Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

<p><p>This work analyzes the impact of regulation policies in two distinct settings.</p><p><p>Chapter 1 provides an overview of the existing theoretical literature on innovation and entrepreneurship. It summarizes some of the main findings of the effect of various means of protecting intellectual property on the innovation incentives and the level of entrepreneurship activity. A general observation is that much of the existing work compares the extremes of no protection and perfect protection and the resulting prediction is that perfect protection leads to higher innovation incentives. This is puzzling in light of the empirical evidence that shows the opposite trend. Chapter 2 explicitly takes into account the fact that patent protection is imperfect and likely to lie in between the two extremes. In addition, in more than 70% of infringement cases in the U.S., infringement damages are calculated according to the so-called reasonable royalties rule that essentially awards a portion of the imitator's realized revenues to the innovator. I show that incorporating these two facts result in a non-monotonic relationship between the patent strength and R&D investment if one moves from zero protection to perfect protection in a continuous way. The intuition is that when protection is less than perfect, though not zero, equilibrium may involve both imitation and damages. Viewing damages as an alternative source of profits, the innovator may be less aggressive in pursuing R&D as patents become stronger. This result has important welfare implications. Besides the well-known effect of reducing welfare due to less competitive markets, stronger protection can further curtail welfare by decreasing R&D investment.</p><p><p>Chapter 3, coauthored with Professor Huseyin Yildirim, studies situations, in which one buyer sequentially negotiates with multiple suppliers to acquire goods or services that are either complements or substitutes to each other. We find that the buyer weakly prefers private negotiations because it creates strategic uncertainty about the outcomes from earlier negotiations, leading to less aggressive pricing. For substitutes, this strategic uncertainty is more beneficial for short expiries because long ones allow purchasing decisions to be made after all negotiations are over, creating enough competition on their own and leading to Bertrand prices. In contrast to substitutes, for which suppliers are in direct competition, complements create incentives for suppliers to coordinate their prices to extract the additional surplus resulting from the complementarities of their goods. In this case, introducing uncertainty through privacy is more beneficial for the buyer as suppliers' bargaining powers increase vis-á-vis the buyer because it creates greater coordination concerns. This leads to a somewhat surprising result that the buyer could benefit from negotiating with more powerful suppliers. The model enables an evaluation of certain laws and regulations that govern bilateral negotiations. For instance, open record/open meetings laws, setting rules on public access of information, generate efficient outcomes, but in general are harmful to the buyer. Similarly, the FTC's cooling-off rule sets long expiries by giving the buyer three days to cancel a contract, which generates efficient outcomes when goods are substitutes because of suppliers' Bertrand pricing, but reduces efficiency when goods are complements since long expiries make coordination harder to sustain.</p> / Dissertation

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The Canadian government has been holding an inconsistent position in the agricultural trade negotiations of both the Uruguay and Doha rounds. It has been advocating for freer agricultural trade while defending its supply management system, a protectionist policy that governs dairy, poultry and eggs in the country. The thesis attempts to answer the question: What domestic factors explain the inconsistent position, advocating for both liberalization and protectionism, that Canada has been advocating in the Uruguay and Doha rounds of negotiations on agriculture since 1985? The thesis starts with the assumption that the Canadian government has had a preference for free trade and market-based economic policies since the 1980s. The question is therefore less about explaining Canada???s dual position, but rather about explaining why Canada continues to defend supply management, a system that appears to be in contradiction with its policy preferences. The thesis explores two arguments. First, it analyses the lobbying power of the farmers??? organizations from the supply-managed sectors and from the export-dependent sectors. Second, the thesis evaluates the impact of the concentration of supply-managed farms in Quebec and Ontario. It looks at the effect of support by these two provincial governments, at electoral motivations behind the maintenance of supply management as well as at Quebec separatism and nationalism. Finally, the thesis presents the importance of corporatism in the continued governmental support to supply management.

Thesis (Master of Arts)--Mahāwitthayālai Sīnakharintharawirōt, 1975. / In Thai, with English abstract. Includes appendices. Includes bibliographical references (p. 310-328).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 287-311).

Thesis (Master of Arts)--Mahāwitthayālai Sīnakharintharawirōt, 1975. / In Thai, with English abstract. Includes appendices. Includes bibliographical references (p. 310-328).

O modelo de competição introduzido no Brasil pós-privatização exigiu a criação da Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (ANATEL) para promover o desenvolvimento das telecomunicações, por meio de infra-estrutura capaz de oferecer à sociedade serviços adequados, diversificados e a preços justos. À ANATEL foram outorgados poderes para a implementação da política de telecomunicações: regulador, com objetivo de editar planos e regulamentos; fiscalizador, com objetivo de coibir práticas abusivas contrárias à legislação e mediador, com objetivo de compor negociações entre os agentes. A dissertação analisou a influência da ANATEL nas negociações na telefonia fixa, tendo como base a elaboração do acordo de interconexão entre a EMBRATEL e a Telefônica, pois, nesse cenário de mudanças, as negociações e conflitos são freqüentes, principalmente quando a questão é a interconexão de redes, pois os interesses econômicos das prestadoras de serviços são divergentes e o Estado cria uma obrigatoriedade de interconexão, tornando complexo o acordo. A ANATEL exigiu que as empresas realizassem a interconexão independente de um contrato, pois para o órgão regulador o interesse público é superior. Assim, o acordo e as questões divergentes estão na ANATEL para decisão por um processo de arbitragem. A celeridade esperada da ANATEL na gestão de conflitos não foi observada na prática, pois o acordo de interconexão está há quase um ano esperando solução. Verifica-se a importância da presença do órgão regulador, pois em razão da complexidade técnica, ele possui ferramentas que obrigam a prestação do serviço, mesmo sem o respaldo contratual. / The competition model introduced in post-privatization Brazil has demanded the creation of ANATEL, which stands for National Telecommunication Agency- (‘Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações’). Such institution is meant to promote the development of telecommunications through infrastructure capable of supplying society with adequate and diversified, fair-priced services. ANATEL has been granted powers for the implementation of the telecommunication policy: regulation powers, aiming at editing plans and regulations; inspection powers, whose objective is to hinder counter-legislation abuse practices; and mediation powers, which aim at composing negotiations among agents. This dissertation has analyzed ANATEL’s influence on the negotiations of ‘settled/fixed’ telephone services, based on the elaboration of the agreement of interconnection between EMBRATEL and Telefônica. In the present scenery of changes, negotiations and conflicts are rather frequent, mainly when the point in question is the interconnection of networks, as not only do telephone companies have divergent economic interests, but the State also makes interconnections mandatory, thus making the agreement rather complex. ANATEL demanded that the companies should consummate the interconnection regardless of a contract, as public interest is the official regulating agency’s first and foremost concern. Therefore, ANATEL is holding the agreement and the divergent issues, waiting for an arbitration process. The celerity expected from ANATEL in conflict management has actually not been noticed, as the agreement of interconnection has remained unsolved for nearly a year. The importance of the presence of the official regulating agency is quite clear, as in the face of technical complexity, such institution possesses the tools which compel the supply of the services, even without the support of a contract.

Assessments of the past are essential to the struggle over the right to define the normative position of history under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Despite this importance, attempts to analyze the use of history in this context are rare. This thesis aims to investigate how assessments of the past are used in UNFCCC negotiations on responsibilities to act, focusing on negotiations on historical responsibilities. The research questions concern how discourse on historical responsibility: 1) can be structured, 2) is influenced by UNFCCC negotiating practice, 3) has been structured in the UNFCCC, and 4) has enabled agreement despite considerable conflict. Official UNFCCC documentation between 1991 and 2011 was studied using discourse analysis. This study suggests: first, the UNFCCC discourse on historical responsibility conveys two main assessments—a proportional and a conceptual one—of how the past could be used to differentiate responsibilities to act. Second, the strong consensus focus necessitates rationales underlying an “agreeable history” that is neither too flexible, allowing arbitrariness, nor too rigid, reducing Parties’ likelihood of ratifying. Third, as the past evolves, new situations challenge discourse that potentially engages policy makers with a need to rearticulate history. Fourth, if the context changes, so may the importance ascribed to particular assessments of the past. If the stakes increase over time, even more effort is required to reach agreement, which simultaneously becomes more important in solving problems of common concern. Fifth, power seems difficult to circumvent, even by means of cleverly designed negotiating practice. If so, multilateral environmental negotiations could increase the legitimacy of outcomes among Parties in two principal ways: first, by identifying the core conflict that drives negotiations and, second, by evaluating how multilateral environmental negotiations handle conflict. Obscuring or ignoring conflict will likely only reduce the legitimacy of the negotiations.

It is broadly accepted that there is a need for better security management and protocols for hostage incident management, there is currently a lack of basic empirical knowledge about the existing security management protocols with reference to existing policies, knowledge and the capability of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) to handle hostage incidents. Many INGOs have successfully managed high-profile hostage crises, but there is still a considerable level of uncertainty about the way these crises have been solved and the way their success can be seen in relation to other crises. This study aimed to understand how INGOs prepare themselves for hostage incidents, whether policies, procedures are in place, how they manage hostage situations, and also how INGO staff are trained and prepared. The methodology adopted for this study was qualitative and comprised of indepth interviews with sixteen INGOs and ten industry experts and a review of INGO documents, policies and plans. The study sheds light on some of the less talked-about aspects for INGO security management in general, as well as preparedness and responsibility towards their staff. The study suggests that while most organisations have a level of preparedness in place, enhancing each agency’s respective policies may assist the organisation in better management. The study also found that there is a higher use of ransom payment than expected, and that there is an increasing willingness to engage external expertise to assisting in managing a hostage crisis. The study makes several recommendations that may have policy implications, including pre-deployment hostile environment training, reviewing potential cooperation between INGOs and United Nations, and the use of external resources to assist in managing a hostage crisis. It also recommends a revision of existing negotiation models, as the current models are lacking in addressing protracted hostage cases. The establishment of an accurate database of incidents to allow for improved interpretation of trends and scope of hostage cases is also recommended.