Where does licensing collide?

In syntax, licensing is the formal requirement that an element may appear only when some structural condition is met: a noun phrase licensed by Case, an anaphor by a binder, or a negative-polarity item like any licensed by a c-commanding negative or affective operator. Chomsky's Lectures on government and binding framed grammaticality in terms of such licensing conditions, and Ladusaw's work analysed the licensing of negative-polarity items in particular. The referent is an abstract well-formedness condition on where an item is permitted in a structure, not a government permit to practise a trade or a contract to use intellectual property.[1][2]

Unit

Whether a structural condition permits an element to occur grammatically

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Diagnosed through grammaticality judgments: the licensed element is acceptable only when its structural licenser is present

In labor economics, licensing (occupational licensing) is a government requirement that a worker hold a credential (passing exams, training, or fees) before legally practising an occupation, from hairdressing to medicine. Kleiner's 2000 overview and his 2013 study with Krueger measure how far licensing has spread across occupations and how it raises wages and restricts entry. The referent is a legal barrier to entering a labour market and its effects on wages, mobility, and prices, an entirely different construct from a syntactic well-formedness condition or a patent deal.[3][4]

Unit

The share of workers legally required to hold a credential to practise an occupation

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Estimated from survey data on licensed occupations and wage, employment, and price effects relative to unlicensed work

In the management of innovation, licensing is the contractual transfer of the right to use intellectual property (a patent, a technology, a brand) in exchange for royalties or fees, letting a firm earn from an invention without manufacturing it. Arora and Gambardella's 2010 account of markets for technology treats licensing as the mechanism that makes disembodied knowledge tradable between firms. The referent is a market transaction in rights to use an intangible asset, measured by royalties and deal flow, unrelated to a grammatical licensing condition or a professional permit.[5]

Unit

The terms and volume of contractual rights to use intellectual property

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Tracked through licensing deals, royalty rates, and the size and activity of markets for technology