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Zorina Khan

Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College

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China

Is Technology a Race? Patents and National Security

May 23, 2022 By Zorina Khan

Metaphors matter.  Is technology a race, or a war with an associated D-day?  References to “the race to 5G” and “innovation wars” are based on a zero-sum model of technological innovation, where there are glorious outcomes for “winners” and dire consequences for “losers.”  According to this ahistorical perspective, the leader takes all, and for the rest of the field, life promises to be poor, nasty, brutish, and short.  In order to avoid this doomsday scenario, previously unthinkable measures become acceptable in the name of “national security.”

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes Tagged With: China, constitution, economics, innovation, intellectual property, patents, technology, vaccines, waivers

Looking Backward: From 5G to the Telegraph

December 1, 2021 By Zorina Khan

The advent of 5G cellular technology has induced imaginative speculations about spectacular virtual universes, Humans 3.5 artificial intelligence, and an Internet of Things that will trigger “smart houses” and even smarter cities.  What lessons can earlier telecommunications inventions offer? The focus here is on five issues regarding 5G: the social savings from new innovations; business to business (B2B) relative to consumer markets; private sector versus government-led initiatives; net neutrality; and the right to privacy.

Filed Under: Antitrustworthy, Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes Tagged With: antitrust, China, innovation, intellectual property, patents, technology

Women and Wealth in the New Gilded Age

October 23, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Are we currently living in a new Gilded Age embodied by the multi-billionaires of the Forbes 400, with their excesses of utopian cities and space tourism? Inclusion on The Forbes 400 list for 2021 requires net worth of at least $2.9 billion. However, these data underestimate women’s achievements, and conceal an underlying pattern of increasing entrepreneurial opportunities, socioeconomic mobility, and philanthropy by “robber baronesses.”

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: China, diversity, economics, finance, women

Copyrighting the Cultural Revolution in China and America

August 26, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Like China, Americans were notorious for cultural piracy and weak copyrights. The U.S. finally acknowledged international copyrights when the balance of trade in cultural goods shifted in their favour. Similarly, China today is strongly enforcing copyrights to protect its emerging global leadership in cultural creativity.

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes Tagged With: China, copyright, intellectual property

The (New) Cultural Revolution in China

August 23, 2021 By Zorina Khan

A few years ago, I rated on Netflix over 1000 movies with which I was familiar. The top 10 included (in no particular order): Bladerunner, Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna), Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, A Bout de Souffle, Pan’s Labyrinth, Das Leben der Anderen, Casablanca, Metropolis, 2001: a Space Odyssey, Chinatown.  (Lord of […]

Filed Under: A Few of my Favourite Things, Life on the Margin Tagged With: China, copyright, innovation, intellectual property, literary musings

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Notable Women Inventors in Britain

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