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The rapid development of the ‘New Economy’ on a global scale has brought new issues of competition law, one of them concerning the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs). Standardization allows interoperability and compatibility and thus enhances not only static but also dynamic efficiency. However, the procedures in standard setting organizations (SSOs) may not be used to unduly restrict competition. In Asia, for example, most competition regimes have highlighted their focus on fair and free competition, making clear that the field of SEP is no exception. Recently, the competition authorities in Korea and China have concluded that a breach of ‘fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND)’ commitments may constitute violations of their competition rules, apparently taking inspiration from the case law in the EU. Therefore, it seems overdue to look at recent developments in competition law and policies on SEP and FRAND worldwide and to enquire into the divergence and convergence of competition law in selected jurisdictions. Despite considerable differences, a common feature of all competition regimes discussed in this article is that their goal is to keep markets in the information and communication technology sector as open as possible, including – and especially – with respect to standard-setting procedures.

During the past decade, China has learnt from the experience of the United States and developed a series of legal instruments to address the digital challenges of massive copyright infringement. These efforts have established a joint tort liability system under which network service providers (NSPs) share joint liability with direct infringing users under certain conditions. Under this system, NSPs bear aiding or abetting liabilities which correspond to the United States’ contributory and inducement liabilities. However, when facing peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, the fault-centred approach manifested in knowledge is not only difficult to prove but also overlooks objective factors. Moreover, general tort law principles are sometimes set aside in adjudicating cases concerning indirect copyright liabilities.

This article examines authorization liability in the United Kingdom, finding that this approach is underpinned by traditional tort law theory and more integrated in adjudicating P2P cases. It requires a spectrum of consideration consisting of two-step analysis: conceptual analysis and multi-factor analysis. This research proposes that while maintaining the current dichotomy framework of copyright liabilities, the UK authorization liability approach provides a valuable lesson, especially in regulating P2P technologies in China.

This paper attempts to analyse the macroeconomic effects of unemployment benefits in a small open economy. We adopt a stock–flow consistent (SFC) approach with an emphasis on the dynamics of the labour market. We numerically solve the model using a combination of estimation and calibration to generate statistics for our key variables, reflecting features of the Danish economy. We then analyse the effects of a fall in the unemployment compensation rate on the economy. The results indicate that a fall in the compensation rate at a macro level leads to a trade-off between a fall in aggregate demand and a rise in net exports. Due to this trade-off, the net effect of a fall in the compensation rate on the aggregate unemployment rate tends to be weak. Our analyses in this paper raise several questions on the existing views regarding unemployment benefits adopted by a large strand of the economic literature.

In February 2015, the European Commission published a Green Paper in which it put forward the goal to ‘build a true single market for capital’ for all European Union member states by 2019. The present paper argues that there is no realistic prospect of achieving this goal given that the Green Paper omits any reference to a formidable impediment blocking a European capital-market union: the German government's stance on debt. The inescapable fact is that this government's reluctance to increase the supply of its bonds is depriving the European capital market of one of the essential ingredients necessary to its enlargement on the one hand and to the efficiency of its operation on the other: the former because capital-market enlargement crucially depends on attracting institutional investors who must hold a substantial proportion of their bond portfolios in the form of safe government bonds; the latter because the efficient functioning of the capital markets crucially depends on the efficiency of the money markets where safe government bonds are by far the most important form of collateral.

Using annual data over the period 1980–2014, this paper attempts to provide an answer to the question of whether fiscal consolidation promotes growth and employment in the context of the PIIGGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Great Britain, and Spain) by using the Bootstrap Granger causality analysis proposed by Kónya (2006), which allows testing for causality on each individual country separately, and by accounting for dependence across countries. Our findings indicate that in no country considered does fiscal consolidation promote growth. However, fiscal consolidation negatively affects employment in Portugal and Italy, whereas it positively influences employment in Great Britain. Based on our findings, we may suggest that the effects of fiscal consolidation on employment produce mixed results, varying from country to country.