems of IP in the socio-economic development of emerging countries, notably through their impact on innovation. It presents a framework that ...identifies the key mechanisms that enable IP systems to support emerging countries innovation and development objectives. The report also discusses two IP country studies conducted for Colombia and Indonesia. These are based on analyses of the national intellectual property systems, drawing on country missions that gathered detailed information and feedback from more than 100 stakeholders on IP-related priorities and bottlenecks. Concrete policy recommendations are provided for both countries.
Wood presents a hierarchical structure, containing features at all length scales: from the tracheids or vessels that make up its cellular structure, through to the microfibrils within the cell walls, ...down to the molecular architecture of the cellulose, lignin, and hemicelluloses that comprise its chemical makeup. This structure renders it with high mechanical (e.g., modulus and strength) and interesting physical (e.g., optical) properties. A better understanding of this structure, and how it plays a role in governing mechanical and other physical parameters, will help to better exploit this sustainable resource. Here, recent developments on the use of advanced imaging techniques for studying the structural properties of wood in relation to its mechanical properties are explored. The focus is on synchrotron nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray tomographical imaging, Raman and infrared spectroscopies, confocal microscopy, electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Critical discussion on the role of imaging techniques and how fields are developing rapidly to incorporate both spatial and temporal ranges of analysis is presented.
A review of the imaging of wood at various length scales is presented, showing how hierarchical properties are achieved and demonstrating unique levels of physical and mechanical performance.
Intellectual property rights (IPRs) play a key role in increasingly intangible economies. At the same time IPR systems are facing a profound legitimacy crisis, as scholars have unveiled perverse ...mechanisms and strategic practices that can severely hinder their expected societal returns.
In this introduction to the Special Issue, we provide an overview of the key debates and the recent evidence on the societal role of IPRs. After providing a brief introduction to IPRs and their specific societal function, we integrate insights from different disciplinary discourses into several key emerging themes. We highlight the progress made in recent research, but also flag urgent research gaps and directions to further expand the frontiers of scholarly and policy debates.
Uranium silicides are proposed as the prominent accident tolerant fuels for the light water reactors (LWR) due to their high metal density and high thermal conductivity. Among the U–Si alloys, the ...alloy with high U:Si ratio is more favorable for nuclear fuel application due to the higher uranium density. Thus, the crystal structure, mechanical property, electronic structure, phonon band structure and thermodynamic property of U3Si, U3Si2 and USi compounds, along with the thermodynamic reaction between U–Si intermetallic compounds are systematically studied in our work. The optimized structural parameters of these U–Si alloys are comparable with previous results. Besides, all of them are metallic in nature. Since the calculated elastic constants satisfy the Born stability criteria, one can know U–Si alloys are mechanically stable. The phonon dispersion curves are obtained based on the density functional perturbation theory (DFPT). Accordingly, various thermophysical properties, such as Helmholtz free energy, heat capacity, internal energy and entropy are calculated. Furthermore, the reaction energies related to the formation of U3Si, U3Si2 and USi as well as transformation between them are calculated. It is revealed at the same chemical environment the reaction to form USi occurs more easily, whereas the high temperature and sufficient uranium environment are more in favor for fully silicification of uranium metal into U3Si. Theoretical investigation of this work is expected to provide some new insights for the application of uranium silicides as nuclear fuels and future exploration on the design and synthesis of new-type uranium silicides.
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