Document Type
Article
Disciplines
International Law
Abstract
I am a lawyer and an economist who knows something about intellectual property, but I have no special knowledge of either AIDS and its terrible effects around the world or the state of the pharmaceutical industry in particular. I hope instead to contribute to this symposium by illuminating some of the complex issues of legal and economic organization that arise from the attempt to make ideas into economic commodities. I begin by discussing some basic notions of efficiency and equity in markets and some of the complications introduced by the existence of monopoly. I then turn specifically to markets for ideas to illustrate the question to which state-created patent monopolies are the answer, and conclude by using this framework to pose some of the difficult and painful questions with which the symposium is concerned.
Recommended Citation
Adelstein, Richard, "Equity and Efficiency in Markets for Ideas" (2002). Connecticut Journal of International Law. 378.
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/cjil/378
Accessibility Requirements
1