ABSTRACT:
The paper provides concrete examples of the themes that emerge from a review of the detailed design and implementation of particular legal systems (public institutions) intended to foster innovation, competition, and finance, such as intellectual property, antitrust, and securities regulation. Using basic tools from the fields of economics and political science the paper highlights particular examples of key incentives and constraints that are acting upon the individuals and organizations in both the market and government sectors within current systems. It then takes seriously the goals usually articulated with significant consensus in public policy debates about those public institutions, particularly during debates about their reform. In so doing, it elucidates contrasting approaches to the design of representative institutions in these fields to highlight some basic themes in the way the legal rules are implemented with an eye towards the impacts they tend to have in the real world. Particular attention is paid towards understanding reasons why for certain themes in the design of these institutions, stated policy goals may not be well served and risk of significant collateral costs may be especially high.
Read the paper: Common Themes in Designs of Public Institutions for Fostering Innovation, Competition, and Finance
