nep-knm New Economics Papers
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy
Issue of 2007‒01‒13
twelve papers chosen by
Emanuele Canegrati
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

  1. Academic journals as two-sided platforms : empirical evidence from data on french libraries By Dubois, P.; Hernandez Perez, A.; Ivaldi, M.
  2. Using the Asymptotically Ideal Model to estimate the impact of knowledge on labour productivity: An application to Taiwan in the 1990s. By Chia-Lin CHANG; Stéphane ROBIN
  3. European Debates on the Knowledge Institution:The Modernization of the University at the European Level By Johan P. Olsen; Peter Maassen
  4. Restructuring Research: Communication Costs and the Democratization of University Innovation By Ajay K. Agrawal; Avi Goldfarb
  5. Singapore Information Sector: A Study Using Input-Output Table By Toh Mun Heng; Shandre M. Thangavelu
  6. Property, liability and market power: The antitrust side of copyright. By Nicita, Antonio; Ramello, Giovanni B.
  7. Intra- and Inter-sectoral Knowledge Spillovers and TFP Growth Rates By Nuria Quella
  8. Economic Development as Problem Solving By Yaw Nyarko
  9. Does services liberalization benefit manufacturing firms ? Evidence from the Czech Republic By Arnold, Jens; Javorcik, Beata S.; Mattoo, Aaditya
  10. NIMBYs and Knowledge: Urban Regulation and the "New Economy" By Stephen Malpezzi
  11. Knowledge, Spillovers and Firms’ International Growth. An Analysis at the Italian NUTS 3 Level By Andrea Bonaccorsi; Lucia Piscitello; Cristina Rossi
  12. The Value of Certainty in Intellectual Property Rights: Stock Market Reactions to Patent Litigation By Marco, Alan C.

  1. By: Dubois, P.; Hernandez Perez, A.; Ivaldi, M.
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the demand and cost structure of the french market of academic journals, taking into account its intermediary role between researchers, who are both producers and consumers of knowledge. This two sidedness feature will echoes similar problems already observed in electronic markets-payment card systems, video games console, etc-such as the chicken and egg problem, where readers won't buy a journal if they do not expect its articles to be academically relevant and researchers, that live under the mantra "publish or perish", will not submit to a journal with either limited public reach or weak reputation. After the merging of several databases, we estimate the aggregated nested logit demand system combined simultaneously with a cost function. We identify the structural parameters of this market and find that price elasticities of demand are quite large and margins relatively low, indicating that this industry experiences competitive constraints. ...French Abstract : Cet article analyse la structure de la demande et des coûts du marché français des revues scientifiques. Nous estimons un "nested logit" pour le modèle de demande et identifions les paramètres structurels de ce marché. Nous trouvons que les élasticités prix de la demande sont assez grandes et les marges relativement faibles ce qui indique que cette industrie est relativement concurrentielle.
    Keywords: REVUE; RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE; PUBLICATION PERIODIQUE; EVALUATION; CHERCHEUR
    Date: 2006
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rea:inrawp:200606&r=knm
  2. By: Chia-Lin CHANG; Stéphane ROBIN
    Abstract: This paper examines the impact of embodied and disembodied knowledge on labour productivity in Taiwan’s manufacturing industry, using the Asymptotically Ideal Model. The model is estimated on a panel of 27,754 firms observed from 1992 to 1995, using three estimations procedures: fixed-effect regression, random-effect GLS, and Hausman-Taylor estimation. Our findings show that, in traditional industries, labour productivity is mostly driven by embodied knowledge, whereas in high-tech industries, labour productivity depends on both embodied and disembodied knowledge. The latter result may be the consequence of the Industrial Upgrading Statute implemented in Taiwan after 1991.
    Keywords: Asymptotically Ideal Model; Disembodied Knowledge; Embodied Knowledge; Labour Productivity; Newly Industrialized Countries.
    JEL: C51 J24 L60 O38
    Date: 2006
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2006-34&r=knm
  3. By: Johan P. Olsen; Peter Maassen
    Date: 2007–01–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:arenax:p0228&r=knm
  4. By: Ajay K. Agrawal; Avi Goldfarb
    Abstract: We report evidence indicating that Bitnet adoption facilitated increased research collaboration between US universities. However, not all institutions benefited equally. Using panel data from seven top engineering journals, Bitnet connection records, and a variety of institution ranking data, we find that medium-ranked universities were the primary beneficiaries; they benefited largely by increasing their collaboration with top-ranked schools. Furthermore, we find that the magnitude of this effect was greatest for co-located pairs. These results suggest that the most salient effect of lowering communication costs may have been to facilitate gains from trade through the specialization of research tasks. Thus, the advent of Bitnet -- and likely subsequent versions, including the Internet -- seems to have increased the role of second-tier universities in the national innovation system as producers of new, high-quality knowledge.
    JEL: O33 R11 Z13
    Date: 2006–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12812&r=knm
  5. By: Toh Mun Heng (Business School, National University of Singapore); Shandre M. Thangavelu (Singapore Centre for Applied and Policy Economics (SCAPE) Department of Economics, National University of Singapore)
    Abstract: The paper measures the impact of information technology on the output growth of Singapore economy. A vibrant information sector will play an important catalytic role in developing Singapore into a knowledge-based economy. The analysis provided in the paper support the assertion that information economy will be a precursor to a knowledge-based economy. The information sector grew in tandem with the expansion of export in the first half of the 1990s. By the second half of the 1990s, it developed sufficient momentum and capability to expand domestically as a cluster. The use of ICT as intermediate input is found to be generally pervasive in the economy. The paper also investigated the impact of falling prices of information input on sectoral GDP. It is found that for a 10% decrease in information input prices, the sector GDPs had to increase by 0.05% to 2.2%. The overall impact for the economy is a positive 0.84% increase in national income (GDP) for a 10% decline in information input prices.
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sca:scaewp:0615&r=knm
  6. By: Nicita, Antonio; Ramello, Giovanni B.
    Abstract: This paper investigates the interplay between copyright law and antitrust law in two distinct respects. We first argue that the origin of copyright seems to be rooted not only in the need to foster the production and the spread of knowledge but also in the necessity of limiting market power on the side of distributors. We then show the potential impact on market competition of the evolution of copyright as a property rule. While property rules reduce transaction costs in the standard case of bilateral monopoly over the exchange of information goods, they might increase transaction costs. When coupled with market power, a property rule enables the right holder to control uses and prices so as to implement entry deterrence strategies against potential competitors. Conversely, we argue that reversing property rules in favor of competitors or switching to liability rules for copyright may restore competitive outcomes. This conclusion brings new insights on the application of the essential facility doctrine to copyrighted works.
    Date: 2006–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uca:ucapdv:75&r=knm
  7. By: Nuria Quella (Research Banco de Mexico)
    Abstract: In this paper I estimate unobserved labor-generated knowledge spillovers within and among six large macroeconomic sectors covering the totality of the US civilian economy from 1948 to 1991. Unobserved spillovers are identified by observed TFP changes measured using Dale Jorgenson’s quality-adjusted factor and product panel data. I construct a series of sectoral knowledge spillover matrices that show that changes in the magnitude and direction of spillovers are associated to the productivity slowdown in the US economy of the early seventies. These matrices also allow me to compute the gap between the market and the optimal allocation of labor among sectors. Moreover, I show that sectoral market wages do not capture the totality of spillovers and I measure the difference. My measurement of spillovers shows that from 1948 to 1991 manufacturing generated knowledge for all sectors, being overall the main engine of growth. Using Samuel Kortum’s data on patent production and use in the U.S. I find that sectoral labor generated knowledge flows coincide with the sectoral patterns of other, disembodied information flows. I also find the productivity slowdown coincides with a change in the pattern of generation and diffusion of spillovers. In the mid seventies manufacturing initiates its decline as the engine of growth and trade starts to catch up as the main generator of knowledge spillovers to the economy; simultaneously, the relative weight of all intra-sectoral spillovers diminishes in favor of spillovers between sectors. Finally, I find that the market allocates resources inefficiently, as spillovers are measured to be significant. More resources should go to the main spillover generating sector, that is, manufacturing, so that employment in this sector increases by 32%, and output by 8%; and wages increase in all sectors, except for services and mining.
    Keywords: Knowledge Spillovers, Productivity
    JEL: D24 J24 O30 O40
    Date: 2006–12–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed006:431&r=knm
  8. By: Yaw Nyarko (Economics New York University)
    Abstract: There has been a vast recent literature which has emphasized the role of human capital and knowledge on the economic growth process. This paper presents a model where the knowledge occurs through solving "problems." These problems which are partially idiosyncratic to the country. We think of a problem as a new technique or good. Each nation must master the problems associated with an activity in order to acheive productivity increases and growth. We will follow the tradition of learning by doing models where learning occurs after production on a good, or a particular type or grade of a good. Growth occurs by solving or learning about successively harder problems.
    Keywords: Development
    JEL: O40
    Date: 2006–12–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed006:893&r=knm
  9. By: Arnold, Jens; Javorcik, Beata S.; Mattoo, Aaditya
    Abstract: While there is considerable empirical evidence on the impact of liberalizing trade in goods, the effects of services liberalization have not been empirically established. Using firm-level data from the Czech Republic for the period 1998-2003, this study examines the link between services sector reforms and the productivity of domestic firms in downstream manufacturing. Several aspects of services reform are considered and measured, namely, the increased presence of foreign providers, privatization, and enhanced competition. The manufacturing-services linkage is measured using information on the degree to which manufacturing firms in a particular industry rely on intermediate inputs from specific services sectors. The econometric results lead to two conclusions. First, the study finds that services policy matters for the productivity of manufacturing firms relying on services inputs. This finding is robust to several econometric specifications, including controlling for unobservable firm heterogeneity and for other aspects of openness. Second, it finds evidence that opening services sectors to foreign providers is a key channel through which services liberalization contributes to improved performance of downstream manufacturing sectors. This finding is robust to instrumenting for the extent of foreign presence in services industries. As most barriers to foreign investment today are not in goods but in services sectors, the findings may strengthen the argument for reform in this area.
    Keywords: Banks & Banking Reform,Knowledge Economy,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Economic Theory & Research,Commodities
    Date: 2007–01–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4109&r=knm
  10. By: Stephen Malpezzi (Center for Urban Land Economics Research, University of Wisconsin)
    Date: 2006–06–27
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:bphupl:1033&r=knm
  11. By: Andrea Bonaccorsi; Lucia Piscitello; Cristina Rossi
    Abstract: In the framework of analyses on the relationship between geography and technological innovation, the role of universities has received considerable attention. Both theoretical and empirical literature has shown that university research positively influences the capacity for innovation of the surrounding firms (Jaffe, 1989; Feldman, 1994; Acs et al, 2002). Universities play a central role in innovation processes both as the main responsible for basic research and also as forgers of human capital’s skills. Empirical work has highlighted that such effects radiate from major university centres crossing borders and administrative boundaries (Anselin et al., 1997). This paper focuses on the relationship between universities and the innovative capacity at the territorial level. Specifically, our empirical analysis investigates whether university research spillovers are highly localised or they rather flow across borders. Empirical literature has widely investigated intensity and directions of such spillovers, mainly within the theoretical framework of Griliches-Jaffe. However, we extend the empirical evidence exploring whether intensity and directions of spillovers depend on universities’ specificities (e.g. size, fields of specialization, fund rising capacity) and on the local absorptive capacity. The analysis is developed at the Italian NUTS3 level, using an explicit spatial econometric approach applied to a knowledge production function. References Acs, Z., Anselin, L., and Varga, A. (2002): “Patents and innovation counts as measures of regional production of new knowledgeâ€, Research Policy 31, pp. 1069-1085. Anselin, L., Varga, A., and Acs, Z. (1997): “Local geographic spillovers between University research and high technology innovationsâ€, Journal of Urban Economics 42, pp. 422-448. Feldman, M. (1994): The Geography of innovation, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Dordrecht. Jaffe, A. (1989): “Real effects of academic researchâ€, The American Economic Review, vol 79, n. 5, pp. 957-970.
    Date: 2006–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p116&r=knm
  12. By: Marco, Alan C. (Vassar College Department of Economics)
    Abstract: Using a sample of patents litigated between 1977 and 1997, I estimate stock market reactions to patent litigation decisions and to patent grants. I find that the resolution of uncertainty over validity and infringement is worth as much to the firm as the initial patent right. Each is worth about 1 to 1.5% excess returns. Additionally, I find that there are significant differences pre and post-1982 with the establishment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. I also find that there are significant differences in reactions for plaintiff patent-holders and defendant patent-holders. Interestingly, there is no similar effect for appellate court decisions relative to the district court. To my knowledge, this is the first study that measures the stock market reactions to legal outcomes of patent cases.
    Date: 2006–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vas:papers:82&r=knm

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