This paper proposes a North-South model to study the interaction between price regulation policies and parallel trade, with a particular focus on the pharmaceutical sector. We show that, under parallel trade, R&D investment can rise only when the South government takes into full account its impact both on investment and on the firm's decision to supply the regulated country. This arises because of a complete withdrawal from price regulation. When policy choices are endogenized, indeed the South wants to achieve this level of full commitment when it is large in size. When instead it is smaller in size, the South chooses an intermediate form of commitment whereby it anticipates its effect only on local distribution and delivery, but not on global R&D investment. As a response to these credible levels of price control commitments, the North responds by allowing parallel imports from the South.

This paper examines the relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in Italy considering the developments in a 150-year time span. Using several statistical techniques, we find that GDP growth and carbon dioxide emissions are strongly interrelated, with a dramatic change of the elasticity of pollutant emissions with respect to output. Our findings highlight lack of structural change in the reduction of the carbon dioxide, suggesting the difficulties for Italy to meet the emissions targets within the Europe 2020 strategy.

This paper analyzes the impact of the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement on social welfare, when the effects on public health are taken into account. In particular, we study how the new international patent policy affects social welfare through the availability of pharmaceutical products. Extending the model developed by Grossman and Lai (Am Econ Rev 94 (5):1635-1653, 2004) on optimal patent protection, this paper examines the externality generated by the intellectual property rights enforcement on our definition of public health. 1 Intellectual property rights include a large range of legal tools apt to protect inventions; literary and artistic works; and symbols, names and images used in commerce (i.e. copyrights, industrial design, patents, trademarks, etc.) In the current work we focus our analysis on the optimal patent policy, and we will use IPR(s) exclusively to refer to patent(s). 2 About the global dimension of non-communicable diseases see Murray and Lopez (1996).

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Intellectual Property Right, pre-sample mean estimator, R&D cooperation 1 As an example, Brazil, India and Turkey employed the full transition period, before granting product patents on pharmaceuticals in 2005 (Hamdan-Livramento, 2009).