Sharmila Vishwasrao

Intellectual property rights and the mode of technology transfer

Abstract Transferring technology in an environment where patent protection is uncertain can pose significant risks to an innovating firms ability to appropriate rents. This paper incorporates asymmetric information in a screening game where the innovating firm has the choices of licensing a new product at arms length to a foreign firm, exporting it, or licensing it to a subsidiary. Subsidiary production avoids the risk of imitation but involves higher costs for the innovating firm. The gains to the Southern country from the lack of intellectual property right protection may be offset by strategic behavior by Northern firms who opt for technology transfer via subsidiary or monopoly production.

Foreign ownership and technology adoption: evidence from Indian firms

Abstract Firms in developing countries rely on foreign technology purchases to improve their technology. We use a theoretical framework developed by Katz and Shapiro to examine the ongoing technology adoption behavior of foreign-owned and domestic firms. Using firm level data on Indian firms from 1989 to 1993, we test this theoretical model. We find that foreign ownership, firm size and market structure are among the variables that impact a firms probability of adopting new technology. We also find that the 1991 liberalization of technology transfer policies in India appears to have had a larger impact on foreign-owned firms than domestic firms.

Asymmetric information and the mode of entry in foreign credit markets.

In a newly liberalized credit market, foreign banks with cost advantages are likely to be less informed than domestic banks that hold information on credit risks. These relative advantages may generate incentives for a foreign bank to negotiate acquisition of a domestic bank in order to capture information endowments. However, if it is difficult to assess the value of information held by banks, the foreign bank will face important choices about the optimal mode of entry and what acquisition price to pay. These choices have implications for the survival of domestic banks and how capital is allocated after liberalization.

The influence of remittances on education and health outcomes: a cross country study

We study the effect of international remittances on aggregate educational and health outcomes using a sample of 69 low- and middle-income countries. We find that remittances play an important role in improving primary and secondary school attainment, increasing life expectancy and reducing infant mortality. Our results suggest that as migration laws continue to support greater emigration and remittances, policies should be enacted to facilitate the flow of remittances as they represent a significant source for economic development.

Physician Quality and Health Care for the Poor and Uninsured

Adverse health outcomes for uninsured patients have been attributed to their health status and to the quality of treatment received. A question about treatment that remains unexplored is whether physicians treating the uninsured are more likely to have characteristics indicative of lower quality than physicians treating insured patients. Using education, training, experience, and board certification to measure physician quality, we find that uninsured and Medicaid patients are treated by lower-quality physicians both because of the hospitals these patients attend and because of sorting within hospitals. The effects are statistically significant, but small.

North-South technology transfer through licensing

The incentives of Southern governments to protect intellectual property rights are examined when Northern innovating firms license technology to Southern firms in a game with asymmetric information. Southern firms may or may not be able to imitate after they license the technology, and Northern firms do not know whether the Southern firm can imitate. The form of the licensing contract and the distribution of the gains from licensing will affect the incentives of Southern countries to protect patents. Southern consumers gain from patent infringement but at the expense of Southern firms that cannot acquire licenses at the most favorable terms.

Trade-related intellectual property rights and product versus process innovations

The incentives of southern governments to protect process and product patents are examined in a game with endogenous research and development and licensing. Patent protection results in the licensing of cost-reducing process innovations to southern firms. By increasing competition, licensing provides an incentive for southern governments to protect process patents. However, optimal patent policy may involve restrictions in the form of licensing contracts. In the case of product innovations, licensing does not occur regardless of whether or not patents are protected. Thus, patent protection serves to reinforce monopoly power without increasing technology diffusion. Southern governments thus have a lower incentive to protect product patents.

Effectiveness of public health spending on infant mortality in Florida, 2001–2014

Studies investigating the effectiveness of public health spending typically face two major challenges. One is the lack of data on individual program spending, which restricts researchers to rely on aggregate expenditures. The other is the failure to address issues of endogeneity and serial correlation between health outcomes and spending. In this study, we demonstrate that the use of specific spending items as opposed to overall spending, combined with Generalized Method of Moments estimation techniques can do a far better job in revealing the effectiveness of public health services on health outcomes. As an example, we consider the effects of infant-related public health programs on infant mortality rates. Focus on programs expressly related to maternal and infant health was made possible by a unique longitudinal dataset from the Florida Department of Health containing information for all 67 Florida counties spanning 2001 through 2014. Our empirical methodology, by addressing potential endogeneity issues along with serial correlation, allows us to estimate the causal impact of specific public health investments in maternal and infant-related programs on infant mortality. We find that a 10 percent increase in targeted public health spending per infant leads to a 2.07 percent decrease in infant mortality rates. We also find that targeted spending may be more effective in reducing infant mortality among blacks than among whites. The use of targeted spending data along with the Generalized Method of Moments technique can provide stronger evidence to guide future resource allocation and policy decisions in public health.

Physicians’ use of medical technology: an analysis of the introduction and subsequent failure of drug-eluting stents

ABSTRACT Using data on cardiac patients in Florida hospitals from 2003 to 2007, we analyse the adoption and deadoption of a major new medical technology, drug-eluting stents (DESs). The Food and Drug Administration approved DESs in April 2003 and physicians rapidly adopted the new technology. In March 2006, a presentation was made at the American Cardiology Conference which showed that patients receiving DES in real-world settings suffered higher rates of mortality and myocardial infarction than those receiving stents without drugs. We examine the utilization of DES from April 2003 to the end of 2007. Using a hospital fixed-effects model, we find that board-certified and top-trained physicians were initially quicker to adopt DES. Over time, this effect dissipated and top-trained physicians were less likely to use DES by the time new clinical trials indicated they could be problematic. After the news, board-certified and top-ranked physicians were less likely to change their behaviour. Physicians’ own experience also contributes to the use of technology and the effects are stronger for non-board-certified physicians. We conclude that even within hospitals, physician training and experience play an important role in explaining differences in rates of technology use.