|
on Innovation |
| By: | Marek Urbaniak (Poznan University of Economics); Ricardo Paes Mamede (ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute) |
| Abstract: | This article represents an attempt to empirically explore the effects of the current financial crisis on R&D and innovation across the European countries and aims to contribute to the knowledge on the impact of the financial crisis on the financing of R&D and innovation in Europe. Using macro data, we investigate the statistics on financing R&D and innovation by sectors of performance and sources of funds. A direct effect of the crisis on R&D and innovation expenditure during the crisis is compared with the pre-crisis period. We demonstrate that the EU member states have improved their innovative activities over the 2004–2012 period. This article makes an attempt at filling in the gaps in analyses of the influence that the financial crisis exerts on the financing of R&D and innovation. It is a contribution to the debate regarding the impact of the financial crisis in Europe on the volume and structure of innovation financing by sectors of the economy. |
| Keywords: | financing innovation activities, R&D and innovation expenditures |
| JEL: | G01 E23 O31 O43 O52 |
| Date: | 2015–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fes:wpaper:wpaper83&r=ino |
| By: | Silvia Bertarelli; Chiara Lodi |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an empirical analysis about the relationship among innovation, productivity and exporting propensity within manufacturing firms of seven Eastern European Union countries. We analyse marginal effects of product, process and organisational-marketing innovations and test complementarity among them when the objective function is represented by the exporting propensity of a firm. Analysing CIS2008 data, we obtain that productivity improves exporting propensity; the more firms innovate the higher is their exporting probability; complementarity between process and organisational-marketing innovations is accepted in medium high and high technology firms. Complementary innovation strategies are detected for Bulgarian firms, even if Bulgaria is one of the least innovative Eastern European countries. |
| Keywords: | Propensity to export; Eastern Europe countries; Productivity; Complementarity; Product innovations; Process innovations; Organisational/Marketing innovations |
| JEL: | F14 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:2015104&r=ino |
| By: | Marco Di Cintio (Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics; University of Salento); Emanuele Grassi (Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics; University of Salento) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of uncertainty and flexible labour contracts on the Research and Development (R&D) expenditure. Using a panel of Italian manufacturing firms, we find a hump-shaped relationship between workforce flexibility and R&D outlays. Moreover, as predicted by the real options theory, our results suggest that product market uncertainty reduces R&D efforts and that flexible labour contracts countervail the adverse effect of uncertainty on R&D. |
| Keywords: | real options theory, R&D, uncertainty, temporary workers |
| JEL: | D22 D81 J41 O31 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lcc:wpaper:ec0003&r=ino |
| By: | Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno; Vandeput, Charlotte |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes firms’ choices regarding the geographic scope of patent protection within the European patent system. We develop an econometric model at the patent level to quantify the impact of office fees and translation costs on firms’ decision to validate a patent in a particular country once it has been granted by the EPO. These costs have been disregarded in previous studies. The results suggest that both translation costs and fees for validation and renewals have a strong influence on the behavior of applicants. |
| Keywords: | patents; patent fees; patent validation; renewal fees; translation costs |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O38 O57 |
| Date: | 2015–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:24964&r=ino |
| By: | Berthoumieu, Julien; Bouët, Antoine |
| Abstract: | This research paper is aimed at understanding why border trade policies are today complemented with behind-the-border policies like output subsidies, R&D subsidies, and public R&D investments. This is a new type of protectionism that becomes prominent since the 2006-2008 economic crisis. In this paper we analyze the impact of various policies on domestic cost-reducing research and development (R&D) expenditures using an international duopolistic model with uncertainty regarding the result of the R&D process. We examine the impact of “at-the-border†policies (import tariffs, import quotas, voluntary export restraints, and minimum price agreements) as well as “behind-the-border†policies (output subsidies, R&D subsidies, and public R&D investments). We demonstrate new theoretical findings, in particular the increasing then decreasing impact of quotas on R&D, as well as the impact of production subsidies, public R&D investments, and minimum price agreements on private R&D. We conclude that R&D subsidies are appealing policy instruments because they support not only domestic R&D expenditures but also domestic production and profits without reducing consumers’ surplus. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural research, trade, trade policies, tariffs, subsidies, Agricultural policies, Prices, tariff on imports, output subsidy, R&, D subsidy, research and development, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1425&r=ino |
| By: | KAWAKAMI Atsushi; EDAMURA Kazuma |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the influence of firms' design activity to total factor productivity using firm-level data from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities and the Survey on Research Activities of Private Corporations. We adopt two approaches for calculating design activity. First, we regard registered design as a design activity. Second, we calculate design investment from the Survey on Research Activities of Private Corporations and estimate the relation between design activity and efficiency of design investment.Firms who hold registered designs tend to hold patents. Furthermore, holding both registered designs and patents makes the firms more efficient. On the other hand, a second approach shows that a design strategy for adding value to their products, originality, and valuing the firm's brand is more efficient than for product differentiation. Adopting designers from outside of their firms and training designers from within the firms are also efficient. These results investigated Verganti (2009)'s design driven innovation which focuses on product innovation in the aspect of design. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:15041&r=ino |
| By: | Jinyoung Kim (Department of Economics, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model for understanding a firm¡¯s decisions regarding the maintenance (renewal) and patenting of sequential innovations and studies how these decisions are affected by the model¡¯s parameters such as maintenance fees and filing fees. The model offers a discriminating testable hypothesis, predicated on the cross-price effects, to identify complementarityor substitutability across sequential innovations. Our empirical results show that higher filingfees are associated with lower probability of patent renewal, which corroborates the case of complementarity in sequential innovations. |
| Keywords: | Renewal, Patenting, Sequential innovations, Patent portfolio, Patent maintenance fees, Application filing fees |
| JEL: | O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iek:wpaper:1504&r=ino |
| By: | Yaroslav Kryukov |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmu:gsiawp:-1122776787&r=ino |
| By: | Riccardo Crescenzi; Carlo Pietrobelli; Roberta Rabellotti |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the geography of multinational corporations’ investments in the EU regions. The ‘traditional’ sources of location advantages (i.e. agglomeration economies, market access and labour market conditions) are considered together with innovation and socio-institutional drivers of investments, captured by means of regional ‘social filter’ conditions. This makes it possible to empirically assess the different role played by such advantages in the location decision of investments at different stages of the value chain and disentangle the differential role of national vs. regional factors. The empirical analysis covers the EU-25 regions and suggests that regional socio-economic conditions are crucially important for the location decisions of investments in the most sophisticated knowledge-intensive stages of the value chain. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; multinationals; systems of innovation; value chains; regions; European Union |
| JEL: | F21 F23 O33 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2014–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:51482&r=ino |
| By: | Colin Davis (The Institute for the Liberal Arts, Doshisha University); Ken-ichi Hashimoto (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University) |
| Abstract: | This papers considers how national corporate tax policy affects productivity growth through adjustments in geographic patterns of industry in a two-country model of trade. With trade costs and imperfect knowledge spillovers between countries, production concentrates partially and innovation concentrates fully in the country with the lowest tax rate. When firms have weak (strong) monopoly power, a decrease in the tax rate of the low-tax-rate country depresses (accelerates) productivity growth. The paper also investigates the relationship between relative tax rates and the level of product variety, and analytically characterizes the effects of changes in tax policy on national welfare. |
| Keywords: | National Corporate Tax Policy, Fully Endogenous Productivity Growth, Monopoly Power, Industry Concentration |
| JEL: | F43 O30 O40 R12 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koe:wpaper:1527&r=ino |
| By: | Chihiro Inaba (Department of Economics, Kobe University); Katsufumi Fukuda (Graduate School of Social Science, Hiroshima University, Japan and Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan) |
| Abstract: | We construct a dynamic general-equilibrium North-South growth model with international trade with both homogenous and heterogeneous firms, endogenous northern economic growth, and unemployment. Unemployment is emerged from the imbalance between the endogenous labor supply and the firms' labor demand under binding the minimum wage policy. The north produces two goods, high-tech good and low-tech good, while the South produces only low-tech good by the scarcity of technology. Both goods are traded between the countries. The production of the high-tech good needs R&D activity for variety creation, which is a source of economic growth. In this setting, we analyze the southern policy change that increases the southern minimum wage, and show that the increase in the southern minimum wage affects the structure of international trade and the northern growth rate and unemployment. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2015-29&r=ino |
| By: | Marcos Valdivia López |
| Abstract: | This study proposes a spatial interaction model to analyze the level of creativity across Metro Areas (MAs) in a country. The model postulates that increasing creativity depends on the proportions of common knowledge and differential knowledge that MAs face when they interact with each other. We rely on an agent-based approach that allows incorporating GIS and spatial interaction between MAs under local and global network conditions. We chose the cases of Mexico and Spain to get a first glance of how the model works with real data. We find that the MAs of Spain (2001) and Mexico (2003) share the same level of common and differential knowledge in the creative industries and, that knowledge spillovers spread better under inter metropolitan conditions of interaction instead of intra ones. The simulations suggest that Spain is better suited to produce higher knowledge externalities under conditions that are not restricted by physical distance, which make policy intervention in Spain more effective to diffuse creative ideas. |
| Keywords: | Externalities, knowledge spillovers, creative industries, urban spatial models, computational modeling. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uae:wpaper:0815&r=ino |
| By: | INUI Tomohiko; ITO Keiko; MIYAKAWA Daisuke |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the determinants of firm survival in export markets by explicitly taking into account the impact of firms' previous export market experience and their product differentiation. Utilizing a 16-year panel data set for Japanese manufacturing firms obtained from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities compiled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, we employ both hazard and panel probit estimations to examine the likelihood of exit from export markets. The results of our estimations show, first, that the exit probability from export markets decreases over the export duration. Second, the probability of exiting from export markets tends to be lower when firms are more research and development (R&D) intensive both prior to and after starting exports. Third, firms in industries that manufacture differentiated products (e.g., machinery) also experience higher survivability in export markets. These results imply that learning from exporting plays an important role in firms' survival in export markets. In addition, our results imply that firms producing differentiated products likely have a greater incentive to make up-front investments to start exporting, and that these investments in turn enable such firms to survive in export markets for a longer period. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:15086&r=ino |
| By: | Fernandez-Zubieta, Ana; Geuna, Aldo; Lawson, Cornelia (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | In this chapter we review the literature on the analysis of researcher mobility and productivity highlighting recent changes in the research system - internationalization, inter-sector mobility and collaboration and career diversification which make researcher mobility more relevant for the dynamics of knowledge creation and dissemination. Our review reveals that to date we still know little about the consequences and motivations of increased mobility for individual researchers. We contribute by presenting a typology of researcher mobility, and considering the relevance of multiple mobility events throughout a researcher career. Finally, we review the modeling problems related to analyzing the effect of mobility on academic performance at the individual level, and suggest various solutions. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201522&r=ino |
| 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:103&r=ino |
| By: | David Le Bris; William N. Goetzmann; Sébastien Pouget |
| Abstract: | We document a sequence of institutional innovations associated with the corporate form over the course of several centuries in Toulouse. Shareholding companies that began in the 11th century formally incorporated themselves into two large-scale, widely held firms by 1373. In the years that followed they experienced the economic challenges and conflicts we now recognize as inherent in the separation of ownership and control. Using new and existing archival research, we show how the Toulouse firms developed institutional solutions including tradable shares, limited liability, governing boards, cash payout policies, external audits, shareholder meetings and mechanisms for re-capitalization. We examine these developments in the context of institutional economic theory and the received history of the corporation. The Toulouse companies preceded the birth of the Dutch and English East India companies by centuries. The Toulouse firms shed light on the necessary and sufficient conditions for the development of the corporate form. We show that the constellation of features associated with the corporation can appear in situations of relative economic certainty and in the context of Medieval legal code that did not require the granting of governmental approval or patent. The Toulouse firms are a unique case in which the corporation appears as a nexus of private contracts. |
| JEL: | G30 G34 G35 N0 N2 N8 N83 O16 P1 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21335&r=ino |
| By: | Murendo, Conrad; Wollni, Meike; de Brauw, Alan; Mugabi, Nicholas |
| Abstract: | Social networks play a vital role in generating social learning and information exchange that can drive the diffusion of new financial innovations. This is articularly relevant for developing countries where education, extension and financial information services are underprovided. The recent introduction of mobile money in Africa represents a case where imperfect financial markets, weak extension services and information asymmetries limit the ability of rural households to make informed decisions to take advantage of mobile money innovation. This article identifies the role of social networks in the adoption of mobile money in Uganda. Using data from a survey of 477 rural households, a probit model is estimated controlling for household characteristics, correlated effects, and other possible information sources. Results suggest that learning within social networks helps disseminate information about mobile money and has enhanced its adoption. Compared to poor households, non-poor households rely more on social networks for information about mobile money. Mobile money adoption is likely to be enhanced if promotion programs reach more social networks. |
| Keywords: | social networks, mobile money, adoption, Uganda, International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, D14, D83, O33, Q12, |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:198541&r=ino |
| By: | Ana Clara Cândido (IET/CICS.NOVA, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia) |
| Abstract: | This study discusses some fundamental issues so that the development and diffusion of services based in cloud computing happen positively in several countries. For exposure of this subject is discusses public initiatives by the most advanced countries in terms of cloud computing application and the Brazilian position in this context. Based on presented evidences here it appears that the essential elements for the development and diffusion of cloud computing in Brazil made important steps and show evidence of maturity, as the cybercrime legislation. However, other elements still require analysis and specifically adaptations for the cloud computing case, such as the Intellectual Property Rights. Despite showing broadband services still lacking, one cannot disregard the government effort to facilitate access for all society. In contrast, the large volume of the Brazilian IT market is an interest factor for companies seeking to invest in the country. |
| Keywords: | Cloud Computing; public initiatives; innovation ecosystem |
| JEL: | M19 O30 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieu:wpaper:58&r=ino |
| By: | Perez, Nicostrato D.; Rosegrant, Mark W. |
| Abstract: | This study was conducted to determine the impact on world prices, agricultural commodities production, and food security and nutrition of raising the annual growth in agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) from the current estimate of 1.6 percent to 2 percent by 2030 through investment in agricultural research and development (R&D). The study also compared three R&D investment strategies: (1) gradual TFP increase, (2) accelerated TFP increase, and (3) developing-countries-only TFP increase. Results show that compared with the baseline scenario of business as usual, R&D investment strategies to increase TFP to 2 percent can lower world prices of cereals and meat by as much as 17 and 15 percent, respectively, as well as increase area planted in crops by 2.4 percent and crop yields by 8.5 percent by 2030. World cereal and meat production can also be increased by 12.5 and 3.9 percent, respectively, and consumption by 4.5 and 3.9 percent, respectively. The number of malnourished children can be reduced by 7 million (5.4 percent), and the population at risk of hunger can be reduced by 160 million (23.2 percent). |
| Keywords: | agricultural research, productivity, children, malnutrition, nutrition, hunger, risk, investment, prices, yields, agricultural products, total factor productivity, research and development, IMPACT model, undernourishment, malnourishment, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1447&r=ino |
| By: | Ledenyov, Dimitri O.; Ledenyov, Viktor O. |
| Abstract: | The quantum macroeconomics theory is formulated for the first time, assuming that the business cycle has the discrete-time oscillations spectrum in analogy with the electronics excitations discrete-time spectrum in the Bohr’s atom model in the quantum physics. The quantum macroeconomics theory postulates that the discrete-time transitions from one level of GIP((t), GDP(t), GNP(t) to another level of GIP((t), GDP(t), GNP(t) will occur in the nonlinear dynamic economic systems at the time, when: 1) The land, labour and capital resources are added / released to the production/service processes in the form of quanta; 2) The disruptive scientific/technological/financial/social/political innovation is introduced, creating the resonance conditions necessary to amplify/attenuate the value of GIP((t), GDP(t), GNP(t), during the evolution process of the nonlinear dynamic economic system in the time domain. The authors think that the general information product on the time GIP((t), the general domestic product on the time GDP(t), and the general national product on the time GNP(t), are the discrete-time digital signals (the Ledenyov discrete-time digital waves with the Markov information) in distinction from the continuous-time signals (the Kitchin, Juglar, Kuznets, Kondratieff continuous waves), because of the discrete-time nature of the disruptive scientific/technological/financial/social/political innovations. The authors apply the quantum macroeconomics theory to research and develop a new software program for the accurate characterization and forecasting of GIP((t), GDP(t), GNP(t) dependences changes in the economies of scales and scopes in the time domain for the use by the central / commercial banks. |
| Keywords: | quantum macroeconomics theory, quantum econophysics science, dependence of general information product on time GIP(t), dependence of general domestic product on time GDP(t), dependence of general national product on time GNP(t), discrete change levels of GIP(t)/GDP(t)/GNP(t), Ledenyov discrete-time digital waves, discrete-time digital signals generators, spectrum analysis / amplitude / frequency / wavelength / period / phase of discrete-time digital signal, mixing / harmonics / nonlinearities of discrete-time digital signal, continuous-time signals, Juglar fixed investment cycle, Kitchin inventory cycle, Kondratieff long wave cycle, Kuznets infrastructural investment cycle, econophysics, econometrics, nonlinear dynamic economic system, economy of scale and scope, macroeconomics. |
| JEL: | E0 E00 E01 E10 E20 E30 E32 E37 E40 E44 E50 E58 F4 F44 F47 |
| Date: | 2015–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65566&r=ino |
| By: | Nin-Pratt, Alejandro |
| Abstract: | The evidence of improved performance of agriculture in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) in recent years has indeed been quite striking when compared with the past. For the first time, the sector has maintained a real growth rate of 3.4 percent per year, well above the population growth rate of 2.5 percent. Despite this improved performance, agricultural productivity growth in SSA continues to lag behind every other region of the world, growing at rates that are roughly half of the average rate of developing countries. Previous studies concluded that SSA should increase investment in agricultural research and development (R&D), highlighting the need to facilitate farmers access to technology, markets, and the necessary support services for raising agricultural productivity. This study introduces a new dimension to the puzzle of agricultural productivity growth in SSA: the role of the input mix and the need to increase capital and inputs per worker not only to boost output per worker but also to accelerate technology adoption and total factor productivity (TFP) growth. According to the appropriate technology hypothesis, advanced countries invent technologies that are compatible with their own factor mix, but these technologies are less productive with the very different factor mix of poor countries. |
| Keywords: | Agriculture, productivity, farm inputs, Agricultural growth, technology, Investment, Labor, Appropriate technology, total factor productivity, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1432&r=ino |
| By: | Salvatori, Andrea (ISER, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new evidence on the evolution of job polarisation over time and across skill groups in the UK between 1979 and 2012. The UK has experienced job polarisation in each of the last three decades, with growth in top jobs always exceeding that in bottom ones. Overall, top occupations have gained over 80% of the employment shares lost by middling occupations. The decline of middling occupations is entirely accounted for by non-graduates who have seen their relative numbers decrease and the distribution of their employment shift towards the bottom of the occupational skill distribution. The increase at the top is entirely accounted for by compositional changes, as a result of the increase in the number of graduates since the 1990s. Employment has not polarised for graduates, but has become less concentrated in top occupations, especially in the 2000s. The paper also documents that job polarisation has not been matched by wage polarisation across the occupational distribution in any decade and discusses how these new findings relate to the existing evidence for the US and to the prevailing technology-based explanation for job polarisation. Overall, the importance of occupational changes between skill groups and the performance of occupational wages over time cast doubts on the role of technology as the main driver of polarisation in the UK. In particular, the evidence suggests that supply-side changes are likely to be important factors in explaining why high-skill occupations continued to grow in the 2000s even as they stalled in the US. |
| Keywords: | job polarisation, wage inequality, occupational mobility, routine employment, skill biased technological change |
| JEL: | J21 J23 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9193&r=ino |
| By: | Elizabeth U. Cascio; Ayushi Narayan |
| Abstract: | Over the past decade, a technological breakthrough – hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” – has fueled a boom in oil and natural gas extraction by reaching shale reserves inaccessible through conventional technologies. We explore the educational response to fracking, taking advantage of the timing of its widespread introduction and the spatial variation in shale oil and gas reserves. We show that local labor demand shocks from fracking have been biased toward low-skilled labor and males, reducing the return to high school completion among men. We also show that fracking has increased high school dropout rates of male teens, both overall and relative to females. Our estimates imply that, absent fracking, the male-female gap in high school dropout rates among 17- to 18-year-olds would have narrowed by about 11% between 2000 and 2013 instead of remaining unchanged. Our estimates also imply an elasticity of high school completion with respect to the return to high school of 0.47, a figure below historical estimates. Explanations for our findings aside from fracking’s low-skill bias – changes in school inputs, population demographics, and resource prices – receive less empirical support. |
| JEL: | I20 J2 J3 O33 Q33 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21359&r=ino |
| By: | Petar Vujanovic |
| Abstract: | Indonesia has a very good record of poverty reduction, having halved its incidence over the past two decades. Nevertheless, almost 30 million people still live below the national poverty line, mostly in rural areas and in certain provinces. In order to make further progress in lifting these people out of poverty and economic vulnerability, policy needs to focus on generating strong, inclusive and sustainable growth. Pro-poor growth can assist in the process of economic convergence by facilitating the migration of workers out of the low-productivity agricultural sector into the industry and services sectors. By putting in place the right fundamentals, such as a well-designed and inclusive education system, efficient infrastructure and a stable macroeconomic environment, Indonesia will have decades of strong growth ahead by virtue of economic convergence with frontier countries. This has the potential to lift millions more out of poverty without exacerbating income inequality. Moreover, it will set Indonesia up for the next phase of innovation-driven growth that will propel it into the ranks of high income countries. While existing poverty reduction programmes have become increasingly effective, more resources are required, and efficiency could be further enhanced, especially through better targeting. The distribution of income has become markedly more unequal over the past decade and needs to be kept in mind when formulating growth policies. This Working Paper relates to the 2015 OECD Economic Survey of Indonesia (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-indonesia.htm)<P>Des politiques en faveur d'une croissance inclusive et durable en Indonésie<BR>L’Indonésie a obtenu de très bons résultats en matière de réduction de la pauvreté, dont l’incidence a été divisée par deux au cours des vingt dernières années. Néanmoins, presque 30 millions d’Indonésiens vivent toujours en dessous du seuil national de pauvreté, dont la majorité dans des zones rurales et dans certaines provinces. Pour qu’il soit possible de continuer à aider ces populations à sortir de la pauvreté et de la vulnérabilité économique, l’action publique doit viser en priorité à susciter une croissance forte, inclusive et durable. L’instauration d’une croissance favorable aux pauvres peut rendre plus aisé le processus de convergence économique en facilitant le redéploiement des travailleurs du secteur agricole, à faible productivité, vers l’industrie et les services. Pour autant qu’elle mette en place les fondamentaux adéquats, comme un système éducatif bien conçu et inclusif, des infrastructures efficientes et un environnement macroéconomique stable, l’Indonésie aura devant elle des décennies de forte croissance en vertu de la convergence économique avec les pays frontières. Une telle évolution a le potentiel d’aider des millions de personnes à sortir de la pauvreté sans accentuer les inégalités de revenus. De plus, l’Indonésie sera ainsi bien placée pour aborder la phase suivante, celle de la croissance tirée par l’innovation, lui permettant ainsi de se hisser aux rangs des pays à haut revenu. Par ailleurs, les programmes existants de réduction de la pauvreté sont devenus de plus en plus efficaces, mais des ressources supplémentaires sont nécessaires, et l’efficacité pourrait être encore améliorée, notamment grâce à un meilleur ciblage. La distribution des revenus est devenue sensiblement plus inégale au cours de la dernière décennie et il conviendra de ne pas perdre cet élément de vue lors de la formulation des politiques en faveur de la croissance. |
| Keywords: | productivity, education, convergence, sustainable growth, middle-income trap, income distribution, inclusive growth, inequality |
| JEL: | A20 D63 E25 H53 H54 H55 I20 I31 I38 |
| Date: | 2015–07–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1246-en&r=ino |
| By: | Ferreira Sequeda M.T.; Grip A. de; Velden R.K.W. van der (GSBE) |
| Abstract: | Several studies have shown that employees with temporary contracts have a lower training participation than those who have a contract of indefinite duration. There is however no empirical literature on the difference in informal learning on-the-job between permanent and temporary workers. In this paper, we analyse this difference across twenty OECD countries using unique data from the recent PIAAC survey. Using an instrumented control function model with endogenous switching, we find that workers in temporary jobs engage in informal learning more intensively than their counterparts in permanent employment, although the former are, indeed, less likely to participate in formal training activities. In addition, we find evidence for complementarity between training and informal learning for both temporary and permanent employees. Our findings then suggest that temporary employment need not be dead-end jobs. Instead, temporary jobs with high learning content could be a stepping stone towards permanent employment. However, our results also suggest that labour market segmentation in OECD countries actually occurs within temporary employment due to the distinction between jobs with low and high learning opportunities. |
| Keywords: | Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity; Labor Contracts; |
| JEL: | E24 J24 J41 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2015021&r=ino |
| By: | Müller, Anna K.; Theuvsen, Ludwig |
| Abstract: | The transformation of the global agrifood system is characterized by the increasing importance of food safety and quality standards. This trend is challenging farmers in countries like Guatemala as they lack necessary skills and assets. This study analyzes the determinants of Globalgap adoption with a special focus on financial literacy. The concept has not been considered yet in technology adoption studies. Our results indicate that financial literacy indeed has a significant impact on the probability to adopt the standard. Our results hold practical implications for development interventions targeting technology and standard adoption and smallholder market integration. |
| Keywords: | Technology adoption, food safety standards, financial literacy, developing countries, market integration, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q14, Q12, Q16, O33, C38, C31, |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:205289&r=ino |
| By: | Ward, Patrick S.; Spielman, David J.; Ortega, David L.; Kumar, Neha; Minocha, Sumedha |
| Abstract: | Weather-related production risks remain one of the most serious constraints to agricultural production in much of the developing world. Financial and technological innovations that mitigate these risks have the potential to greatly benefit farmers in areas prone to such risks. In this study we examine farmers’ preferences for two distinct tools that allow them to manage drought risk: weather index insurance and a recently released drought-tolerant rice variety. We illustrate how these tools can independently address drought risk and demonstrate the potential for these tools to be combined in a complementary risk management product. Using a discrete choice experiment, we assess farmers’ preferences for these two tools independently and in a bundled package. Findings indicate that farmers are generally unwilling to pay for drought-tolerant rice independent of insurance, largely due to the yield penalty under normal conditions. When bundled with insurance, however, farmers’ valuation of the rice increases. Farmers value insurance on its own, but even more so when bundled with the drought-tolerant rice variety. The results provide evidence that farmers value the complementarities inherent in a well-calibrated bundle of risk management tools. |
| Keywords: | Insurance, Risk, finance, rice, Drought tolerance, Risk management, Weather, Farmers, discrete choice experiments, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1430&r=ino |
| By: | Neuberger, Doris (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | Germany’s bank-based financial system provides a high level of financial inclusion, measured by bank outreach and use of financial services. However, the most vulnerable individuals and small enterprises in Germany tend to be excluded or credit constrained. The quality of financial inclusion is impaired by a low level of financial literacy, which is also concentrated among specific population subgroups. The high level of financial inclusion can be attributed to relationship lending by public savings banks, credit cooperatives, public promotional banks, and guarantee banks using the “housebank” model, and financial consumer protection and credit reporting regulations and institutions. Programs involving microfinance institutions have been stopped. Financial inclusion of consumers with the aim of responsible finance may be improved by implementing the right to a basic bank account with an overdraft facility and protection against attachment, establishing public credit bureaus, redirecting banking regulation toward the protection of borrowers in long-term credit relationships, and strengthening financial education in schools. To foster entrepreneurship and access to funding for start-ups and innovative SMEs, entrepreneurship education and the venture capital market need to be further developed. |
| Keywords: | bank outreach; credit constraints; relationship lending; banking regulation; financial literacy |
| JEL: | G21 G28 I22 O16 |
| Date: | 2015–07–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0530&r=ino |
| By: | Jean-Christophe Poutineau (CREM, UMR CNRS 6211, University of Rennes 1, France); Gauthier Vermandel (CREM, UMR CNRS 6211, University of Rennes 1, France) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the role of financial intermediaries on the extensive margin of activity. We build a DSGE model that combines the endogenous determination of the number of firms with financial frictions giving rise to the financial accelerator. This model is estimated on US data between 1993Q1 to 2012Q3. We get three main results. First, financial frictions play a key role as a transmission channel for monetary policy shocks to get a standard drop in the number of new firms following a restrictive monetary policy decision. Second, in contrast with real macroeconomic shocks (where investment in existing production lines and the creation of new firms move in the opposite direction), financial shocks have a cumulative eect on the two margins of activity, amplifying macroeconomic fluctuations. Third, the critical role of financial factors is mainly observed in the period corresponding to the creation of new firms. In the long run, the variance of the effective entry share is almost explained by a combination of supply shocks. |
| Keywords: | Extensive Margin; Financial Frictions; Financial Accelerator; DSGE model; Bayesian estimation |
| JEL: | E31 E32 E52 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:201510&r=ino |
| By: | Jean P. Sepulveda; Claudio Bonilla (School of Business and Economics, Universidad del Desarrollo) |
| Abstract: | This paper departs from the traditional analysis of the effects of risk aversion in entrepreneurship to study the determinants of entrepreneurial risk aversion in developing a new venture and becoming an entrepreneur. We took fear of failing as a proxy for risk aversion and applied our analysis to the most important Latin American economies. We observed that being male, having more years of formal education and believing to have the necessary skills to develop a new venture decreased the probability of feeling a fear of failing and, thus, eventually increased the probability of developing a new venture. Age affects risk quadratically (first positively, but after some point, negatively), and if there is a prior experience of having shut down a business, risk aversion increases, that is, the probability of feeling a fear of failing, which reduces the probability of becoming an entrepreneur |
| Keywords: | Risk Aversion, Entrepreneurship, Fear of Failing |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dsr:pastwp:18&r=ino |
| By: | Piegeler, Monika; Röhl, Klaus-Heiner |
| Abstract: | Unternehmensgründungen führen oft stärker als die Forschung und Entwicklung etablierter Unternehmen zu grundlegenden Innovationen, die neue Ideen in traditionelle Branchen tragen. Sie können zudem den Aufstieg ganz neuer Wirtschaftszweige wie Internetwirtschaft oder Biotechnologie initiieren. Deshalb bieten Bund und Länder, aber auch die Europäische Union umfangreiche Förderprogramme für Unternehmensgründungen an. Gefördert werden Startups in der Hoch- und Spitzentechnologie, aber auch Gründungen ohne Technologieanspruch. Doch trotz der gut ausgebauten Förderkulisse ist die Anzahl der Gründungen in Deutschland seit gut 10 Jahren kontinuierlich rückläufig. Dies stellt einen Widerspruch dar, auf den in diesem Policy Paper im Anschluss an einen Überblick über die Maßnahmen zur Gründungsförderung näher eingegangen wird. Es werden darüber hinaus Optionen dafür vorgestellt, wie die Gründungsschwäche in Deutschland überwunden werden kann. |
| Keywords: | Existenzgründungen |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwkpps:172015&r=ino |
| By: | Adam P. Balcerzak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland); Micha³ Bernard Pietrzak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland) |
| Abstract: | The article concentrates on the problem of influence of quality of institutional system in the context of utilizing the potential of knowledge-based economy on the human development in highly developed countries. In order to measure the quality of institutional system a synthetic measure based on multivariate analysis techniques was proposed. To obtain the institutional measure TOPSIS method was applied. To quantify the institutional factors the data from Fraser Institute was used. As diagnostic variables of quality of institutions 29 variables qualified to four aspects of national institutional systems were used: a) formal regulations influencing entrepreneurship; b) effectiveness of juridical system in keeping low level of transaction costs and supporting effectiveness of market mechanism; c) competitive pressure and effectiveness of labour markets; d) financial markets institutions as a stimulator of development of enterprises with high growth potential. Human Development Index proposed within United Nations Development Programme was used for measuring the quality of life. The estimation of relation between institutions and human development was made with econometric dynamic panel model. The estimation was made for 24 European Union countries for the years 2004-2010. The econometric analysis shows the positive influence of quality of institutions on human development in the context of knowledge-based economy in developed countries. |
| Keywords: | institutional economics, quality of institutions, Human Development Index, TOPSIS, panel analysis |
| JEL: | I31 O1 C38 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2015:no156&r=ino |