Development, Growth, and Environmental

The patent system has been faced for more than ten years with an avalanche of patent filings, which puts into question its ability to fulfil its social mission of encouraging innovation and the diffusion of technology. This situation is due to the emergence of new technologies, the adoption of new and more aggressive IP strategies by the business sector, and progressive global harmonization of patent systems. This book aims at providing an analysis of patent systems in general, and the European patent system in particular. Through an emphasis on the historic, strategic, and legal context of patent systems the first part of the book shows how patents progressively have been designed as an incentive mechanism which allows their holder to charge a mark up over the marginal cost through restricted competition. Patents also involve the disclosure of inventions, and hence encourage the diffusion of knowledge. Over the past century patents have gradually become the currency of technology markets. The book demonstrates how the design of patent law and practice can benefit from economic analysis, regarding notably the patent subject matter (what should be patentable or not), the optimal inventive step, the scope of protection, and the duration. The second part of the book is devoted to the European patent system. Patenting procedures in Europe are complex, as national routes exist in parallel with the centralized procedure handled by the European Patent Office, triggering complex strategies by applicants in order to maximize their exclusive rights and reduce competition. The recent development of various filing strategies and their impact on the granting process are examined in the light of factual evidence. The recent explosion of the number and size of patent applications raises the issue of quality maintenance. The book puts forward issues to be addressed by patent policy in Europe: putting quality of patents first, making procedures stricter for applicants, reinforcing the integration of the system at the European level, and inscribing the economic mission of the system in the European Patent Convention so that the case law would integrate economic concerns.

This book explores various conceptualizations of education in economic theory and how this has influenced policymaking in education. Despite the relative dominance of human capital theory in economics of education as a sub-discipline of economics and neo-liberalism as an overarching framework in policy discourse, the alternative perspectives to understand and appreciate the role of education in socio-economic development deserve immediate attention. The book deconstructs the interface between economic theory and education in order to unravel the various ways in which education plays a role in socio-economic development to drive home the point that straightforward application of economic theory to study education and the education market while designing education policies is fraught with many pitfalls. While attaining efficiency in resource use and competitiveness are the dominant concerns for policymakers in the emerging global knowledge economy, inclusive and socially cohesive growth also deserves prime attention from policymakers. In particular, it is argued that an absence of a well-defined production function for an academic institution not only discredits the credibility of neo-liberal reform measures, but also justifies why reliance on the market as the guiding principle and the private sector as the dominant service provider may have serious adverse implications for education and the society. After all, classification of education and knowledge as public goods or otherwise and, therefore, their contributions in the economy and society are essentially policy constructs. The book ends with a discussion of challenges facing the Indian education system and policies being mooted.

This volume is based on the lectures on the state of economic reforms in India delivered by the author at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore in July 1998. Each of the lectures addresses reforms in different sectors of the economy including transportation, education, health care, infrastructure, agriculture, poverty alleviation, industrial sector, finance, and international trade. The lectures describe the reforms in a historical context to provide a better understanding of their pre-independence origins. The book attempts to explain the reasons behind the failure of various reforms including those launched during the pre-independence period and those initiated by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh in 1991. It also provides recommended reforms for different industries.

The book provides a comprehensive and critical discourse on the developments in the power sector since the enactment of the Electricity Act, 2003. It covers various important issues that have emerged in course of implementation of the Act, provides insights into the major trends, and gives a critical assessment of various solutions being suggested. The book analyses the sector in terms of a historical perspective of reforms in the power sector; the paradigm shift in the strategy of reforms after the Electricity Act, 2003; the salient features that the new Act brought in; the key judicial pronouncements that have defined the scope of various aspects covered by the 2003 Act; the process of evolution of regulatory framework; a comprehensive treatment of tariff-based competitive bidding framework culminating in ultra mega power projects; new initiatives to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency; the gap between vision and reality in the sector and suggestions for the way ahead. While the initial chapters deal with the evolution of the Act, various rules, regulations, and policies, and an overview of the regulatory environment in the sector, the subsequent chapters provide a critique of major policy and regulatory aspects of different segments of the electricity industry. Each of the latter chapters introduces readers to the basic legal and policy framework on a particular aspect, followed by a brief description of contemporary developments and a critical assessment of possible solutions to unresolved issues.

China and India are two of the fastest growing countries in the world. The rapid growth of their economies has far-reaching implications for global living standards, poverty reduction, and competitiveness and distribution of income in the rest of the world. Reflecting these facts, there has been a surge of interest in the nature and implications of China and India's economic growth. This volume brings together the best such research on related issues and places them in a comparative perspective. The issues range from the roles of China and India in the world economy, contrasts in their development experience, and challenges to sustaining growth. A key message of this volume is that though both China and India have seen millions lifted out of poverty through successful economic growth, they face serious challenges going forward. Challenges emanate from the fact that growth in the two countries has been concentrated in a few sectors, has relied on unsustainably high levels of capital accumulation in China, and has not generated adequate employment growth in India. China needs to rebalance its growth away from investment and exports, move toward a more rational pricing system for land, power, and fuel, enforce more stringent environmental standards, implement significant reforms of the financial sector, and adopt greater exchange rate flexibility. India needs to grow its manufacturing sector, reform its labor laws, invest in infrastructure, further liberalize its foreign trade, and strengthen its financial system by reducing the dominance and influence of the public sector.

This book focuses on global commons within the larger canvas of the world’s political and economic landscape. It explores global environmental negotiations against the backdrop of complex political relations, the climate change convention in relation to the policies of the developed world, and multilateral environmental assessments and their effect on special interest groups. Finally, it weaves in the story of India’s emergent economy and its sustainable development in this context. Analysing global environmental movements, the book discusses the pattern of global negotiations to portray the plight of a post-modern world that grapples with problems of climate, land degradation, chemical transfers, and biodiversity. The central theme of the book is that plurality and diversity lie at the root of ensuring that a globalized world offers happiness to its citizens.

While the previous generation had an average of four employers over the course of their lifetimes, the current generation will hold an average of four different jobs by the time they reach 30. One of their employers will be either someone they know or they will be self-employed. Over two-thirds of US college students will be their own boss at some point in their lifetime. Entrepreneurship is good, but not just for individuals. It is also the link to growth, jobs, and competitiveness in a global economy. The too often missing link in communities, cities, states, and entire countries plagued by rising unemployment and stagnation is entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship saved the United States from going under in a sea of imports flooding in from Japan and Europe. It has also emerged as the positive and proactive response to globalization. In the leading developed economies, globalization and technology have triggered a shift away from traditional capital towards knowledge. This book argues that the entrepreneurial economy is the strategic response to this shift. It aims to provide an understanding and interpretation of the emergence of entrepreneurship policy.

Public policy spanning a broad range of contexts, ranging from the European Union, to states, cities, and local communities around the globe has turned to entrepreneurship to provide the engine for economic growth, competitiveness in globally linked markets, and jobs. This book explains why entrepreneurship has emerged as a bona fide instrument of growth policy. The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship suggests that entrepreneurship provides a crucial mechanism in the process of economic growth by serving as a conduit for knowledge spillovers. Investments in new knowledge and ideas may not automatically spill over and result in commercialization, as has typically been assumed in models of economic growth. Rather, the existence of what is introduced as the knowledge filter impedes the spillover and commercialization of investments in new ideas and knowledge. By penetrating the knowledge filter and facilitating the spillover of knowledge that might otherwise not be commercialized, entrepreneurship provides the missing link to economic growth. This new focus of entrepreneurship as a conduit transmitting the spillover of knowledge generates a series of theoretical propositions, involving not just the impact of entrepreneurship on economic performance and growth, but also the very nature of entrepreneurship. The book concludes that the new millennium may not be so much about the process of Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, where entrepreneurial startups displace and ultimately drive incumbent company's out of business, but rather characterized by creative construction.

Entrepreneurship and innovation are two of the most pervasive concepts of our times, yet there are still gaps in our understanding of the interactions between entrepreneurship and innovation, particularly in developing countries. This book attempts to fill this gap. It focuses on the entrepreneurship-innovation-development nexus, drawing heavily on empirical evidence from developing countries. Cross-country and individual country experiences cover nations as diverse as Ethiopia, India, Turkey, Vietnam, and also examine lessons from advanced economies such as Finland. Three sets of questions are addressed. What is the impact of entrepreneurship and innovation on growth and development? What determines the innovative performance of entrepreneurs in developing countries? What role does the institutional environment play in shaping the extent and impact of innovative activities? A key message is that entrepreneurial innovation, whether through small firms, large national firms, or multinational firms, is often vibrant in developing countries, but does not always realise its full potential. This is due to institutional constraints, the absence of the appropriate mix of different types of small and large and domestic and foreign firms, and insufficiently developed firm capabilities.