Intellectual Property: The Law and Economics Approach

[Symposium: Intellectual Property Rights]

By Richard A. Posner

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2005

With the rise of the law and economics movement, the focus of economic analysis of intellectual property has begun to shift to more concrete and manageable issues concerning the structure and texture of the complicated pattern of common law and statutory ...

The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond

[Symposium: Intellectual Property Rights]

By Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2005

This paper reviews our understanding of the growing open source movement. We highlight how many aspects of open source software appear initially puzzling to an economist. As we have acknowledged, our ability to answer confidently many of the issues raised...

Lessons About Markets from the Internet

By Glenn Ellison and Sara Fisher Ellison

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2005

Many of us have grown used to, tired of, and finally downright skeptical of claims of the transformative powers of the Internet. It was to usher in the New Economy, but we seem mostly to have the Old. It would transform retail, but Toys "R" Us has outlast...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Timothy Taylor

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2005

Comments

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2005

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2005

Political Selection

[Symposium: Institutions]

By Timothy Besley

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2005

Almost every major episode of economic change over the past 200 years of political history has been associated with key personalities coming to power with a commitment to these changes. But if such dynamic leaders are so important, then we need to underst...

Law, Endowments and Property Rights

[Symposium: Institutions]

By Ross Levine

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2005

While scholars have hypothesized about the sources of variation in property rights for over 2500 years, it is only very recently that researchers have begun to test these theories empirically. This paper reviews both the theory and empirical evidence supp...

Steven D. Levitt: 2003 John Bates Clark Medalist

By James M. Poterba

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2005

Steve's Clark Medal citation mentions his path-breaking contributions to the economics of crime and to the political economy of campaign finance. This paper describes Steve's research in each of these areas, as well as his contributions on a range of othe...

History Lessons: The End of American Exceptionalism? Mobility in the United States Since 1850

By Joseph P. Ferrie

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2005

New longitudinal data on individuals linked across nineteenth century U.S. censuses document the geographic and occupational mobility of more than 75,000 Americans from the 1850s to the 1920s. Together with longitudinal data for more recent years, these d...

Policy Watch: Reform of the U.S. Postal Service

By R. Richard Geddes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2005

The author first reviews the current structure and regulation of the U.S. Postal Service. He then discusses the changing size and composition of the U.S. mail stream. Many other countries have already undertaken comprehensive postal reform, including both...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Timothy Taylor

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2005

Comments

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2005

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2005

Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making

[Symposium: Cognition, Brain Science and Economics]

By Shane Frederick

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2005

This paper introduces a three-item "Cognitive Reflection Test" (CRT) as a simple measure of one type of cognitive ability—the ability or disposition to reflect on a question and resist reporting the first response that comes to mind. The author will sho...

Individual Irrationality and Aggregate Outcomes

[Symposium: Cognition, Brain Science and Economics]

By Ernst Fehr and Jean-Robert Tyran

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2005

In their personal lives, many economists recognize that they are surrounded by individuals who are less than fully rational. In their professional lives, however, economists often use models that examine the interactions of fully rational agents. To reduc...

Assessing High House Prices: Bubbles, Fundamentals and Misperceptions

[Symposium: Housing Markets]

By Charles Himmelberg, Christopher Mayer, and Todd Sinai

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2005

How does one tell when rapid growth in house prices is caused by fundamental factors of supply and demand and when it is an unsustainable bubble? In this paper, we explain how to assess the state of house prices—both whether there is a bubble and what u...

Accounting for Stock Options

[Symposium: Stock Options Now and Then]

By Jeremy Bulow and John B. Shoven

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2005

As public companies begin their new fiscal years, they are implementing a new and controversial Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB, 2004) proposal for expensing stock options. Applied to 2003 and 2004, this rule would have slashed reported earning...

The Original Management Incentive Schemes

[Symposium: Stock Options Now and Then]

By Richard T. Holden

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2005

During the 1990s, the structure of pay for top corporate executives shifted markedly as the use of stock options greatly expanded. By the early 2000s, as the dot-com boom ended and the Nasdaq stock index melted down, these modern executive incentive schem...

A Natural Experiment in Monetary Policy Covering Three Episodes of Growth and Decline in the Economy and the Stock Market

By Milton Friedman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2005

The third of three episodes in a major natural experiment in monetary policy that started more than 80 years ago is just now coming to an end. The experiment consists in observing the effect on the economy and the stock market of the monetary policies fol...