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Dive into the research topics where Robert M. Hunt is active.

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Featured researches published by Robert M. Hunt.


Social Science Research Network | 1999

Nonobviousness and the Incentive to Innovate: An Economic Analysis of Intellectual Property Reform

Robert M. Hunt

U.S. patent law protects only inventions that are nontrivial advances of the prior art. The legal requirement is called nonobviousness. During the 1980s, the courts relaxed the nonobviousness requirement for all inventions, and a new form of intellectual property, with a weaker nonobviousness requirement, was created for semiconductor designs. Supporters of these changes argue that a less stringent nonobviousness requirement encourages private research and development (R&D) by increasing the probability that the resulting discoveries will be protected from imitation. This paper demonstrates that relaxing the standard of nonobviousness creates a tradeoff--raising the probability of obtaining a patent, but decreasing its value. The author shows that weaker nonobviousness requirements can lead to less R&D activity, and this is more likely to occur in industries that rapidly innovate.


Contemporary Economic Policy | 2009

BUSINESS METHOD PATENTS AND U.S. FINANCIAL SERVICES

Robert M. Hunt

A decade after the State Street decision, more than 1,000 business method patents are granted each year. Yet only one in ten are obtained by a financial institution. Most business method patents are also software patents. ; Have these patents increased innovation in financial services? To address this question the author constructs new indicators of RD This working paper supersedes Working Paper No. 07-21 and Payment Cards Center Discussion Paper No. 07-10 ; Also issued as Payment Cards Center Discussion Paper No. 08-05


Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs | 2009

What Explains the Quantity and Quality of Local Inventive Activity

Gerald A. Carlino; Robert M. Hunt

The authors geocode a data set of patents and their citation counts, including citations from abroad. This allows them to examine both the quantity and quality of local inventions. They also refine their data on local academic RD With one important exception, results using citation-weighted patents are similar to those using unweighted patents. For example, estimates of the returns to density (jobs per square mile) are only slightly changed when using citation-weighted patents as the dependent variable. But estimates of returns to city size (urbanization effects) are quite sensitive to the choice of dependent variable. ; Local human capital is the most important determinant of per capita rates of patenting. A 1 percent increase in the adult population with a college degree increases the local patenting rate by about 1 percent. ; With few exceptions, there is little variation across fields of science in the contribution of academic RD They discuss the implications of these results for policy and future research.


The Business Review | 2005

Whither Consumer Credit Counseling

Robert M. Hunt

Bob Hunt outlines the history of credit counseling in the U.S. He also observes that, despite its long track record, the credit counseling industry is not without controversy. For example, in recent years, concerns about conflicts of interest and the emergence of a new type of credit counseling agency have triggered significant legislative and regulatory activity. Hunt notes that there is evidence that credit counseling organizations are effective in helping some consumers. However, he points out that the lack of formal research in this area makes it difficult to interpret information and a lot more research needs to be done before we can reach any definitive conclusions. ; Also issued as Payment Cards Center Discussion Paper No. 05-22


Chapters | 2007

Intellectual Property Rights and Standard Setting in Financial Services: The Case of the Single European Payments Area

Robert M. Hunt; Samuli Simojoki; Tuomas Takalo

This valuable book discusses in detail, through a blend of theory and empirical research, the processes of innovation and the diffusion of new financial instruments.


Archive | 2012

Consumers’ Use of Prepaid Cards: A Transaction-Based Analysis

Stephanie M. Wilshusen; Robert M. Hunt; James van Opstal; Rachel Schneider

The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Center for Financial Services Innovation conducted this research project using transaction-level data provided by Meta Payment Systems in an effort to develop a better understanding of how consumers use prepaid cards by examining their transaction behavior and the issuer revenue and cardholder costs generated by those transactions.


Economic Perspectives | 2012

The efficiency and integrity of payment card systems: industry views on the risks posed by data breaches

Julia S. Cheney; Robert M. Hunt; Katy Jacob; Richard D. Porter; Bruce J. Summers

To examine the adequacy of existing efforts to prevent, manage, and mitigate data breaches and other fraud in card-based payment systems, the authors conducted 17 interviews of various payment industry participants in 2009. This article documents the insights gained from the interviews, which consider the need for greater cooperation, sharing of relevant information, and innovation to stay ahead of the criminals that perpetrate payment card fraud with increasingly sophisticated methods.


2015 Meeting Papers | 2018

The Economics of Debt Collection: Enforcement of Consumer Credit Contracts

Viktar Fedaseyeu; Robert M. Hunt

In the U.S., third-party debt collection agencies employ more than 140,000 people and recover more than


Archive | 2013

Residential Migration, Entry, and Exit as Seen Through the Lens of Credit Bureau Data

Keith Wardrip; Robert M. Hunt

50 billion each year, mostly from consumers. Informational, legal, and other factors suggest that original creditors should have an advantage in collecting debts owed to them. Then, why does the debt collection industry exist and why is it so large? Explanations based on economies of scale or specialization cannot address many of the observed stylized facts. The authors develop an application of common agency theory that better explains those facts. The model explains how reliance on an unconcentrated industry of third-party debt collection agencies can implement an equilibrium with more intense collections activity than creditors would implement by themselves. The authors derive empirical implications for the nature of the debt collection market and the structure of the debt collection industry. A welfare analysis shows that, under certain conditions, an equilibrium in which creditors rely on third-party debt collectors can generate more credit supply and aggregate borrower surplus than an equilibrium where lenders collect debts owed to them on their own. There are, however, situations where the opposite is true. The model also suggests a number of policy instruments that may improve the functioning of the collections market.


Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review | 2007

Economics and the Design of Patent Systems

Robert M. Hunt

We analyze a large, nationally representative anonymized data set of consumers with a credit report from 2002 to 2010. This is a period that encompasses a boom and bust in consumer credit. Using census data, we classify consumers into four categories of relative neighborhood income and find that, over time, the number and proportion of consumers with a credit report fell in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods and rose in higher-income neighborhoods. Population trends evident from census data explain only a portion of these changes in the location of the credit bureau population. In most instances, the primary driver reflects residential migration from relatively poorer neighborhoods to ones with relatively higher incomes. Patterns of entry into or exit from the credit bureau population were correlated with the credit cycle, as well as with relative neighborhood income, resulting in slower sample growth in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods during periods of credit contraction. These results are interesting in themselves, but they are also important for interpreting empirical results estimated from credit bureau data.

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Gerald A. Carlino

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

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Tony E. Smith

University of Pennsylvania

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Julia S. Cheney

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

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Satyajit Chatterjee

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

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Dubravka Ritter

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

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Michael Vogan

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

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