scholarly journals The impact of the patent system on the social welfare: A critical view

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Gregorio Giménez

Purpose: This article offers a critical view of the impact of patents on economic activity.Design/methodology/approach: We develop two analytic innovation models. They help us to understand how the strength of the patent system affects 1) the industry profits 2) the social welfare.Findings: The strengthening of patent systems could cause a decline in the activities of imitation and, therefore, a decrease in competition, a reduction in the production and assimilation of new technologies and could create barriers to entry into technology-intensive sectors, increasing the costs of production. We will show that a lower strength patent system and an increase in the activities of imitation can i) increase the benefits to industry as a whole ii) lead to greater social surplus.Originality/value and social implications: Much of the literature on innovation has traditionally seen imitation processes as harmful to the development of new technologies, and detrimental to the welfare of consumers, producers and society at large. That is why policies aimed at strengthening the patent system and discouraging imitation processes are associated with improvements in social welfare, —fostering innovation, trade, foreign investment and technology transfer—. However, our findings should lead us to rethink how optimal innovation policy should be designed. The problems associated with restrictions on the free market involve costs that outweigh the social benefits that patents can provide. Market mechanisms can effectively reward innovators for being the first to bring a product into the market, without the need to grant a monopoly.

2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Attia ◽  
Valérie Bérenger

Although with the Maastricht Treaty, European construction took a remarkable step forward, the robust pillar of the single currency started to shake the other one: the social welfare systems. The main goal of this contribution is to study the evolution of Social Protection in Europe by questioning the existence of a convergence between the different social welfare systems and the impact of the Treaty of Maastricht on this process. The evolution of the social protection concept in Europe, the reforms implemented in the most important domains of social protection: pensions, health and employment are analyzed. A common philosophy clearly appears. The welfare State is receding, calling more and more upon market mechanisms. Furthermore, the traditional binary typology is changing and countries are becoming more similar in their financing methods. We can thus say that a process of social convergence seems well and truly underway in the European Union.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erynn Beaton ◽  
Hyunseok Hwang

AbstractThe number of nonprofit organizations is rapidly increasing, which has led nonprofit practitioners to complain of funding scarcity, nonprofit scholars to closely study nonprofit competition, and policymakers to consider increasing nonprofit barriers to entry. Underlying each of these perspectives is an assumption of limited financial resources. We empirically examine this assumption using county-level panel data on nonprofit human services organizations from the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Contrary to the limited resources assumption, our fixed-effects models show that increasing nonprofit density, at its current levels, has the effect of increasing sector financial resources in each county. We suggest that these findings prompt a tradeoff for policymakers. A sector with free market entry results in a nonprofit sector with more, smaller nonprofits, but such a sector may have the capacity to serve more people because it has more total sector financial resources. Conversely, a sector with higher barriers to entry would translate to a sector with fewer, larger nonprofits with less overall capacity due to fewer sector financial resources.


2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 1083-1123 ◽  
Author(s):  
LI ZHAO

AbstractThis study offers a conceptual analysis of the social economy in China within the context of institutional transition. In China, economic reform has engendered significant social changes. Accelerated economic growth, privatization of the social welfare system, and the rise of civil society explain the institutional contexts in which a range of not-for-profit initiatives, neither state-owned nor capital-driven, re-emerged. They are defined in this research as the social economy in China. This study shows that although the term itself is quite new, the social economy is no new phenomenon in China, as its various elements have a rich historical tradition. Moreover, the impact of the transition on the upsurge of the Chinese social economy is felt not only through direct means of de-nationalization and marketization and, as a consequence, the privatization of China's social welfare system, but also through various indirect means. The development of the social economy in China was greatly influenced by the framework set by political institutions and, accordingly, legal enabling environments. In addition, the link to the West, as well as local historical and cultural traditions, contribute towards explaining its re-emergence. Examining the practices in the field shows that the social economy sector in China is conducive to achieving a plural economy and an inclusive society, particularly by way of poverty reduction, social service provision, work integration, and community development. Therefore, in contemporary China, it serves as a key sector for improving welfare, encouraging participation, and consolidating solidarity.


Author(s):  
Maria Julia

The social, political, and economic features of Central America are summarized and the impact of economic and political processes on the region is highlighted. Predominant global, historical, cultural, and political events are weaved together, in an attempt to understand the realities of the region. The challenges for social work profession and practice are presented, as well as their implications for new approaches to intervention and education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 48-63
Author(s):  
Borys Burkynskyi ◽  
Natalya Andryeyeva ◽  
Nina Khumarova ◽  
Katyeryna Konstetska

According to the Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2015), making sustainable business decisions should be the driving force in achieving environmentally-oriented improvements. The key document that supports the 10 principles that ensure SDGs is the United Nations Global Compact Strategy 2021–2023 (UN, 2021). Achieving the goals of the Strategy requires the use of an improved business decision-making model that simultaneously increases revenues and revises the distribution of domestic funds for meeting the principles in the sphere of human rights, economic growth, satisfactory working conditions and the environment, and combating corruption as a key driver of corporate sustainability and responsible business practices. The authors have developed a methodological approach to the assessment of business sustainability, which is based on a combination of elements: analysis of world best practices and trends, determination of the impact of business on the social status and environment, quality assessment of relevant certification, and analysis of compliance with social indexes of sustainable development. The analysis of economic indicators of sustainable business (The B Impact Assessment, 2021) for 2020–2021 allowed singling out companies that finance the environmental sphere. Today, a quarter of the world’s countries carry on sustainable business and finance the environmental degradation impact. The 8 leaders include: France, USA, Brazil, India, Germany, Norway, Ireland and South Korea. Methods of rating and expert assessment constitute an applied aspect of research for identification of prospects of sustainable business formation in Ukraine in the regional context. The result shows that only 8 regions are suitable for sustainable business conduct, while the environmental criterion is more than 9.2 points of 10, the economic criterion does not exceed 5, and the social criterion is 4.02–5.02. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the organization of sustainable business according to the key strategic state priorities in formation of the mechanisms for the investment and the innovation policy of a sustainable development support system through the use of regulatory tools for reformation of existing business approaches to internationally regulated ones, such as business for nature.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-380
Author(s):  
Susan Smith Nash

George Robert Gissing’s In the Year of Jubilee (1894) brings together complex, contradictory and ultimately subversive views of late Victorian society, where social mobility and class, property, women’s rights, marriage, education, commerce, and advertising are problematized. Further, with the dramatic rate of social, economic, and political change that resulted from the Industrial Revolution, new banking and sources of capital, old ways of being and thinking simply cannot keep pace, resulting in the emergence of apocalyptic narratives on many fronts. Needless to say, the idea of "jubilee" is more or less antithetical to the idea of apocalypse, but ironically, Gissing's work is more informed by apocalypse and apocalyptic narratives than "jubilee" whether the concept of jubilee refers to liberation or an affirmation of monarchal reign. Gissing's "jubilee" juxtaposes self-congratulatory rhetoric (Victorian senses of self-actualization) with an underlying nihilism, particularly for women and those of lower classes. The fact that some of the women are able to break free and reinvent their worlds by means of education and a reinvented sense of self further reinforces the notion of apocalypse, particularly in the destruction of the “known” world and the emergence of a new one, essentially a “new heaven and earth.” The goal of this analysis is to conduct an analysis of Gissing’s In the Year of Jubilee and to demonstrate how the core narratives in the text contain elements of the apocalyptic narrative. In doing so, one object is to gain an understanding of how Gissing uses the abject jubilee (or apocalyptic) narrative in order to explore the social relationships and psychological states of the characters, and to use them to make certain observations and commentaries on the state of English society, the impact of industrialization, new technologies and urban sprawl, and the realities of social class and mobility (or lack of upward mobility) in late Victorian England.


2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 790-810
Author(s):  
Sergio Sparviero

This article proposes comparing nonprofit news organizations that prioritize social welfare goals with the hybrid organizational form that mixes the institutional logics of charities and business enterprises: the Social Enterprise. The institutional logic comprises organizing templates, patterns of actions and values. These Social News Enterprises (SNEs) are analyzed as hybrids mixing the institutional logics of commercial, public, and alternative news media. Financed by donations and the revenue from services, SNEs engage in public, investigative, and explanatory journalism. Normative behavioral principles of SNEs are used to compare the impact-based model of ProPublica with the growth-focused model of The Texas Tribune.


2009 ◽  
pp. 71-85
Author(s):  
Francesco Amoretti ◽  
Fortunato Musella

The challenge of convergence has become a core issue in the European agenda, as the existence of widely accepted administrative standards represents one of the most important preconditions to promote sociopolitical development and to reinforce the single Market. Indeed many initiatives have been launched by European institutions to ensure uniformity in terms of administrative action and structures, and several communications by the European Commission have considered the impact of new technologies in creating systems of integrated and interoperable administration in the Old Continent. In this chapter it will be investigated the role of communication and information technologies in the formation of an European administrative space, the process for which administrations become more similar and close to a common European model. The contribution will consider ICTs as a key element of Europe’s economic competitiveness agenda as well as the interconnection between e-government programs and the social dimension of development. In addition to this, in the final part of the chapter it will be also analyzed the nature and implications of the process of uniformity produced by the new digital infrastructures, a peculiar mix of attractiveness and imposition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (9) ◽  
pp. 52-55
Author(s):  
Sabir Nurgalam Amiraliev ◽  

These studies provide new insights into the relationship between parenting style, home environment and the timing of children's use of new technologies. The social and physical home environment has a unique impact on children's viewing time, regardless of parenting style. Our results indicate a relatively low association between parenting style and screen time in 8-year-olds. To reduce the time a child spends watching TV or using a computer or game console, it may be important for parents to become more aware of the impact they have on their child's behavior, especially at an early age. Key words: child development, computer technology, screen time


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document