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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2017‒08‒27
five papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Raphaël Franck; Oded Galor |
| 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 geographic and climatic sources of regional variation in the diffusion and 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. Thus, developing economies may benefit from the allocation of resources towards human capital formation rather than towards the promotion of industrial development. |
| JEL: | N33 N34 O14 O33 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23701&r=cse |
| By: | Kate Hynes; Yum K. Kwan; Anthony Foley |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the interdependence of foreign and domestic firms’ local linkage decisions and the extent to which they respond differently to variations in export intensity and productivity originating from each of the two groups of firms. Our empirical analysis, based on Irish data, uncovers an interesting asymmetric pattern in the local linkage dynamics of foreign and domestic firms. We find that local linkages of domestic firms tend to evolve independently of their foreign counterpart, and that they react almost instantaneously to exogenous events such as increases in export intensity or productivity. Local linkages of foreign firms, by contrast, react gradually to exogenous events and the impact works through the reverberating dynamics of the lagged linkages of both foreign and domestic firms. The Irish experience is instructive to policymakers in emerging markets who are naturally interested in the best way to maximize the value of FDI, in terms of benefits the latter brings about for sustainable economic development. |
| Keywords: | Local linkages; Multinationals; Foreign direct investment; Emerging markets |
| JEL: | F23 L22 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201712&r=cse |
| By: | Johannes Schwarzer (Council on Economic Policies) |
| Abstract: | We revisit the "self-selection vs. learning-by-exporting (LBE)" debate with new evidence on a large panel of German firms of all economic sectors up to the 3-digit NACE level, between 1993-2014, and shed new light on the channels that foster export-induced productivity gains. In line with previous results, we find substantial pre-export differences in productivity between future exporters and domestic firms. Nevertheless, these pre-export differences remain constant over time and we find strong evidence against a conscious self-selection effect, in which firms would actively engage in increasing their productivity in temporal proximity to starting to export. In contrast, we find strong support for the learning-by-exporting hypothesis in both the manufacturing and the services sector. However, the learning effect is not progressive and more short-lived in the latter than in the former. We explain the different sectoral performances with significant differences in access to foreign markets, which is substantially lower and more concentrated within few firms in services. Furthermore, we show that across sectors, the size of the LBE effect depends on the level of within-sector competition. In line with basic microeconomic theory, productivity gains are higher for entrants into exporting, which operate in relatively uncompetitive domestic sectors, pointing to an important competitiveness channel for productivity gains. Our results suggest that the services sector offers the largest scope for productivity gains through trade policies aiming at facilitating market access. |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ceq:wpaper:1702&r=cse |
| By: | Bertschek, Irene; Polder, Michael; Schulte, Patrick |
| Abstract: | ICT-intensive firms are often found to have a better performance than their non-ICTintensive counterparts. Along with investing in ICT capital they have to adapt their production and business processes in order to reap the potentials implied by the use of ICT. Are these firms also more resilient in times of crisis? We study this question by exploiting a novel and unique data set from the Microments Database. Covering 12 countries, 7 industries and the period from 2001 to 2010, the data allow us to distinguish between ICT-intensive and non-ICT-intensive firms within industries. We find evidence that indeed during the crisis in 2008 and 2009, ICT-intensive firms were hit less hard with respect to their productivity. This holds in particular for firms from service industries. Moreover, ICT-intensive firms were also more successful in introducing process innovations during that period which could explain their better productivity performance compared to non-ICT intensive firms. |
| Keywords: | ICT,innovation,productivity,economic crisis,resilience,meso-level data |
| JEL: | H12 J24 O31 O47 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:17030&r=cse |
| By: | Taalbi, Josef (Department of Economic History, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the factors that have shaped the long-term evolution of the ICT industry in Sweden, 1950-2013. Exploiting a new historical micro-database on actual innovation output, the driving forces and technological interdependencies in the third industrial revolution are chronicled. The results of this study support some stylized facts about innovational interdependencies in general-purpose technologies: a closely knitted set of industries have provided positive and negative driving forces for the development of ICT innovations. The historical evolution of the GPT surrounding microelectronics can in this perspective be described as a sequence of development blocks. |
| Keywords: | ICT; General-Purpose Technologies; Innovation Biographies; Network Analysis; Development Blocks |
| JEL: | L16 N14 O30 |
| Date: | 2017–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0159&r=cse |