Using data on software piracy, we examine how protection of intellectual propertÿ aries across countries. Consistent with other studies, we find that intellectual property recei¨es greater protection in de¨eloped economies; high-income countries ha¨e lower piracy rates. We also find that protection depends on cultural factors. Countries with an indi¨idualist culture ha¨e lower piracy rates than do countries with a collecti¨ist culture. Piracy rates are also lower in countries that ha¨e strong institutions that enforce contracts and protect property from expropriation. These results suggest that national policies toward intellectual property reflect not only Ž . economic concerns but also national culture and institutions. JEL 034, L86
We use information reported by ten utilities about their electricity conservation programs to calculate the life-cycle cost per kWh saved - the cost of a "negawatt " -- associated with these programs. These computations indicate that the cost associated with utilities "purchasing" negawatthours is substantially higher than implied by standard sources such as Amory Lovins (Rocky Mountain Institute) and EPRI. The costs calculated for residential programs, in particular, are much higher than conservation advocates have suggested. However, 80% of the expected savings from these programs are attributed to commercial and industrial customers rather than residential customers. We find substantial variation in costs between utilities for similar programs as well as significant intra-utility variation in the cost associated with various sub-programs. We proceed to examine whether or not there are any systematic biases in the reporting of costs and energy savings by the utilities in our sample. In many cases, utilities fail to report all relevant costs, rely on engineering projections of savings rather than applying methods to measure savings based on actual experience, and fail to make appropriate adjustments for free riders. Further biases may result firorn adopting measure lives that are too long. As a result, on average the cost of a negawatthour computed from utility reports significantly underestimates the true societal cost of conservation achieved this way. Mile it is difficult to compute the underestimate with any precision, the evidence that we have suggests that computations based on utility expectations could be underestimating the actual societal cost by a factor of two or more on average. Better utility cost accounting procedures and the application of more sophisticated methods to estimate actual energy savings achieved are clearly necessary before large sums of money can be expended wisely on these programs.
Governments often favor environmentally superior products in procurement, even if Abstract they cost more than alternatives. This article analyzes the effects of such green procurement policies. If marginal production costs are increasing, private market responses counteract changes in government purchasing (crowding out), thus reduc ing policy effectiveness. If significant scale economies exist, however, then private responses may reinforce changes in procurement. Procurement policies change both the market shares of brown and green products and total production. Whereas the changes in market share usually reduce environmental costs, the changes in total production can go either way. As a result, there are circumstances in which green procurement policies increase environmental costs.
Governments increasingly include environmental criteria in their purchasing decisions. For example, purchasing guidelines often require that particular products contain a minimum amount of recycled content or achieve specified levels of energy efficiency. Guidelines may also favour – through price preferences, explicit set-asides, or other mechanisms – suppliers who exceed official pollution standards, abide by environmental frameworks...
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