The crisis of intellectual monopoly capitalism

Abstract

The last three decades have witnessed the emergence of a new species of capitalism. In spite of marked differences among its different national varieties, a common characteristic of this species can be found in the global monopolization of knowledge. This monopolization involves hierarchical relations among firms and between capital and labor because the capital of some firms includes the exclusive ownership of much of the knowledge used in production. Since the 1994 TRIPS agreements, the growing commoditization of knowledge has extended the role of closed science and closed markets at the expense of open science and open markets. The intrinsic long-term dynamics of this species of capitalism are increasingly characterized by inequality and stagnation. In order to exit from the current crisis, we must change many features of Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism and rely on an eclectic approach that draws insights from the Liberal, the Keynesian and the Marxian traditions.Jel: F55, G01, B52, E11, E12

Intellectual monopoly in global value chains

“…Intellectual monopoly is defined as "the power of producers of ideas to control how their products are used" (Boldrin and Levine, 2004, p. 328). Pagano (2014) argues that the tightening of property rights has created a new era --intellectual monopoly capitalism -in which "monopoly is not simply based on the market power due to the concentration of skills in machines and management; it becomes also a legal monopoly over some items of knowledge". This monopolization has dramatic consequences, since "knowledge is not an object defined in a limited physical space (…) the full-blown private ownership of knowledge means a global monopoly that limits the liberty of many individuals in multiple locations" (Pagano, 2014(Pagano, , p. 1413.…”

“…In this paper we focus specifically on the effort by lead firms to capture market power in the provision of and production of intangible assets. The analysis builds on Pagano's (2014) notion of "intellectual monopoly", where government protections of intellectual property have the effect of locking in the monopoly power from intangible asset creation. We extend it to "information rents" (Foley, 2013) arising from the presence of scale economies and network externalities associated with the production of intangible assets.…”

The financialization of the non‐financial corporation. A critique to the financial turn of accumulation hypothesis

“…Moreover, economic globalization, technological innovation and deregulation triggered another merger wave in the 1990s, this time global in dimension, with the European and Asian takeover market becoming more important and cross-border transactions growing substantially (Martynova & Renneboog, 2008). After the last wave of mergers and acquisitions, the resulting higher concentration along with the growth in intangible assets were considered to enable technological barriers that limit competition among firms and, therefore, create monopoly rents (Kurz, 2017;Pagano, 2014). Simultaneously, multinational NFCs have been implementing tax avoidance strategies through a variety of ways such as manipulating transfer prices, internal loans from affiliates in low tax countries to those located in high tax countries and assigning common expenses such as R&D to high tax countries (Huizinga & Laeven, 2008).…”

Cartas abiertas a dos amigos, un economista austriaco y uno socialista

“… Ver Heller (2008) yPagano (2014) Polanyi (1944). argumentó que el capitalismo emergente limitó el papel del mercado para evitar la disolución del tejido social.…”