Events

We define the concept of moral cost of carbon (MCC): the internal carbon price that individuals implicitly apply to their consumption decisions. We argue that the MCC is a key metric for policy design. The gap between MCC and an actual carbon price tells us how much the carbon externality should be priced. It also reveals the political barriers to implementing a broad-based carbon pricing scheme. We propose an experimental approach to  measure the MCC among a target population. A key challenge is that information gaps and the choice environment could have large impacts and confound its elicitation. Our experimental design aims to address these problems. In particular, we show how malleable the MCC is with respect to extrinsic incentives.
(Co-authored by Sébastien Houde, Joachim Schleich, Corinne Faure)

Contact person: Albert Roger

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.

Matthias Tschöp (Scientific Director, CEO and Spokesman of the Management Board at Helmholtz Munich) and Dietmar Harhoff talk about innovation, transfer and start-ups as well as breakthroughs in drug development. Digitalization is influencing medicine in all areas, including research. Start-ups are also becoming increasingly important for transferring research results into application. Matthias Tschöp is an important and successful player in these areas and will report on his experiences.

The event will be held online via zoom and is in German. Register here for the zoom link.

The Max Planck Digitality Fireside Chat is an informal event format for in-depth talks and discussions on digitality and digital transformation. The aim is to allow for an exchange between researchers and digital pioneers who have come forward with new concepts, proposals and ideas, and are actively shaping digitalization.

We explore how firms respond to downstream product shocks. We find that affected firms increase research and development and make additional safety-related upstream investments. These investments vary with firm capabilities and across shock severity. Competitors appear to vicariously learn and also engage in similar upstream investments in affected markets. We present evidence that these upstream investments have important performance implications. First, these investments are positively related to transition probabilities and approval rates for products that received them. Second, these upstream investments are related to a decrease in the intensity and rate of future downstream product shocks. Surprisingly, however, these upstream investments appear to have limited impact on mitigating the negative demand response caused by these shocks.  

Contact person: Marina Chugunova

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.

Large corporate labs play an important role in innovation. Recently, there has been a trend toward universities producing scientific research and then corporate labs developing this research into practical applications. This division of scientific research labor can have negative consequences for the development of general purpose technologies and other enabling technologies. These technologies rely on a positive feedback loop of innovation, from seeding to complementary trajectories and back, in order to generate substantial productivity gains for companies and for the economy overall. A push against the increasing division of scientific research labor may catalyze the feedback loop. We explore this possibility in the context of the development of quantum computers. After a change in companies’ incentives to engage in scientific research, following a surprise announcement about the near-term commercial potential of quantum computing, we document a rise in company academic publications and patents in quantum computing hardware. Soon after, we document a rise in academic publications and patents in the complementary software trajectory. We also find suggestive evidence of a feedback loop between the hardware and the software trajectories. We interpret these results to suggest complementarities between company and university scientific research in the context of a newly emerging enabling technology.

Contact person: Daehyun Kim

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the semina page.

This seminar delves into the scientific resilience and collaborative partnerships in the context of Ukraine’s post-war recovery. Dr. Oleksandra Antoniouk, Chairwoman of the Scientific Committee of the National Council of Ukraine for Science and Technology Development, will explore the effect of armed conflict on scientific endeavors and the innovative strategies employed during times of adversity. The discussion will extend to recovery initiatives, focusing on the pivotal role of European partnerships in rebuilding scientific infrastructure and fostering economic rejuvenation.

The talk will address the impact of the war on scientific research and the subsequent challenges the scientific community faces. Insights into the innovative solutions that emerged during the conflict and their contribution to addressing immediate challenges will be presented. Furthermore, during the seminar, the strategies and collaborative efforts employed to restore and strengthen Ukraine’s research capabilities post-war will be discussed, with a specific emphasis on the support and involvement of European partners.

Key topics include the transfer of technology, the adaptation of existing innovations, and the economic revitalization brought about by scientific and technological advancements. Dr. Antoniouk will analyze the role of policies and governance structures in facilitating recovery, highlighting legislative measures to foster collaboration with European counterparts. The discussion will extend to the human capital aspect, exploring strategies for attracting and retaining skilled researchers, as well as educational initiatives to nurture the next generation of scientific leaders. By focusing on the Ukrainian experience and its European partnership, the seminar will provide valuable insights into the multifaceted strategies required for post-war economic rejuvenation through science and innovation.

Register here to obtain the access credentials.

Contact person: Anatasiia Lutsenko

The presentation will be held in German. Professor Hanns Ullrich will moderate.

Der Vortrag argumentiert, dass die (strenge) Territorialität des Patentrechts heute nicht mehr zwingend ist. Sie ist in erster Linie ein historisches Überbleibsel des Erfindungsschutzes vor dem 20. und 21. Jahrhundert. Mit dem Übergang zur globalen Neuheit hat sich die Funktion des Erfindungsschutzes in einem schleichenden Prozess fundamental verändert. Deshalb ist es heute möglich, die Territorialität des Patentrechts zu lockern und ausländische Patente anzuerkennen, ihnen also Wirkung innerhalb der eigenen Rechtsordnung zuzusprechen. Das bietet dem Patentrecht eine rechtspolitisch sinnvolle Entwicklungsmöglichkeit.

Der Vortrag widmet sich dem in drei Teilen: Erstes erläutert er, was Territorialität im Patentrecht bedeutetet. Zweitens werden die Gründe für die territoriale Konzeption analysiert, zunächst historisch und dann aus heutiger Perspektive, rechtsdogmatisch und rechtspolitisch. Drittens werden zwei methodische Möglichkeiten zur Anerkennung ausländischer Patente vorgestellt.

Mit Kirsten Rulf, Expertin für Künstliche Intelligenz, Partnerin und Associate Director bei BCG und zuvor Leiterin des Referats für Grundsatzfragen der Digitalpolitik im Bundeskanzleramt.

Diskutieren Sie mit Kirsten Rulf und Dietmar Harhoff über den Einsatz von KI in Deutschland. Rulf und Harhoff sprechen über Erfolgschancen und Hindernisse auf dem Weg hin zum produktiven Einsatz von KI. Deutschland hat sich bei der Digitalisierung im letzten Jahrzehnt nicht leicht getan. Wiederholen wir die Fehler, die dabei gemacht wurden? Oder gelingt es in dieser neuen Welle der Digitalisierung, Produktivitätspotenziale für Unternehmen, Wissenschaft und Verwaltung zügig zu erschließen?

The event will be held online via zoom and is in German.

Register here for the zoom link.

The Max Planck Digitality Fireside Chat is an informal event format for in-depth talks and discussions on digitality and digital transformation. The aim is to allow for an exchange between researchers and digital pioneers who have come forward with new concepts, proposals and ideas, and are actively shaping digitalization.

New business formation is a key driver of regional transformation and development. While we know that a region’s attractiveness for new businesses depends on its resources, infrastructure, and human capital, we know little about the role of local business networks in promoting or impeding the birth of new firms. We construct local business networks connecting more than 350 million nodes consisting of managers, owners and firms using administrative data on all German businesses from 2002 to 2020. Differentiating between serial and de-novo entrepreneurs, we show a positive but decreasing relation between a region’s connectedness and firm entry of serial entrepreneurs. Networks are, moreover, positively linked to firm survival. Relating our findings to a measure of ownership concentration, we show that networks provide additional explanations for regional variation in new business formations. These patterns are robust to synthetic instrumental variable estimations.

Contact person: Marina Chugunova

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.

Organized by the Munich IPDR Forum, which is an organization founded by scholars from the Max Planck Institute as well as IP practitioners and whose goal it is to bring together academia and practice on all issues regarding intellectual property rights and dispute resolution.

Join us as we delve into the European Commission’s current proposal for an SEP regulation and explore the incorporated ADR components. Help us compare this proposal to other examples of IP ADR, and contextualize it within the realm of standardization. 

We are delighted to present the opportunity to discuss the proposed SEP-Regulation with:

• Dr. Beatriz Conde Gallego, Senior Research Fellow and member of the drafting group of the MPI for Innovation and Competition’s Position Paper on the Proposed SEP-Regulation
• A member of the EU Commission (DG Grow) – participation to be confirmed
• Dr. Matthias Schneider, Chairman of ETSI TC Human Factors and former member of the European Commission’s SEPs Expert Group (Group of Experts on Licensing and Valuation of Standard Essential Patents)
• Dr. Axel Walz, judge at the 6^th Senate of the Higher Regional Court Munich and co-author of a proposal for ADR in SEP disputes
• Dr. Matthias Zigann, presiding judge of the 38^th Senate of the Higher Regional Court Munich and of the Local Division Munich of  the Unified Patent Court

We investigate the impact of short-term visits on scientific advancements by analyzing the staggered implementation of the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP) across 41 countries from 1988-2023. Our focus is on global collaborations involving US and non-US researchers benefiting from the VWP. Our results reveal a substantial influence on academic publications and conference proceedings, with no evidence of a substitution (crowd-out) effect. The number of publications by single authors or those exclusively affiliated with VWP countries did not experience a significant change. Further, we find a more pronounced effect in fields such as nursing, veterinary science, health professions, economics, and management, compared to relatively smaller effects observed in chemistry, physics, biochemistry, and mathematics. Notably, the impact on conference proceedings materializes more rapidly and with greater magnitude than on journal publications. Fields previously characterized by solo-author dominance exhibit a heightened effect. These findings underscore the crucial role of short-term face-to-face interactions between researchers from different countries and provide implications for academic seminars and conferences, visa and immigration policies, research and development (R\&D) strategies, and the future of work.

Contact person: Daehyun Kim

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.