Eskil Ullberg | George Mason University (original) (raw)

Books by Eskil Ullberg

Intellectual Property Statistics , 2023

Provides a statistical framework to measure the value of trade in intellectual property (IP... more Provides a statistical framework to measure the value of trade in intellectual property (IP)

Explores ways to introduce the framework in international standards

Discusses a proof of concept performed in a developing country

Patents and other intellectual property (IP) rights are increasingly part of cross-border trade in their own rights. Patent transfers and patent licensing between inventors, investors and innovators create new business strategies of cooperation in the creation of new technology – increasing the productivity in the stock of technology assets – and efficient “distribution” of these rights. The rights bundles are then used – also increasingly – in products and services being traded cross-border, furthering economic efficiency created by this cooperative strategy. Today’s international trade statistics, however, lack statistics explicitly on trade flows from ideas, based on IP rights. This book offers an idea based statistical framework to measure IP, (i.e., increasingly depends on trade in ideas) and explores ways to introduce the framework into international standards. Specifically, it offers a theory of value to measure the flows from IP and an asset view of IP to deal with allocation of resources and who owns these rights. This is then contrasted with the current way IP is treated and a “gap analysis” is used to identify what needs to change in the standards. This new framework can help develop theories, policies, practices and inform the decisions needed to better leverage the human capital formation of inventors everywhere.

Praise for Intellectual Property Statistics…

“In this book, Prof. Ullberg has undertaken a Herculean task – to lay out a paradigm for the collection of IP Statistics to ensure that the … market of trade in ideas has the information and data necessary to function well.

[the] volume should be viewed as a starting point, a work in progress, but an important one that could very well influence the development of this important set of data on trade in ideas.

At a time when global issues … require both new ideas and the spread of those ideas widely to help ensure both economic growth and continued global economic convergence data that helps us monitor and evaluate what is happening in trade in ideas will be extremely valuable.”

– Robert Koopman, American University, Washington, DC, USA and

Former Chief Economist, World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Intangible Asset Gap in Global Competitiveness, 2020

This book examines the role of intangible assets (IA) in companies and countries for achieving su... more This book examines the role of intangible assets (IA) in companies and countries for achieving sustainable economic growth. The authors particularly focus on Sweden and other Nordic countries to analyse the IA gap using a systematized “IA metrics” approach. They also discuss the incentives needed for strategic investments into useful IA to gain national competitiveness from an economic, social and environmental policy perspective.

The authors contend that despite the increasing importance of IA and intellectual capital (IC) in the economy, the current discussion has only been centered on intellectual property, which is one of the more prominent forms of intangibles. As this book demonstrates, IC and IA encompass wider dimensions of human, process, market, and renewal capital, among others. Featuring real case examples from Spotify, Minecraft and Izettle, this book offers a strategy for the resurrection of competitive advantage in the globalized economy and the advancement of some key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"This excellent collection of essays provides new insights as to how the development and diffusio... more "This excellent collection of essays provides new insights as to how the development and diffusion of knowledge are facilitating convergence in the structure of research organizations across the globe -- a process that has enormous implications for how actors in all parts of the world compete with one another in an increasing array of arenas.

The essays have valuable implications for understanding how producers of all kinds of knowledge across the globe are competing with one another and how geographical space and nation states are less important in the competition for novelty."

Rogers Hollingsworth
University of Wisconsin (Madison)
University of California San Diego

About this book

* Provides the current research on policy (causality) and measurement (statistics) in internationalization and competiveness
* Presents a collection of papers built from two workshops hosted by the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science
* Identifies the basic problems within the field and analyzes strategies adopted by businesses and governments for institutional development, emerging market development, education and entrepreneurship
Addresses fundamental issues along several dimensions including economics, higher education and strategic cooperation

This volume showcases contributions from leading academics, educators and policymakers derived from two workshops hosted by the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) at George Mason University on internationalization and competitiveness. It aims to present key areas of current research and to identify basic problems within the field to promote further discussion and research. This book is organized into two sections, focusing on: science and economics and innovation policy and its measurement, with an underlying emphasis on exploring connections across disciplines and across research, practice and policy.

The first workshop was held at George Mason University (GMU) in Arlington, VA, USA in March 2013 and a second, building on the key results from the first, was held at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden in October 2013. A variety of problems were discussed and several interdisciplinary concepts in internationalization and competitiveness have already emerged from these workshops. For example, many of the presentations emphasized a need for productivity, which is a key goal of economic development. It was proposed to shift the emphasis from productivity towards creativity by examining property right regimes and their measurement to provide incentives for creative idea generation. These regimes span across higher education, invention, labor markets, and many other markets and institutions.

Addressing fundamental issues along four dimensions--economics, higher education, strategic collaboration, and new research methods--this book provides a multidimensional, interdisciplinary perspective on the challenges and opportunities for future development.

“This is a book for the times. Never have we been more in need of the wealth creation process tha... more “This is a book for the times. Never have we been more in need of the wealth creation process that can only come from innovations subjected to the trial and error process of selection to decide what among all the experiments can be supported for further trial.”

Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economics 2002, Chapman University

“Eskil Ullberg … departs from the error made by Arrow, an ambitious leap, perhaps, but one that is in this case warranted. Eskil seeks to explain more of the mechanisms by which property rights, specifically IP, can be sold by inventors to diversify risk and to monetize value. Using the methodology of experimental economics, he creates a controlled game in which players – rewarded with money returns, to the extent that they follow rules, manage risk, and execute smart trades – reveal how economic agents might generally transact in IP rights traded in organized exchanges.

In testing how such trading institutions work, this research seeks to bring Adam Smith’s trade theory up to the modern day work on market design by such scholars as Vernon Smith, David Porter, Steve Rassenti, and Charles Plott.”

Thomas W. Hazlett, Professor of Law & Economics, George Mason University, USA and Director of the Information Economy Project

“Eskil Ullberg reports in this book perhaps the most rigorous experimental analyses yet to appear on patent trade. Anyone interested in market-based approaches to the protection of ideas will benefit from the insights found in this sophisticated work.”

Dan Houser, Professor of Economics, George Mason University

This book will be published by Springer and during the fall of 2011.

Book abstract: Healthy IPRs examines some of the central issues currently taking place in the fie... more Book abstract: Healthy IPRs examines some of the central issues currently taking place in the field of pharmaceutical Intellectual Property Rights.
Chapter 5 looks as IPRs as tradable goods in institutionalized markets and using experimental economics to generate experimental facts about this trade to outline relevant policy issues.

The Trade in Ideas Program by Eskil Ullberg

The purpose of the trade in ideas program is to leverage the human capital formation, of especial... more The purpose of the trade in ideas program is to leverage the human capital formation, of especially developing nations, through markets in patents.

Making such cross-border markets much more efficient will create a level playing field for the inventors of the world, wherever they invent.

This program is an applied research program.

www.tradeinideas.com

Papers by Eskil Ullberg

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;The objective of this project is to b... more &amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;The objective of this project is to begin to study the effects of internationalization on competitiveness/performance and its measurement to inform policy, using an interactive workshop format . This two-day workshop attempts to integrate novel perspectives on important problems identified during and after the workshop, by having an interdisciplinary and international focus on broad problems, relevant to scientists in diverse fields, which would also inform follow-on research proposals by participating researchers. The workshop (15-20 people) is organized along one track covering policy, one for measurement and a set of themes. Themes will be integrated in panel led presentation/discussion sessions hosted in a rich social environment for exchange in ideas.&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

The objective of this project is to begin to study the effects of internationalization on competi... more The objective of this project is to begin to study the effects of internationalization on competitiveness/performance and its measurement to inform policy, using an interactive workshop format.This two-day workshop attempts to integrate novel perspectives on important problems identified during and after the workshop, by having an interdisciplinary and international focus on broad problems, relevant to scientists in diverse fields, which would also inform follow-on research proposals by participating researchers. The workshop (30-40 people) is organized along two tracks (one for policy, one for measurement) and a set of themes developed for each track. Themes will be integrated in panel led presentation/discussion sessions hosted in a rich social environment for exchange in ideas.

The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, 2002

SpringerBriefs in Business, Dec 1, 2020

Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2019

Trade in Ideas, 2011

The question of how prices on patent rights should be determined in impersonal exchanges is exami... more The question of how prices on patent rights should be determined in impersonal exchanges is examined in a laboratory environment. Dynamic gains from such organized exchange with public prices are recorded. The experiment introduces a competitive demand-side market with impersonal exchange mechanisms and transparent (public) prices in the traditionally hierarchical and personal exchange environment of patents. A tradable linear contract (fixed fee plus royalty on revenues) is investigated in a dual study together with three mechanism designs for demand-side bidding using two levels of presumed legal validity of the underlying patent. An intermediary investor firm (Trader) can split these contracts, useful for multiple “industries,” creating dynamic gains, potentially increasing the use of technology in the economic system as a whole. Previous research on licensing has mostly been limited to one-dimensional auction mechanisms or static environments without institutions or specialized agents for inventing, intermediation (of which there are hundreds if not thousands), and innovation. The experimental results indicate that agents appear to price the blocking value in the fixed fee and the investment value, net what is paid in fixed, in the royalty component, supporting the proposed theory of prices outlined in Chap. 2. Risks are then shifted from the Inventor toward the consumer by means of the producer market (as risk is shared over more paying consumers), increasing the incentives for investment in inventions, potentially resulting in a more competitive technology market, and a more efficient economic system as a whole. The results give indications on proper integration of information and rules for mechanisms for organized market on patents with transparent prices to give incentives for institutional behavior resulting in dynamic gains. It also shows that intermediaries (Traders) are critical to achieve the dynamic gains from the system, as is highly presumed validity of patents.

The patent system has developed over a period of over 500 years. The initial motivation was a des... more The patent system has developed over a period of over 500 years. The initial motivation was a desire to import privately held technology to advance economic development, offering excluding and transferrable rights through licensing to "inventors" for the disclosure and perfection of their "contrivance" (invention). These rights have gradually developed to internationally accepted private property rights on technology and are today in many ways similar to physical assets, establishing, since 1883, the basis for an international system for trade in technology in its own rights. The thesis is a dual study of contract and mechanism design for experimental trading with patents. Experimental economics is used as a method to gather data on behavior, varying environmental and institutional parameters. An informal price theory is developed and tested. The experimental research adds to the static analysis literature by using a dynamic analysis in a behaviorally rich experimental system of specialized agents and competitive demand-side bidding on a linear contract, the "patent product." The microeconomic system has primary and secondary markets, traders, and a linear contract on patents with limited validity and uncertain values. The main results show that risks are shifted away from invention to innovation through demand-side bidding, including traders, creating incentives for increased technology competition and economic growth. When a linear contract-fixed fee plus royalty-is used to trade the patents, the fixed fee approaches the blocking value of the patent, in support of the proposed price theory (blocking formally similar to insurance). Such shift in risk bearing may be beneficial for developing nations in leveraging their human capital through education and increasing global market access through the patent system. The competitive bidding increases the dynamic market efficiency considerably, clearly indicating the dynamic value of the patent system. Market efficiency is however still low compared to other typical auction markets, suggesting further experiments to increase efficiency before it will be possible to provide helpful advice about what to do in the field. Dynamic gains increase with increased demandside bidding and high patent validity. Tentative policy proposals are made for patent, development and innovation policy. The experiments have been carried out at the

SpringerBriefs in Business, Dec 1, 2020

The question of how prices on patents rights should be determined in impersonal exchanges is exam... more The question of how prices on patents rights should be determined in impersonal exchanges is examined in a laboratory environment. Dynamic gains from such organized trade with public prices are recorded. The experiment introduces a competitive market with impersonal exchange mechanisms and prices in the traditionally hierarchical and personal exchange of patents. A tradable linear contract (fixed fee plus royalty) is investigated with three mechanism designs for demand-side bidding and two levels of presumed legal validity of the underlying patent. A “trader ” can split contracts useful for multiple “industries, ” creating dynamic gains, potentially increasing the use of technology in the economic system. Previous research on licensing has mostly been limited to one-dimensional auction mechanisms or static environments. The results indicate that agents appear to price the blocking value in the fixed fee and the investment value, net what is paid in fixed, in the royalty component, s...

The patent system makes organized markets in patents with transparent prices possible. Such price... more The patent system makes organized markets in patents with transparent prices possible. Such prices are here investigated as signals for inventors and innovators alike ofv aluable technology areas, in an experimental study. They inform decisions of specialized firms on ...

Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property

This article is concerned with the producer market in patented technology, and whether price diff... more This article is concerned with the producer market in patented technology, and whether price differentiation based on field-of-use – a common strategy adopted by businesses with high fixed costs – is economically efficient. The focus is on the licensing of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms and conditions, including also the Internet of Things (IoT) applications, and the economic growth in the digital economy, especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The central argument proposed is that the absolute difference in the value between usages of essential standardized technologies determines whether a single price for all usages or specific field-of-use prices are economically efficient. A small difference in value should result in a single price and a large difference in different prices. Pricing policy is critical to create a world-wide sustained technology development including contributions from, and applicatio...

The economic system is generally understood to operate on the premise of exchange. The most impor... more The economic system is generally understood to operate on the premise of exchange. The most important factor in economic development has always been technology, as a way to expand a limited resource base. Such increase in technology and knowledge is generally accepted by economists, but the mechanisms of exchange through which this happens are much less studied. Generally, a static analysis of product exchange, incorporating new technology, has been undertaken. This book explores the transition of trade in ideas from an exchange largely within firms and nations to an exchange between firms and nations. This process has been going on since the beginning of the patent system, where importing (trading) technology was made policy in 1474, more than 500 years ago. However, during the past 25-30 years, a growth in exchange of technology between specialized firms, cooperating based on patent licensing, has been phenomenal, with annual licensing transactions exceeding a trillion dollars, not counting value of cross-licensing. Such specialized exchange has been seen in history but not at this scale and level of coordination. Using principles of experimental economics, the author investigates the licensing contract and mechanisms of exchange (rules of trade) as this exchange moves towards organized markets with prices. A key issue concerns the effect of introducing demand side bidding, through which the patent system introduces specialization and multiple use of the same technology in different new products, thus expanding the use of technology a firm has to more actors, products, and consumers. The risk and uncertainty in market access for cheaper, better and unique products and services are reduced through new and competitive technology. Questions raised are related to the "optimal" integration of information and rules in dynamic exchange of patents through institutions. The view presented shows how inventors and traders can sell their intellectual property to buyers in a producer market, in this case in licensing contracts on patents, to diversify risk and monetize value based on an experimental economic study where the performance and behavioral properties of these institutions is the object of investigation. More fundamentally the work illustrates the theoretical, design, and patent system policy issues in a transition from personal to impersonal trade in ideas. This book explores the transition of trade in ideas from an exchange largely within firms and nations to an exchange between firms and nations. This process has been going on since the beginning of the patent system, where importing (trading) technology was made policy in 1474, more than 500 years ago. However, during the past 25-30 years, a growth in exchange of technology between specialized firms, cooperating based on patent licensing, has been phenomenal, with annual licensing transactions exceeding a trillion dollars, not counting value of cross-licensing. Such specialized exchange has been seen in history but not at this scale and level of coordination. Using principles of experimental economics, the author investigates the licensing contract and mechanisms of exchange (rules of trade) as this exchange moves towards organized markets with prices. A key issue concerns the effect of introducing demand side bidding, through which the patent system introduces specialization and multiple use of the same technology in different new products, thus expanding the use of technology a firm has to more actors, products, and consumers. The risk and uncertainty in market access for cheaper, better and unique products and services are reduced through new and competitive technology. Questions raised are related to the "optimal" integration of information and rules in dynamic exchange of patents through institutions. The view presented shows how inventors and traders can sell their intellectual property to buyers in a producer market, in this case in licensing contracts on patents, to diversify risk and monetize value based on an experimental economic study where the performance and behavioral properties of these institutions is the object of investigation. More fundamentally the work illustrates the theoretical, design, and patent system policy issues in a transition from personal to impersonal trade in ideas.

Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Intellectual Property Statistics , 2023

Provides a statistical framework to measure the value of trade in intellectual property (IP... more Provides a statistical framework to measure the value of trade in intellectual property (IP)

Explores ways to introduce the framework in international standards

Discusses a proof of concept performed in a developing country

Praise for Intellectual Property Statistics…

[the] volume should be viewed as a starting point, a work in progress, but an important one that could very well influence the development of this important set of data on trade in ideas.

– Robert Koopman, American University, Washington, DC, USA and

Former Chief Economist, World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Intangible Asset Gap in Global Competitiveness, 2020

Rogers Hollingsworth
University of Wisconsin (Madison)
University of California San Diego

About this book

Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economics 2002, Chapman University

Thomas W. Hazlett, Professor of Law & Economics, George Mason University, USA and Director of the Information Economy Project

Dan Houser, Professor of Economics, George Mason University

This book will be published by Springer and during the fall of 2011.

Making such cross-border markets much more efficient will create a level playing field for the inventors of the world, wherever they invent.

This program is an applied research program.

www.tradeinideas.com

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, 2002

SpringerBriefs in Business, Dec 1, 2020

Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2019

Trade in Ideas, 2011

SpringerBriefs in Business, Dec 1, 2020

Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property

Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

We are well familiar with the economic analysis of a patent system in terms of a temporary monopo... more We are well familiar with the economic analysis of a patent system in terms of a temporary monopoly on products, benefitting from marginal process inventions, formulated under conditions of certain future demands. This article develops an experimental and dynamic microeconomic model useful for studying the patent system as a trade system, where patented technology is exchanged in organized competitive markets, under uncertain future demands. An economic system design is developed to study transparent prices of patents, dynamic gains from using a patent in multiple industries and the coordination of invention, intermediary and innovation activities using a linear contract on patents (fixed fee plus royalty on revenues). A trader is introduced together with inventor and innovator agents in order to multiply the value (use) of the technology. Three mechanism designs and two levels of presumption of validity of the underlying patent right are proposed. The analysis differs from previous...

Performance and behavioural properties of markets in patents are studied using a contract with a ... more Performance and behavioural properties of markets in patents are studied using a contract with a two-part tariff (fixed fee and royalty) on patented technology with limited validity and random values, in an economic experiment. Performance doubles when demand side bidding is introduced for both tariffs, resulting in gains from trade, compared with supply side take-it-or-leave-it offers. This departs from the hierarchical view of (Arrow, 1962), where the invention and innovation takes place in the same firm, eliminating any gains from trade in the analysis. An informal theory is proposed, based on insurance of market access, and tested. The sustained prices support the hypothesis that fixed fee = blocking value, thus supports rational expectations according to Muth under conditions of demand-side bidding in both tariffs. Understanding nature then drives demand for science (North, 1981). What made productivity grow in Europe may therefore have been the patent system by increasing grow...

The problem of trading patents in organized markets: experiment 2 : Coordinating invention and in... more The problem of trading patents in organized markets: experiment 2 : Coordinating invention and innovation activities through markets

More than 100 nations were represented at the United Nations last month when Eskil Ullberg, a vis... more More than 100 nations were represented at the United Nations last month when Eskil Ullberg, a visiting research scholar in Mason’s Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Sciences (ICES) and a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Economics, addressed the infusion — or lack thereof — of technology into underdeveloped countries.

What the U.N. is doing has the potential to have a huge economic impact around the world. We need to keep working to see how we can allow for exchange and tradability between the economic north and south.

See news summary of UN/ECOSOC high-level segment: www.southsouthnews.com , Day 3

"The objective of this project is to begin to study the effects of internationalization on compet... more "The objective of this project is to begin to study the effects of internationalization on competitiveness/performance and its measurement to inform policy, using an interactive workshop format .

This two-day workshop attempts to integrate novel perspectives on important problems identified during and after the workshop, by having an interdisciplinary and international focus on broad problems, relevant to scientists in diverse fields, which would also inform follow-on research proposals by participating researchers. The workshop (15-20 people) is organized along one track covering policy, one for measurement and a set of themes. Themes will be integrated in panel led presentation/discussion sessions hosted in a rich social environment for exchange in ideas."

Concept Note for Ministerial Breakfast – AMR 2013 Trade in Ideas Access to competitive technolog... more Concept Note for Ministerial Breakfast – AMR 2013 Trade in Ideas
Access to competitive technology by means of a mechanism of exchange in human ideas: Evaluation of the Potential for Developing Nations

Main idea

Access to competitive technology is essential for nations, businesses and individuals in order to develop products and services with global market access yielding economic development. Technology allows for increased productivity and efficient use of natural recourses and human capacity in turn allowing for more time to invest in creating new inventions intended to further develop competitive innovations, engage in higher education, research and basic professional training.
A mechanism of exchange in human ideas, based on the patent system – treated as a trade system – and human capital formation empowered by Information and Communications Technology (ICT), is proposed as a basis for this discussion1. Such a mechanism together with investment in human capital has the promise of gains for nations supporting the further development of institutions to structure the international exchange between inventors, businesses and universities, each benefitting from each others specialized knowledge.

African Economic Development will be taught over video. Students will be meeting in an on-campus ... more African Economic Development will be taught over video. Students will be meeting in an on-campus video conferencing room and off-campus access (limited number via PC/Mac) and the lecturer will be teaching via a video link. As in past years, external speakers from the development community are planned to come in by video. This is a second step towards a possible distance course, where students can connect from anywhere.

See curriculum on GMU site for more information. http://economics.gmu.edu/courses/691/course_sections/26085

Welcome!

The objective of this course is to study Economic Development for Africa, rooted in history, clar... more The objective of this course is to study Economic Development for Africa, rooted in history, clarified by theory and exemplified by emerging country cases and current and recent events. There is good news out of Africa, however not all of Africa, but since mid 1990s several countries, in particular in Sub-Sahara, have managed to break out of devastating civil wars, social misery and poor economic performance and governance, beginning to build a better future for their citizens. These “emerging countries” are moving towards emerging democracy, rule of law, market economic policies, moving out of debt crises, focusing on technology and education, striving for a role in the global economy as partners of trade and with a new generation of managers and political leaders, the “Cheetahs”. Africa is a diverse continent and is better understood – from an economic development perspective – in terms of how natural and human resources are managed. We will distinguish between oil producing, emerging democracies (building economic, political and social institutions) and other (often dictatorships) groups of countries. We will consider the role that economic policies, institutions and management (governance) of a transition from a traditionally more personal, social exchange system to an extended order of markets for impersonal exchange, international collaboration and trade. The course is characterized by three components – historic development, theory and cases (core), including institutional analysis, and something on the “Arab Spring” and its recent change to “Winter”. The development discussion will be framed by the management (governance) issues in making the transition towards a more efficient economic, social and political structure. After the class you will be able to better analyze African Economic Development issues and policies and better understand global economic affairs and their relation and impact on a diverse Africa, perhaps thinking up new policies for the African countries.