Some Recent Social Science Research
Hot off the Berkeley Electronic Press
Summary: John Donohue wonders if the Disney case means that the courts of Delaware will cleverly find the facts they need to allow managers to waste corporate assets however they please.
Summary: James K. Galbraith and Travis Hale argue that the IT bust and the subsequent fall in the NASDAQ led toward a convergence of income across American counties; yet amidst this movement toward greater equality, several counties have gone from rich to richer mainly due to increased government spending under the Bush administration.
Abstract: We investigate the value creation or destruction associated with the introduction of software patents in the United States in two ways. The first looks at the cumulative abnormal returns to ICT firms around the time of important court decisions impacting software patents, and the second analyzes the relationship between firms' stock market value, the sector in which they operate, and their holdings of software patents cross-sectionally. We find that the extension of patentability to software was initially negative for software firms, especially for those producing application software or services. We also find that software patents are positively and significantly associated with Tobin's Q, and that the market's valuation of software patents increased following changes in the USPTO's treatment of software patents in 1995.
Abstract: We build an analytical framework to model the strategic interactions between a firm and hackers. Firms invest in security to defend against cyber attacks by hackers. Hackers choose an optimal attack, and they share information with each other about the firm's vulnerabilities. Each hacker prefers to receive information, but delivering gives competitive advantage to the other hacker. We find that each hacker's attack and information sharing are strategic complements while one hacker's attack and the other hacker's information sharing are strategic substitutes. Our analysis also reveals the interesting result that the cumulative attack level of the hackers is not affected by the effectiveness of information sharing between them and moreover, is also unaffected by the intensity of joint information sharing.
Tags: SSRN