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on Economics of Strategic Management |
| By: | Van Roy, Vincent (European Commission, Joint Research Centre); Vertesy, Daniel (European Commission, Joint Research Centre); Vivarelli, Marco (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the possible job creation effect of innovation activity. We analyze a unique panel dataset covering almost 20,000 patenting firms from Europe over the period 2003-2012. The main outcome from the proposed GMM-SYS estimations is the labour-friendly nature of innovation, which we measure in terms of forward-citation weighted patents. However, this positive impact of innovation is statistically significant only for firms in the high-tech manufacturing sectors, while not significant in low-tech manufacturing and services. |
| Keywords: | technological change, innovation, patents, employment, GMM-SYS |
| JEL: | O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9147&r=cse |
| By: | Marti, Josep; Alguacil, Maite; Orts, Vicente |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between firms’ heterogeneity and the internationalization decision regarding the number of markets served through both exports and FDI. Theoretically, we base on Helpman et al. (2004) and Yeaple (2009) as a basic framework for understanding this connection. For the empirical analysis, we use firm-level information of manufacturing firms from seven EU countries, as collected in the EFIGE dataset. Two different methodologies have been employed in this study: first, in order to evaluate how firms’ heterogeneity (related with productivity, size, R&D, years of establishment, centralized decision making, human and physical capital intensity), influences the decision to expand exports or foreign production beyond to a single foreign market, we estimate a multinomial logit model. The outcomes show that the increasing complexity in the internationalization strategies of multinationals is not independent of the different characteristics of the firms involved. Second, to determine the extent to which changes in firms’ characteristics influence the number of foreign markets to be attended through exports or foreign direct investment, we estimate a quantile regression model. Our estimates confirm the significant role of firm heterogeneity on the scope of international activities. However, different results across quantiles are obtained, suggesting the existence of heterogeneous effects and non-linearities among the whole distribution of the number of foreign markets served. |
| Keywords: | Firm heterogeneity; Internationalization strategy; Export; FDI |
| JEL: | D24 F14 F21 F23 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65450&r=cse |
| By: | Bullard, James B. (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) |
| Abstract: | St. Louis Fed President James Bullard discussed innovation and entrepreneurship as a local development strategy, trends in startup firms in recent decades, and the return of "bubble" talk about the technology market as he delivered the keynote address at the Emerging Venture Leaders Summit in St. Louis. Earlier in the day, he met with key leaders in the St. Louis innovation and startup communities. |
| Date: | 2015–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlps:246&r=cse |
| By: | Joachim Wagner (Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a new tailor-made data set to investigate for the first time the links between innovation activities (measured by employees active in research and development) and the extensive margins of exports (number of destination countries; number of goods exported) for manufacturing enterprises in Germany, the third largest exporter of goods on the world market. It documents that more innovative firms outperform less innovative firms at both margins of exports – they export more goods and they export to a larger number of countries. All these differences are statistically highly significant and large from an economic point of view. |
| Keywords: | Extensive margins of exports, Germany, innovation, research and development |
| JEL: | F14 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:343&r=cse |
| By: | Letizia Montinari (Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS)); Massimo Riccabonii (Insititute for advanced studies Lucca); Stefano Schiavo (Department of Economic Geography) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the literature explaining firm-level heterogenenity in the extensive margin of trade, defined as the number of products exported by each firm. We develop a model where firms must invest in R&D to maintain and increase their portfolio of goods: the process of product innovation by new and incumbent firms is such that the probability to capture new products is a function of the number of varieties already exported. This mechanism, together with the entry/exit dynamics that characterize the economy, gives rise to a Pareto distribution for the number of products exported by each firm. On the other hand, we model export sales as depending on exogenous preference shocks on the demand side, which leads to a lognormal distribution for the intensive margin of trade. Both predictions are consistent with a number of empirical findings recently emerged in the literature; this paper provides additional evidence based on a large dataset of French firms. Finally, a simple extension to the model allows us to derive some interesting insights on the behavior of multi-products firms: sales of different products across destinations are not uncorrelated, but show a rather strict hierarchy. |
| Keywords: | International trade; Extensive margin; Innovation; Preferential attachment; Multi-product firms |
| JEL: | F14 F43 L11 O3 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/tfpqfk7fp8g29qsj8rsafures&r=cse |
| By: | Preikschas, Michael W.; Cabanelas, Pablo; Rüdiger, Klaus; Lampón, Jesús F. |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses how value co-creation processes can influence the generation of dynamic capabilities and the retention of industrial customers. The authors explore its influence with the support of Social Exchange Theory, Resource-Based View and Service-Dominant Logic. The methodology applied was qualitative research, based on 29 semi-structured in depth interviews with owners, managing directors, and technical managers with previous experience in co-creation processes. The research was performed in four different European countries and is focused on the mobile crane industry. The findings confirm that co-creation processes promote the generation of dynamic capabilities linked to adaptation, knowledge, innovation and relationship management. In addition, the closer contact with customers and the availability of their expertise favour the development of solutions that better meet their needs, bridging the cognitive gap which often exists between partners. Regarding customer retention, the results show that there is a correlation between the co-creation processes and the customers’ predisposition to buy and cross selling. Although value co-creation is a topical subject, research in industrial marketing literature analysing the effects of co-creation processes has been scarce up to now. This paper aims to contribute to the debate by analysing how the co-creation of value can influence the generation of dynamic capabilities in companies and how it affects the retention of industrial customers. Through an eclectic approach, based on social exchange theory and the resource-based view as well as service-dominant logic, the researchers can address the dual challenge associated with the main research question: on the one hand encouraging cooperation and on the other managing relations to seek mutual benefit. |
| Keywords: | Value co-creation; Dynamic Capabilities; Customer Retention; Industrial Markets; co-Innovation; Qualitative Research. |
| JEL: | M10 M31 M39 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65391&r=cse |
| By: | Brueggemann, Julia; Meub, Lukas |
| Abstract: | Economic research on innovation has long discussed which policy instruments best foster innovativeness in individuals and organizations. One of the instruments easily accessible to policy-makers is innovation contests; however, there is ambiguous empirical evidence concerning how such contests should be designed. Our experimental study provides evidence by analyzing the effects of two different innovation contests on subjects´ innovativeness: a prize for the aggregate innovativeness and a prize for the best innovation. We implement a creative real effort task simulating a sequential innovation process, whereby subjects determine royalty fees for their created products, which also serve as a measure of cooperation. We find that both contest conditions reduce the willingness to cooperate between subjects compared to a benchmark condition without an innovation contest. However, the total innovation activity is not influenced by introducing innovation contest schemes. From a policy perspective, the implementation of state-subsidized innovation contests in addition to the existing intellectual property rights system should be questioned. |
| Keywords: | innovation prizes,competition,laboratory experiment,real effort task,creativity,innovation policy |
| JEL: | C91 D89 O31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:251&r=cse |
| By: | Sandro Montresor (Kore University of Enna); Francesco Quatraro (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims at investigating whether Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) can have a role in facilitating regional Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3). Drawing on the economic geography approach to S3, we formulate some hypotheses about the impact that KETs-related knowledge can have on the construction of new regional technological advantages (RTAs). By crossing regional data on patent applications, in KETs-mapped classes of the International Patent Classification (IPC), with a number of regional economic indicators, we test these hypotheses on a panel of 26 European countries over the period 1980-2010. KETs show a positive impact on the construction of new RTAs, pointing to a new “enabling” role for them. KETs also exert a negative moderating role on the RTAs impact of the density of related pre-existing technologies, pointing to the KETs capacity of making the latter less binding in pursuing S3. Overall, the net-impact of KETs is positive, pointing to a new case for plugging KETs in the S3 policy tool-box. |
| Keywords: | Key Enabling Technologies; Smart Specialization Strategies; Revealed Technological Advantages |
| JEL: | R11 R58 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201505&r=cse |
| By: | Hatzigeorgiou, Andreas (The Ratio Institute); Lodefalk, Magnus (Örebro University School of Business) |
| Abstract: | This study formalizes the idea that that the world can become ‘smaller’ through firms’ strategic trade-related decisions. We investigate whether firm investment in obtaining access to foreign networks impacts exports of services by estimating a fixed effects panel model on a comprehensive firm-level dataset for Sweden. In particular, we examine investment in links through the hiring of immigrants. Because trade barriers are higher for services than for goods, and because trade in services is more sensitive to informal trade barriers, firm investment in access to foreign networks could especially help to increase services exports. However, investment in foreign links could benefit overall access within the same cluster of firms, which reduces the incentive for an individual firm to invest in such linkages itself. The novel results suggest a positive and significant influence of firm investment in foreign networks – through the hiring of foreign-born workers – on both the propensity to export services as well as the intensity of exports. Instrumental variable estimation mitigates endogeneity concerns. Weaker export experience enhances the role of investment in foreign networks in terms of the propensity to export. The skill level of foreignborn workers and the time that has elapsed since immigration also impact the degree to which firms can utilize investment in foreign-born personnel to gain access to networks abroad. Our findings provide a new understanding of how firms can overcome trade barriers that specifically impede services by investing in foreign networks, such as through hiring foreign-born personnel, and emphasize the role of foreign-born population to promote services exports. |
| Keywords: | networks; firms; trade; services; immigration |
| JEL: | D80 F10 F22 J61 L14 |
| Date: | 2015–06–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2015_006&r=cse |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Michael Wyrwich (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | Emerging literature shows that spatial differences in entrepreneurship tend to persist over longer periods of time. A potential mechanism underlying this pronounced persistence is that high levels of start-up activity lead to the emergence of a regional culture and a supporting environment in favor of entrepreneurship that particularly involves social capital. This chapter summarizes the available empirical evidence on the regional persistence of entrepreneurship and elaborates in detail how different elements of such a culture, such as social capital, can exert an influence on the level of new business formation and self-employment. As a demonstration for the relevance of a regional entrepreneurship culture for new business formation, we highlight the case of Germany where we find pronounced persistence of start-up activity despite radical structural and institutional shocks over the course of the 20th century. The German case suggests that there is a long-lasting local culture of entrepreneurship that can survive disruptive changes. We discuss the relationship between place-specific social capital and a regional culture of entrepreneurship and draw policy conclusions. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, social capital, economic development, self-employment, new business formation, entrepreneurship culture, institutions |
| JEL: | L26 R11 O11 |
| Date: | 2015–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2015-009&r=cse |
| By: | Orman, Cuneyt |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a theory of the firm scope where not only research but also ordinary production employees can generate inventions. Separating research from production (“specialization”) solves the two-tier agency problem of inducing simultaneously research effort and managerial truthful-reporting but is costly when capital markets are imperfect. Improvements in capital markets, therefore, promote specialization, allowing a greater number of specialized firms to be established and also enabling them to undertake innovative projects with larger potential outcomes. Moreover, this capital market improvement effect is stronger for innovative activities that are less capital-intensive and that have weaker synergies with existing production activities. The model can help us understand the explosion of small company innovation in the U.S. since late 1970s and the contribution of venture capital to this change. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Organizational form, Agency problems, Technological synergies, Financial imperfections. |
| JEL: | D86 D2 D82 O32 G24 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65441&r=cse |
| By: | Lorna Earl; Helen Timperley |
| Abstract: | In this working paper, Earl and Timperley argue that evaluative thinking is a necessary component of successful innovation and involves more than measurement and quantification. Combining evaluation with innovation requires discipline in the innovation and flexibility in the evaluation. The knowledge bases for both innovation and evaluation have advanced dramatically in recent years in ways that have allowed synergies to develop between them; the different stakeholders can bring evaluative thinking into innovation in ways that capitalise on these synergies. Evaluative thinking contributes to new learning by providing evidence to chronicle, map and monitor the progress, successes, failures and roadblocks in the innovation as it unfolds. It involves thinking about what evidence will be useful during the course of the innovation activities, establishing the range of objectives and targets that make sense to determine their progress, and building knowledge and developing practical uses for the new information, throughout the trajectory of the innovation. Having a continuous cycle of generating hypotheses, collecting evidence, and reflecting on progress, allows the stakeholders (e.g., innovation leaders, policymakers, funders, participants in innovation) an opportunity to try things, experiment, make mistakes and consider where they are, what went right and what went wrong, through a fresh and independent review of the course and the effects of the innovation. This paper describes issues and approaches to each phase of the cycle. It concludes by outlining the synergies to be made, building capacity for evaluative thinking, as well as possible tensions to be addressed.<BR>Dans ce document de travail, Earl et Timperley mettent en avant l’argument que la pensée évaluative est un élément indispensable à une innovation réussie, et qu’il ne s’agit pas seulement de méthodes de mesure et de quantification. Combiner évaluation avec innovation exige de la discipline dans l’innovation et de la souplesse dans l’évaluation. Les bases de connaissances pour l’innovation comme pour l’évaluation ont vu une évolution importante ces dernières années, permettant le développement de synergies entre ces deux domaines ; les différentes parties prenantes peuvent apporter la pensée évaluative à l’innovation, en tirant parti de ces synergies. La pensée évaluative contribue aux nouveautés en matière d’apprentissage en fournissant des preuves pour documenter, recenser et mesurer le progrès, les succès, les échecs et les obstacles dans l’innovation en cours. Il s’agit de réfléchir aux preuves qui seraient utiles au cours des activités de l’innovation, et donc d’établir un champ d’objectifs et de cibles propices à déterminer le progrès de ces activités, acquérir des connaissances et développer des usages pratiques des nouvelles informations tout au long de la trajectoire de l’innovation. La génération d’hypothèses en cycle continu, le recueil de preuves, et la réflexion sur le progrès permettent aux parties prenantes (par exemple, les leaders de l’innovation, les responsables politiques, les bailleurs de fonds, et les personnes prenant part à l’innovation) d’essayer, d’expérimenter, de faire des erreurs et de considérer où sont ces erreurs, ce qui s’est bien passé ou ce qui a mal tourné, grâce à un bilan nouveau et indépendant du déroulement et des effets de l’innovation. Ce document décrit les enjeux et les approches de chacune des phases du cycle. Il conclut en indiquant les synergies qu’il reste à accomplir, ouvrant le champ à la pensée évaluative, ainsi que des tensions éventuelles à traiter. |
| Date: | 2015–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:122-en&r=cse |
| By: | Suma Athreye (Brunel University); Sandeep Kapur (Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics, Birkbeck) |
| Abstract: | Given the imperfections in markets for technology, foreign direct investment (FDI) has been regarded as a channel for the transfer of technologies from developed to developing countries. FDI was expected to generate technological spillovers through vertical linkages with host-country firms and through involuntary leakages. Evidence suggests that inward FDI was a weak channel for technology transfer. with only limited spillovers in developing countries. With the wave of globalization that started in the 1980s, trade in disembodied technology has boomed. Some large firms in developing countries have also acquired technology through outward foreign investment, typically through acquisitions of firms with a portfolio of technology products. Reinforcing these channels for technology acquisition by developing country firms merits active policy interventions. |
| Keywords: | technology acquisition, licensing, foreign direct investment. |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbk:bbkefp:1511&r=cse |
| By: | Cheng Chen (The University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | The quality of management technology that is used to monitor and incentivize workers varies substantially across countries. To understand the impact of this on economic activities, I develop a two-sector model in which firms facing heterogeneous demands set up hierarchies to manage the production processes in a monopolistically competitive sector. Entrepreneurs decide the number of hierarchical layers, the effort level of each worker, and the span of control of supervisors. I then use the theory to explain two empirical findings established in the literature. First, a common improvement in this type of management technology across all firms intensifies competition in the monopolistically competitive sector. As a result, the smallest firms are forced to leave the market; the most efficient firms thrive; the average firm size increases. Second, firms are less decentralized in economies with ineffective management technology. In an extended two-country model incorporating international trade, I show that firms facing increasing import competition flatten their hierarchies and use more incentive-based pay. Furthermore, I find that countries with superior management technology experience larger welfare gains from opening up to trade and have larger trade shares. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:53&r=cse |
| By: | Thomas Bolli (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Ursula Renold (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds light on the questions how important competences are and which competences can best be learned at school and which competences can be acquired better in the workplace. Exploiting data from a survey among professional tertiary education and training business administration students and their employers in Switzerland, we find that competences related to strategic management, human resource management, organizational design and project management processes are most suitable to be taught in school. However, the results further suggest that soft skills can be acquired more effectively in the workplace than at school. The only exceptions are analytical thinking, joy of learning and organizational competences, for which school and workplace are similarly suitable. Thereby, the paper provides empirical evidence regarding the optimal choice of the learning place for both human resource managers as well as educational decision makers who aim to combine education and training, e.g. in an apprenticeship. |
| Keywords: | Competences, soft skills, school, workplace learning, relevance, learning place |
| JEL: | A23 I21 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:15-389&r=cse |
| By: | Eduardo Fé; Mario Pezzino |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:1508&r=cse |
| By: | Marcelo Bucheli; Erica Salvaj (School of Business and Economics, Universidad del Desarrollo) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the corporate network strategies between multinational corporations of two different origins (United States and Spain), business groups, and state-owned enterprises in the public utility sector of a developing country going through economic and political transitions. The transitions we consider are from an import substitution industrialization model to an open market economy and from a democratic regime to a dictatorial one and back to democracy. We analyze the Chilean telecommunications sector between 1958 and 2005 and find that during a democratic regime all firms sought to build more networks with each other, while incentives decrease under an authoritarian regime. In the protectionist era, US investors built links with Chile’s corporate elite, while in times of an open economy, Spanish investors built these links with the government. State-owned corporations did not attempt to build links with other actors at any time, and business groups sought to build most networks among members of the group. Our findings challenge two commonly held assumptions: first, that open economies decrease incentives for domestic actors to build links with each other and, second, that close political regimes increase incentives to build networks among economic actors. |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dsr:pastwp:15&r=cse |
| By: | Rong Rong (Department of Economics, Weber State University); Daniel Houser (Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science and Department of Economics, George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | Innovation occurs in network environments. Identifying the important players in the innovative  process,  namely  “the  innovatorsâ€,  is  key to understanding the process of innovation. Doing this requires flexible analysis tools tailored to work well with complex datasets generated within such environments. One such tool, cluster analysis, organizes a large data set into discrete groups based on patterns of similarity. It can be used to discover data patterns in networks without requiring strong ex ante assumptions about the properties of either the data generating process or the environment. This paper reviews key procedures and algorithms related to cluster analysis. Further, it demonstrates how to choose among these methods to identify the characteristics of players in a network experiment where innovation emerges endogenously. Length: 30 |
| Keywords: | cluster analysis, k-means algorithm, innovation, networks, laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | C46 C81 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gms:wpaper:1049&r=cse |
| By: | Bruno S. Frey |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2015-13&r=cse |
| By: | Peter McAdam (European Central Bank); Jakub Muck (Narodowy Bank Polski); Jakub Growiec (Warsaw School of Economics & NBP) |
| Abstract: | Based on long US time series we document a range of empirical properties of the labor's share of GDP, including its substantial medium-run swings. We explore the extent to which these empirical regularities can be explained by a calibrated micro-founded long-run economic growth model with normalized CES technology and endogenous labor- and capital-augmenting technical change driven by purposeful directed R&D investments. It is found that dynamic macroeconomic trade-offs created by arrivals of both types of new technologies may lead to prolonged swings in the labor share due to oscillatory convergence to the balanced growth path as well as stable limit cycles via Hopf bifurcations. Both predictions are broadly in line with the empirical evidence. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:62&r=cse |
| By: | Holger Strulik (University of Goettingen) |
| Abstract: | We present a multi-country theory of economic growth in which countries are connected by a network of mutual knowledge exchange. Knowledge in any country depends on the human capital of the countries it exchanges knowledge with. The diffusion of knowledge throughout the world explains a period of increasing world inequality after the take-off of the forerunners of the industrial revolution, followed by decreasing relative inequality. Knowledge diffusion through a Small World network explains the 'New Kaldor facts' and produces an extraordinary diversity of country growth performances, including the overtaking of individual countries in the course of world development. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:59&r=cse |
| By: | Vasaf, Esmaeil; Sanatkhani, Mahboobeh |
| Abstract: | Besides high policy-induced motivations for development of research activities in photovoltaic industry, there have been a few social network studies concentrating on the scientific publication in this field. This study tried to shed light on the structure and evolution of publication network in German PV industry from 1988 to 2013. For this purpose, using the centrality indices, I realized the most influential actors as potential source of knowledge and actors who play the central role in knowledge production and diffusion. In next step, I investigated the dynamic of co-authorship network of scientists. Results showed that against the downward trend of network’s cohesion, overall compared to the same size random generated network, German PV co-authorship network is characterized as a small world network which emphasizes the efficient diffusion of knowledge compare to other type of network. Finally, to disclose the drivers behind the evolution of co-authorship network, I hypothesized two different scenarios. First, using descriptive analysis, the existence of preferential attachment mechanism is investigated. Fitting power law distribution over degree of nodes rejected our hypothesis for all investigating time windows. Therefore, preferential attachment mechanism cannot significantly explain the evolution of the network and reveals that network is robust in response to removal of large nodes. Second, looking at the composition of knowledge on map of science provided strong evidence in support of interdisciplinarity nature of German PV industry. Our descriptive analysis shows that along with existence of leading macro-disciplines such as Materials Science and Physics Applied, new subject categories of science have found a significant position over the existing knowledge domain during the observed period. |
| Keywords: | publication network, PV industry, knowledge diffusion, preferential attachment |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2014–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65453&r=cse |
| By: | Benjamin Faber; Rosa Sanchis-Guarner; Felix Weinhardt |
| Abstract: | Governments are making it a priority to upgrade information and communication technologies (ICT) with the aim to increase available internet connection speeds. This paper presents a new strategy to estimate the causal effects of these policies, and applies it to the questions of whether and how ICT upgrades affect educational attainment. We draw on a rich collection of microdata that allows us to link administrative test score records for the population of English primary and secondary school students to the available ICT at their home addresses. To base estimations on exogenous variation in ICT, we notice that the boundaries of usually invisible telephone exchange station catchment areas give rise to substantial and essentially randomly placed jumps in the available ICT across neighboring residences. Using this design across more than 20,000 boundaries in England, we find that even very large changes in available internet speeds have a precisely estimated zero effect on educational attainment. Guided by a simple model we then bring to bear additional microdata on student time and internet use to quantify the potentially opposing mechanisms underlying the zero reduced form effect. We find that jumps in the available ICT have no significant effect on student time spent studying online or offline, or on their productivity. Finally, while faster connections appear to increase student consumption of online content, we find that the elasticity of student demand for online content with respect to its time cost is negative but bounded by -1. |
| Keywords: | Education; information and communication technology; internet |
| JEL: | D83 I20 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:62605&r=cse |
| By: | Yuri Sinachev (Interdepartmental Analytical Center, RANEPA); Mikhail Kuzyk (Interdepartmental Analytical Center, RANEPA) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with assessment of the experience in industrial policy implementation in Russia, and a determination of the key lessons including an analysis of two examples of industrial policy – the nano-industry and the automotive industry. |
| Keywords: | Russian economy, industrial policy |
| JEL: | L32 L38 L52 L59 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gai:ppaper:225&r=cse |
| By: | Manuel Hidalgo-Pérez (Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Jesús Rodríguez López (U. Pablo de Olavide); José M. Okean (U. Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | Spain is delayed in adopting information and communication technologies (ICT) and its productivity per hour worked presents a downward trend since the mid 90s. In this paper we argue that these two facts are related. Using the EU KLEMS dataset we test the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis in a cross-section of sectors in Spain. We find that the substitutability between workers and ICT assets falls as worker skill level rises, and that this feature holds across all sectors. Further- more, the ICT assets are complementary with skilled workers. The fraction of workers employed with medium and high skills across sectors rose by 21% and 12%, respectively, to the disadvantage of low skilled workers, due to an adjustment within sectors more than to a composition effect between sectors. Finally, using a regression analysis, we conclude that some labor market institutions are likely behind the evolution of sectorial productivity and ICT investment in Spain. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, TFP, ICT, education |
| JEL: | I24 J24 O40 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:15.10&r=cse |
| By: | Franck, Raphaël (Bar-Ilan University); Galor, Oded (Brown University) |
| Abstract: | This research explores the long-run effect of industrialization on the process of development. In contrast to conventional wisdom that views industrial development as a catalyst for economic growth, the study establishes that while the adoption of industrial technology was conducive to economic development in the short-run, it has had a detrimental effect on standards of living in the long-run. Exploiting exogenous source of regional variation in the adoption of steam engines during the French industrial revolution, the research establishes that regions in which industrialization was more intensive experienced an increase in literacy rates more swiftly and generated higher income per capita in the subsequent decades. Nevertheless, intensive industrialization has had an adverse effect on income per capita, employment and equality by the turn of the 21st century. This adverse effect reflects neither higher unionization and wage rates nor trade protection, but rather underinvestment in human capital and lower employment in skilled-intensive occupations. These findings suggest that the characteristics that permitted the onset of industrialization, rather than the adoption of industrial technology per se, have been the source of prosperity among the currently developed economies that experienced an early industrialization. |
| Keywords: | economic growth, industrialization, steam engine |
| JEL: | N33 N34 O14 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9158&r=cse |
| By: | Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri (Banco de la República de Colombia); Adolfo Meisel-Roca (Banco de la República de Colombia); María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo (Banco de la República de Colombia) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the role of the Great Depression and protectionism in the Colombian industrialization of the early 1930s as well as the role of other determinants in the rapid industrialization that took place during the period 1934-1953. We conclude that the market pushed industrialization by reducing costs, generating economies of scale, learning by doing, giving place to agglomeration economies, and rapid technological change. This paper also examines the structure of the Colombian manufacturing sector in 1945, which was the result of the deep socio-economic transformations that took place in the previous decade. The results indicate that the industrialization process was uneven across regions, and that it was spatially concentrated. Estimations of a production function for industry in 1945 show that there were important differences in factor elasticities and productivities among sectors and regions, which led to different regional patterns of industrialization. In addition, the results indicate that labor productivity in 1945 was positively and significantly related to education and capital, whereas it was negatively related to the unskilled workers and the age of the firms. Classification JEL: N1, N66, O14 |
| Keywords: | Industrialization, Great Collapse, market-led industry, Colombia. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:892&r=cse |
| By: | Stephanie Barnebeck; Yannick Kalff |
| Abstract: | Socio-ecological transitions are a main project, current EU policies, national environmental poli-tics, and regional as well as local action address. Manifold approaches exist and the European Union is anxious to coordinate and facilitate the process of a consolidated transition. Therefore, a policy paper is being developed, the European Urban Agenda, which operates on all govern-mental levels to allow cities more capability in realising said socio-ecological transition accord-ing to their own structural, spatial, social, economic, and environmental predispositions. In a broad study of 40 cities in Europe, we gathered a vast amount of empirical data that indi-cates the individual approaches towards a transition as well as their relations to European and national policies. This paper presents an extension of this research results. We depart from the results of the ROCSET study that is centred on the possibilities of self-organisation and ask about local sustainability strategies with concrete aims and goals. Further, the results of a con-sultation process on this European Urban Agenda are interpreted as an indicator on how the general perception of EU urban policies differs from actor to actor. Such an Agenda can con-tribute to unify individual approaches towards sustainability and consolidate strategies while maintaining the individuality of the local approaches. This paper starts with an outline of the research of the ROCSET study. In the second chapter, the actual urban sustainability strategies are reconstructed to take stock of the current situation in our forty researched cities. The third chapter analyses the consultation process on the Euro-pean Urban Agenda that then can be taken as an indicator on what the expectations for such an agenda are, and how they might reflect currently existing urban strategies. |
| Keywords: | Academic research, Beyond GDP, Demographic change, Ecological innovation, European economic policy, European governance, Good governance, Holistic and interdisciplinary approach, Research, Social innovation, Socio-ecological transition, Sustainable growth |
| JEL: | C01 O18 Q01 Q28 Q42 Q48 Q53 Q57 Q58 R1 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2015:m:6:d:0:i:130&r=cse |