Patent Examiner Specialization
Timothy Simcoe with Cesare Righi
Category: Research
Accounting for Rising Corporate Profits: Intangibles or Regulatory Rents?
James Bessen
Since 1980, US corporate valuations have risen relative to assets and operating margins have grown. The possibility of sustained economic rents has raised concerns about economic dynamism and inequality. But rising profits could come from political rents or, instead, from returns to investments in intangibles. This paper explores these factors using new data on Federal regulation and data on lobbying, campaign spending, R&D, and organizational capital.
Health IT and Ambulatory Care Quality
Catherine Tucker
Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study into Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads
Catherine Tucker
The Effect of Patent Litigation and Patent Assertion Entities on Entrepreneurial Activity
Catherine Tucker
Tracking the gig economy: New numbers
Ian Hathaway with Mark Muro
The gig economy, as reflected by nonemployer firms, is significant and growing fast. Overall, there has been a clear surge in nonemployer firms’ — a measure of contractor and freelance individuals — business activity in the last decade, which almost certainly reflects, at least in part, the rise of online platforms.
Management Practices, Relational Contracts, and the Decline of General Motors
Susan Helper with Rebecca Henderson
General Motors was once regarded as the best-managed and most successful firm in the world. However, between 1980 and 2009, GM’s US market share fell from 46 to 20 percent, and in 2009 the firm went bankrupt. We suggest that GM’s experience may have important implications for our understanding of the role of management in the modern, knowledge-based firm.
Frontiers of Health Policy: Digital Data and Personalized Medicine
Catherine Tucker with Amalia Miller
This paper argues that due to two unstoppable mechanisms, some of the most pressing future questions in health policy will relate to the use of digital technologies to analyze data concerning patient health. Issues of data management and privacy are now at the forefront of health policy considerations.
How Computer Automation Affects Occupations: Technology, Jobs, and Skills
By James Bessen