Interview with economist Paul Romer on the knowledge economy and patents

Interview with economist Paul Romer on the knowledge economy and patents.

Worth asking yourself as you read, if the governments of rich nations such as the United States "grant property rights over intangible assets like ideas," how does a much less rich country like Thailand get access to these ideas, e.g. AIDS drugs, at an affordable price.

If the poorer country isn't able to offer a sufficiently high price through negotiation, what's the next step in the negotiation process? Here's an abstract:

"Stanford university economics professor Paul Romer explains how the knowledge economy is creating monopoly power and changing the nature of competition. This stems from the ability of knowledge-based industries to generate increasing returns by capturing as much market share as possible. Unlike traditional monopolies, however, information age giants will face being superseded by new entrants and little danger exists of permanent monopolies -- even in an industry like software."