Patent Lawsuit: Apple, Samsung and the Prisoner’s Dilemma

May 31, 2012 · Filed under 2. Microeconomics, Current Issues, 4. International Economics, IT, Science and Politics · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apple vs. Samsung in a Patent War

CNET News 1: “Apple vs. Samsung: 50 suits, 10 countries – and counting”

CNET News 2: “Samsung, Apple CEOs meet without coming to agreement?”

Meritz Investment Bank (Korean): PDF File

A hostile patent litigation between Apple and Samsung started ever since Apple accused Samsung of copying its designs for smartphones and tablet PCs. In response, Samsung dodged back with patent lawsuits concerning the mobile technology. According to CNET News, this litigation chaos augmented into 50 lawsuits against each other in 10 different countries. Apple became wary of Samsung’s ever-increasing market share of the smartphones and tablet PCs.

A smartphone or a tablet PC market can be said to be an oligopoly. There is only a handful of firms offering the product: Apple, Samsung, HTC, Sony, and so on. It is definitely different from a PC components market where there are lots of firms providing the identical product.

As Samsung’s market power is increasing in both the smartphone and the tablet PC market, Apple had opened a Pandora’s Box by filing a lawsuit against Samsung, as it was mentioned above. This has triggered the problem of Prisoner’s Dilemma, of which the ‘players’ in a ‘game’ are forced to choose the option that makes both of them worse off. In this case, the ‘players’ are Apple and Samsung, and the ‘game’ they are playing is the chicken game of patent litigations.

Table based on Game Theory: Prisoner’s Dilemma

This table illustrates the situation that Apple and Samsung is facing. According to the table, whatever the opponent chooses to do, the best option for a player is to file a lawsuit against the opponent. For example, for Samsung, it is the best option for it to file a lawsuit against Apple because the best-case scenario is that it will possibly kick Apple out of the market. The worst-case scenario is that both Samsung and Apple will possibly be kicked out of the market. However, this case is better than Samsung being kicked out of the market while Apple stays in the market with the market gain, in the point of view of Samsung. The reason behind choosing to file a lawsuit is the same for Apple.

As a result, they reach a Nash equilibrium, in which both of them file a lawsuit against each other, making them worse off. The patent lawsuit can be seen as a deadweight loss that is ‘wasted’ in a litigious process. Some people argue that the only people gaining from this situation are the lawyers. Consumers are the ultimate victims of this patent war because the ligation burdens are passed through higher prices for the products Apple and Samsung produce.

However, it should be noted that this ‘game’ of patent lawsuits is repeated numerously, 50 lawsuits as it was mentioned. Meritz Investment Bank’s analyst Lee Secheol anticipated in April that Apple and Samsung would stop and reconcile with each other as the ‘game’ is repeated. He anticipated that both firms would realize that this situation is making them worse off and that they would sit down at the negotiating table.

According to CNET News, CEOs of Apple and Samsung did have a meeting. However, they have never came up with an agreement. The fact that they had a meeting to reconcile showed that both of them realized they were in a situation of prisoner’s dilemma. However, their disagreement over withdrawing from a patent war also showed that this issue has become somewhat emotional, which makes it beyond the problem of prisoner’s dilemma.

Consumers should realize that this is not only doing harm to both the companies but also doing harm to themselves. This patent war will inevitably lead to an increase in the prices of products that Apple and Samsung produce and will significantly limit the number of choices that consumers can make if one of them are kicked out of the market as a result of a lawsuit. Also, the products they purchase may be limited in functions or features due to the patent constraints.

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California’s Tradable Permit on Oil Refineries

April 14, 2012 · Filed under 2. Microeconomics, Current Issues · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Californian Government Implements Tradable Permit on Oil Production

The Reporter: News Article

According to The Reporter, California decided to implement the tradable permit policy for the production of oil, which is responsible for the global warming. The government has budget deficit of “$9 billion” and it hopes to gain “$14 billion” by 2015, profiting from auctioning tradable permits to the oil companies.

The main reason for implementing tradable permit policy is that there is a negative externality associated with the production of oil. The social cost exceeds the private cost and this makes the society to take care of the environmental cost. In order to internalize the cost of pollution of the oil production and move the quantity supplied from Q market to Q optimum, the Californian government introduced tradable permit.

The government or EPA sets the amount of pollution allowed and auctions the pollution rights (tradable permits) to the oil companies. If the amount of tradable permit is appropriately chosen, it effectively moves the quantity supplied to Q optimum both eliminating the negative externality and increasing the government profit. The government would profit P times Q optimum amount of money.

However, some critics argue that the increase in the price of oil will increase the overall price of consumer goods. The cost of production will increase for virtually all the consumer goods that are produced from oil-running factories. Also, the means of transporting goods from city to city will be more expensive. All this will contribute in increasing the price of consumer goods. The economic size (or social welfare) would decrease also.

The overall increase in the price of oil and the price of consumer goods will lead to the decrease in the consumer spending overall. United States, especially California, is a place where the public transportation is not as advanced and popularly used as Korea. People usually drive their cars to go to work and go shopping. The increase in the price of oil will act as a disincentive for the people to go out on shopping. This will shift the demand curve from Demand 1 to Demand 2 decreasing the price of consumer goods from P2 to P1 and decreasing the quantity demanded from Q1 to Q2. Again, the economic size (or social welfare) will decrease. Some argue that the tax revenue form the taxes such as VAT will decrease countering the benefits by profits from implementing tradable permits.

In conclusion, the tradable permit will increase the profit of Californian government and at the same time cut down the level of pollution contributing to the global warming. However, the government should be fully aware of the complicated consequence or unintended effects of implementing any sort of policy distorting the market will have.

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List of Definitions for Section 2

March 13, 2012 · Filed under 2. Microeconomics · Tagged , , , ,

1. Market is a place where the consumers and the suppliers meet together. Here, the resources are allocated through the price mechanism. The price and the quantity demanded are determined by the equilibrium price. However, a market does not need to be a physical place where people meet face-to-face. Online shopping is one example of how the market is formed without requiring the consumers and the suppliers to meet face-to-face.

2. Structure of Market in the spectrum of competition

  • Perfect Competition occurs where there are many competitors who produce the same product and the market sets the price.
  • Monopoly occurs when there is only one supplier for the market. These monopolists set the price and profits very highly. They may set as many barriers as they can to stop other possible competitors from entering the market they are in control of.
  • Monopolistic Competition occurs when the market has both the characteristics of perfect competition and monopoly.
  • Oligopoly occurs when there are just few competitors in the market. However, they have interdependence to each other. Also, they may spend a lot of money on advertisement and promotion.

Summary of market types

Type of Market

Number of Firms

Freedom of Entry

Nature of Product

Examples

Demand Curve for Firms

Perfect competition

Many

Unrestricted

Homogenous

(undifferentiated)

Cabbages

Carrots

Horizontal

the firm is a price-taker

Monopolistic competition

Many, Several

Unrestricted

Differentiated

Plumbers

Restaurants

Downward sloping, relatively elastic, some control over price

Oligopoly

Few

Restricted

Undifferentiated or Differentiated

Cement

Cars

Kinked

Monopoly

One

Restricted or Completely blocked

Unique

Local water companies

Downward sloping, inelastic, considerable control over pric
Table Obtained from Triple A Text

3. Demand is defined as ‘that quantity of a good or service that would be bought at each and every price over a period of time’. Must include these three factors:

  • The desire for a product
  • A willingness to pay for it
  • The ability to pay for it

4. Supply is defined as the quantity of goods and services that will be supplied to the market at various prices over a given period of time. These are some of the determinants of supply:

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China on Equity vs. Efficiency

March 13, 2012 · Filed under Current Issues, IT, Science and Politics · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Should China slow down and focus more on Equality rather than Efficiency?

The Economist: News Article

As the gap between the rich and the poor increases substantially, China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, has ordered the new upcoming president, Xi Jinping, to “satisfy the people” by focusing more on the equality. Wen Jiabao has set a low target of 7.5% growth rate for Xi Jinping in order to slow down the overheated economy, lower the inflation rate, and focus more on dividing the economic pie equally for the people.

This old debate about whether an economy should focus on equality or efficiency is a ever-real problem for China as its economy is growing at double-digit growth rate, however, the gap between the rich and the poor has widen. This gap stirs the conflict between the people and the government as they get upset about the problem. There has been outburst of unrest in many parts of China in relation to the low income and the ever-increasing inflation rate.

Therefore, this political situation has forced the Chinese government to focus more on the equality. Otherwise, the government will soon lose the support from people and authority, which will result in the demise of the communist China.

I think that the Chinese officials are well aware of the trade-off of focusing more on equality. The economy will soon lose the efficiency once it had and the economic pie will shrink, instead of increasing. Surely the officials will be able to slice the pie more equally for the poor, however, this will act as a disincentive for the rich to work hard, which lead to the shrinkage of the economic size. In short term, the poor experience the prosperity from equality. However, in the long run, “the poor will poorer and the rich will get less rich,” which is a quote by Margaret Thatcher.

This is a video of Magaret Thatcher commenting on socialist policies and how everyone will be hurt by focusing on equality.

China’s GDP per capita is only $8,394 according to the recent data from IMF (2011). Its GDP might be the second biggest in the world, however, there are too many people, which decreases the GDP per capita. UK’s GDP per capita was absolutely higher than China’s around 1990, and they were still arguing about equality verses efficiency. UK led by Margaret Thatcher focused more on efficiency. China will almost certainly decrease its economic pie if Xi Jinping focuses on equality. If I were at the decision-making position, I would certainly have focused more on efficiency. I would focus on equality later when the GDP per capita is high enough.

I understand that China has to satisfy and relieve complaints from their people to sustain political power. I am also aware that the government is focusing on slowing down the economy at an appropriate level. However, if the economy loses its economic momentum from socialist policies, the chance that China will become a developed country will decrease substantially.

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All-iPad Classroom, Is it educational?

March 12, 2012 · Filed under IT, Science and Politics · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

An interactive textbook running on iPad

Oregon Live: News Article

The success of iPad and other tablet PCs has brought about the prospect of a classroom with interactive tablet textbooks. As soon as Steve Jobs introduced an iPad, everyone went frenzy about how it will ‘reshape the future’ of every aspect of our lives. It is true that Apple’s innovation has brought about changes in our daily life. For example, now nearly everyone has a smartphone and it has led to a huge success in social networking services and etc. Therefore, it is valid to expect for some changes in educational environment.

The educational market for digital, interactive, tablet textbooks will certainly be a big market for many electronics companies such as Apple or Samsung. Many schools, especially international schools, are looking forward to invest a lot of money in IT concerning their students’ education. Also, if a school buys a product from one company, it is highly likely that the school will continue to buy the same product from the same company. This is what Apple has been doing for years. Apple affiliated with school teachers and sold their products with discounted prices. This strategy has proven valid for Apple. Now, many students have apple laptops and it is likely that they’ll stick to it for years. For the same reason, many electronics companies making tablet PCs are keeping their eye on this new arising market for interactive tablet-textbooks.

It will certainly be a big market for many electronics companies, however, is it for the best for the students? Is it really educational? In my opinion, I don’t think this is the case.

Of course, these tablet textbooks have some benefits. It’s light, and you don’t have to carry all those heavy textbooks. Along with that it is interactive in a sense that you could actively apply what you have learned through internet.

However, all these benefits are in vain if the students do not have self-control over their tablets. In most cases, students will likely to be playing Angry Birds or some racing games on a tablet rather than studying from it. I’ve had experience with laptop classroom environment, and most of the time, many of my friends were on Facebook. If students keep playing games or chatting on Facebook, these tablet textbooks will be a waste of money and time.

In addition, I have read from some news articles that giving tablets to children under age of five will inhibit their psychological development, as well as their linguistic skills. It is just a form of a high-tech bad parenting that will spoil your kid.

In conclusion, I do not think the tablet textbooks will be educational for most of the students unless they learn how to gain self-control over them. However, I do think that for responsible students, this will be a great resource for his or her education. It is kind of like a double-edged sword that could be either beneficial or detrimental.

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Aids for Developing Nations

April 4, 2011 · Filed under 5. Development Economics · Tagged , , ,

Map of Africa

Aids for developing countries could be beneficial for their economic growth. What the many of the developing nations have problem in common is the lack of security. If a nation’s security is bad, it is highly unlikely that people will work hard to achieve high economic development. One way the developed countries could help these countries is through stabilizing security either by sending police or UN peacekeeping forces. The major reasons why people become rebels is that the price of the necessities are very high and they have no work. By providing the necessities at low price, they could solve the major part of the security and the economy of the developing countries.

As soon as the security issue is resolved, the developed countries could send aids to the developing nations if the leadership of their country is reliable. If the large sums of money is squandered in the official’s ‘personal uses,’ then the likelihood that the nation will experience the economic growth is very slim. The developed nation must guide the developing nations to spend the financial aids to build on to the capital goods. In the short run, this will result in the increase in the imports and therefore the increase of expenditure, however, this will increase the productivity of the developing nation and increase the exports in the long run.

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Zimbabwe – Developmental Economics

March 9, 2011 · Filed under 5. Development Economics · Tagged , ,

Today, we have discussed about Zimbabwe’s economic situation and what were the barriers to Zimbabwe’s economic growth. There was many opinions about why Zimbabwe was still in suffering from economic difficulty.

One of the many barriers to Zimbabwe’s economic growth was its very high inflation of about 100,000 percent for its currency. It would require you millions of Zimbabwean dollars to just buy a pack of toilet paper. Also, it would require you to carry briefcase or even carts to buy rice and necessities for everyday life. One of the jokes that was mentioned in the class was that if a person rode a bus, the bus fee would increase even during when the person is riding the bus. This is how serious the Zimbabwe’s inflation is. So, inflation is one of the major reason why Zimbabweans are suffering from economic downturn.

I was surprised at how high the literacy rate in Zimbabwe was. In fact, it is about 90% for the whole population. It is quite surprising the fact they have very high literacy rate despite the economic situation. Generally, countries have low literacy rate if they have a bad economic situation.

Despite the high human capital, Zimbabwe’s economy is no better than those of other nations in Africa. Another major reason discussed in the seminar was that the corrupt leadership in Zimbabwe was hindering economic progress in Zimbabwe. Nugabe is a founding leader of Zimbabwe. He was one of the beloved leaders for liberating the Zimbabwean people from the white minorities. However, as years passed by, Nugabe got obsessed in maintaining political power. This has cost the economic situation in Zimbabwe, which has great potential to strive because of its high human capital and enriched resources. Also, he has oppressed the media, which has resulted in the vacancy of criticism against the regime.

In conclusion, Zimbabwe’s major barriers to economic growth were hyperinflation and political oppression. If Zimbabwe got rid of these barriers, it is highly likely that Zimbabwe will strive with its high human resources and its natural resources.

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Democratic Republic of the Congo

February 2, 2011 · Filed under 5. Development Economics · Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

The 10 Poorest Countries of the World: Hottez

Republic of the Congo is one of the very poor countries in the world. In fact, many people believe that this country might be the poorest country in the world. The blog Hottez has ranked the Congo as top number 1 in the most poorest country in the world.

The GDP per capita is $300 (2010 est.) and the GDP is $22.92 billion (2010 est.) which is the 119th in the world. Despite its large land (2,344,858 sq km) and large population (70,916,439) the GDP is quite small.

Population growth rate is 3.165% which is high. The data for unemployment rate is not available. It may be because that there are so many people in poverty and jobless. The life expectancy is only 54.73 years for the whole population.

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Exam Review Blog Posts: Exchange Rates

January 19, 2011 · Filed under 4. International Economics · Tagged , , , , ,

Questions:

(a) Explain three factors which may cause changes to occur in a country’s exchange rate under a floating exchange rate system.

(b) Evaluate the likely impact on a country’s economic performance of a substantial depreciation of its exchange rate.

1. The question (a) is asking for three factors that affects the floating exchange rate system. Also, the question (b) is asking the test taker to evaluate on the effect due to the depreciation of the exchange rate.

2. Floating Exchange Rate: Where the exchange rate is floating (as are all major currencies in the world), it will be determined by market forces – that is supply and demand. As in any other market, the rate will change constantly to reflect how much of the currency is being traded. However, what determines the supply and demand for the currency? Let’s take the Baht (the Thai currency) as an example and look at the factors that affect supply and demand and therefore the equilibrium exchange rate. (Triple A)

3. Governments can use exchange rates to affect economic performance. A rising exchange rate, which is often linked to an increase in base interest rates, leads to exports becoming more expensive but imports falling in price. This would reduce part of the inflationary pressure within an economy. A fall in the exchange rate would lead to the reverse and might help domestic businesses export more. (Triple A)

4.

  • Floating Exchange Rate: the exchange rate system is affected by the supply and demand of the currency exchange market.
  • Depreciation of the Exchange Rate: this usually occurs when either the supply of the currency increases or the demand of the currency decreases.

5.

This is the diagram for the depreciation of the currency as a result of the increase in the supply of the currency from S1 to S2. The quantity of the currency increases from Q1 to Q2, however, the value of the currency in terms of another currency goes down. This is why the currency depreciates when the supply of the currency increases.

The currency can depreciate also when the demand for the currency decreases from D2 to D1. The quantity of the currency demanded decreases from Q2 to Q1 and the value of the currency decreases from $0.35 to $0.25. This is why the currency depreciates when the demand for the currency decreases.

As the currency depreciates, the exports will increase and the imports will decrease. This will balance of payment and decrease the current account. The country will be in the trade surplus, however.

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IA Commentary 3

December 17, 2010 · Filed under Current Issues · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

ECONOMICS COMMENTARY COVERSHEET
Economics Commentary Number: 3
Title of extract: European Union and South Korea Sign Free Trade Agreement
Source of extract: International centre for trade and sustainable development. (2010). 14(35), Retrieved from http://ictsd.org/i/news/bridgesweekly/86983
Date of extract: November 4th, 2010
Word Count: 738
Date the commentary was written: November 8th, 2010
Sections of the syllabus to which the commentary relates: Section 4
Section: 4
Candidate Name: Sang Keun Kim
Candidate Number:

International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development(ICTSD) reported that the European Union and South Korea signed a free trade agreement (FTA) on October 6th, 2010. Free trade agreement is an agreement to form a type of trade bloc between two or more countries to eliminate protectionism barriers such as tariffs and quotas. Tariff is a taxation imposed on any product when it is imported into a country. Also, quotas are limitation set on the number of imported good allowed in the country. In this commentary, the focus will be on the Korean side of the market, not the European market.

ICTSD reports that the FTA agreement will free almost all of the trade and eliminate 99% of European tariffs and 96% of Korean tariffs on imported goods. This elimination of tariffs will help markets between EU and Korea to eliminate dead weight loss, which is a cost caused by economic inefficiency.

By initiating free trade, EU and Korean markets will be able to get rid of the deadweight loss from the tariffs. Deadweight losses are costs that are caused by inefficient industries spending their resources inefficiently, and these costs are often passed on to the consumers. As EU and Korea initiate FTA, the prices of products will decrease from P(tariff) to P(world). Subsequently, the deadweight losses caused by inefficient industries are eliminated, getting rid of the burden off the consumers’ hands.


As EU and Korea get rid of the tariffs, there will be benefits for the consumers for several reasons. According to ICTSD, the Europeans will gain in chemicals, pharmaceutical, electronics, alcoholic beverages, and agricultural sectors. In other words, this means that the Europeans are efficient in these sectors and they have the ability to supply at the price of P(world), which is way cheaper compared to how Korean industries are supplying at P(domestic). Therefore, the Korean consumers benefit from a fall in price from P(domestic) to P(world) in these sectors. Also, the quantity demanded from the Korean consumers will increase from Q1 to Q2 due to its decreased price. So the consumers who could not buy the products from Q1 to Q2 now benefit from the EU-Korea FTA by the decrease in the price of the products. However, this will be especially bad for the Korean industries in these sectors. As it is illustrated in the diagram, their share of the market decreases from Q(domestic) to Q1 due to the EU-Korea FTA.

The efficient industries compared to other countries’ industries will benefit from gain in the share of other countries’ market by the FTA. These industries are most likely that they will not be badly affected by the FTA and will not lose any of the market shares within the domestic market. In the point of view of European industries in chemicals, pharmaceutical, electronics, alcoholic beverages, and agricultural sectors, these industries will not lose any of the market shares from the Korean industries in these sectors due to their competitiveness and efficiency. To illustrate, the Korean industries in these sectors will not be able to take away the European market due to its high price of P(world) compared to European industries’ price of P(domestic). Therefore, the supply curve will be above the equilibrium point and the Korean products in these sectors will not be appealing to the European consumers.

On the other hand, the Korean industries in automobiles, ships, and mobile communications sectors, they will not lose any of the market share from the European industries because of their cheap price of P(domestic) compared to P(world) of European industries.

In conclusion, the EU-Korea FTA will have a great impact and significance to both economies. There would be a losses and wins from both sides. However, the FTA is worth a try due to the elimination of deadweight losses caused by inefficient industries that are causing great burden on consumers. The elimination of deadweight losses mean the elimination of the inefficiency, and this will bolster the industries to be efficient as possible. Thus, this will benefit not only the consumers but also the industries because it will help them to be competitive in the global market. Increase in the competitiveness and efficiency will help the industries to export their goods and gain profit like how the other efficient foreign industries did. Also, the increase in the trade will greatly contribute to subside the ever-rising unemployment rate, which is troubling both the sides.

Word Count: [738 words]

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