|
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
|
Issue of 2007‒06‒18
nine papers chosen by Emanuele Canegrati Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |
| By: | Jan Schnellenbach (University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A popular argument about economic policy under uncertainty states that decentralisation offers the possibility to learn from local or regional policy experiments. We argue that such learning processes are not trivial and do not occur frictionlessly: Voters have an inherent tendency to retain a given stock of policy-related knowledge which was costly to accumulate, so that yardstick competition is improbable to function well particularly for complex issues if representatives’ actions are tightly controlled by the electorate. Decentralisation provides improved learning processes compared to unitary systems, but the results we can expect are far from the ideal mechanisms of producing and utilising knowledge often described in the literature. |
| Keywords: | Policy decentralisation; fiscal competition; model uncertainty; collective learning. |
| JEL: | H73 O31 D83 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:0441&r=knm |
| By: | Muge Ozman (Science and Technology Policies Research Centre) |
| Abstract: | Recently work on technological change has emphasized the importance and implications of different knowledge bases among industries in terms of innovative potential. In some industries, products and processes have become more complex, as well as there appears to be increased convergence in some market segments. Although increasing attention has been given to features of knowledge bases, there have been limited empirical research on how to measure them. In this paper a method is proposed to measure empirically the breadth and depth dimensions of main technology fields, sectors and firms in the economy. For this purpose, we measure the knowledge bases of 30 main technology fields by using the concepts of breadth and depth. Breadth corresponds to the range of different subjects that a technology field draws upon. Depth refers to the extent to which a certain field is exploited in detail. We position the main technology fields in the breadth and depth space by utilizing the EPO (European Patent Office) database between 1978-2000. We also present the evolution of breadth and depth through time, as well as the breadth and depth dimensions of 40 largest firms in biotechnology and telecommunications. Our results reveal that the both technology fields and firms are largely scattered in the breadth and depth space. Biotechnology stands out to have the highest breadth and depth. |
| Keywords: | Patents, Breadth and depth, technology fields, knowledge base. |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:stpswp:0701&r=knm |
| By: | Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich |
| Abstract: | Extant literature indicates that technology, and by implication its underlying knowledge base, determines long-run economic performance. Absent from the literature with respect to developing countries are quantitative assessments of the nexus between technology as knowledge and economic performance. This paper imposes a simple production function on annual pooled observations on Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa over the 1976-2004 period to estimate the marginal impacts of technology as knowledge on economic performance. It finds that capital (k), openness to trade (τ), and even the share of government expenditure of GDP (G) among other factors, influence economic performance. However, the economic performance of countries like Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa depends largely on technology, technological change, and the basic knowledge that forms the foundation for both. For instance, measured as a homogenous “manna from heaven”, technology is the strongest determinant of real per capita income of the three nations. The strength of technology as a determinant of performance depends on the knowledge underpinnings of technology measured as the number of publications (Q, q). Both Q and q are strongly correlated with the countries’ performance. This suggests that the “social capability” and “technological congruence” of these countries are improving, and that developing countries like Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa gain from increased investment in knowledge-building activities including publishing. Obviously there is room for strengthening results, but this analysis has succeeded in producing a testable hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | knowledge; technology; economic performance |
| JEL: | D80 O55 C51 O41 D83 C22 O47 O33 C33 I29 |
| Date: | 2007–06–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3482&r=knm |
| By: | Mauro Giorgio Marrano (Queen Mary, University of London and CeRiBA); Jonathan Haskel (Queen Mary, University of London, AIM, CeRiBA, CEPR and IZA); Gavin Wallis (University College London) |
| Abstract: | A major puzzle is that despite the apparent importance of innovation around the “knowledge economy”, UK macro performance appears unaffected: investment rates are flat, and productivity has slowed down. We investigate whether measurement issues might account for the puzzle. The standard National Accounts treatment of most spending on “knowledge” or “intangible” assets is as intermediate consumption. Thus they do not count as either GDP or investment. We ask how treating such spending as investment affects some key macro variables, namely, market sector gross value added (MGVA), business investment, capital and labour shares, growth in labour and total factor productivity, and capital deepening. We find (a) MGVA was understated by about 6% in 1970 and 13% in 2004 (b) instead of the nominal business investment/MGVA ratio falling since 1970 it is has been rising (c) instead of the labour compensation/MGVA ratio being flat since 1970 it has been falling (d) growth in labour productivity and capital deepening has been understated and growth in total factor productivity overstated (e) total factor productivity growth has not slowed since 1990 but has been accelerating. |
| Keywords: | Intangible assets, Productivity, R&D, Training, Organisational capital, Investment |
| JEL: | O47 E22 E01 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp603&r=knm |
| By: | Akkaya, Cenk |
| Abstract: | Strategic alliances can be as simple as two companies sharing their technological and/or marketing resources. In this context, strategic alliances help firms in an entrepreneurial way by allowing them to reorganize their value chain activities more effectively. Business alliances can assist organizations to acquire the means to compete within an ever complex and changing environment and it provide firms with market knowledge, open up access to know-how and technology. This study focuses on the technology related alliances from 2002 to 2005 in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Strategic Alliances; Techology Based Alliances; Compatitive Power |
| JEL: | O32 O3 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3479&r=knm |
| By: | Cools, E.; Van den Broeck, H. |
| Abstract: | Considerable attention has been devoted to cognitive styles since the beginning of the previous century. Cognitive styles are extensively studied in diverse research domains. This large interest led to a wide diversity of cognitive style theories and studies. The development of the cognitive style field shows some similarity with the story of the ‘blind men and the elephant’, with researchers tending to study only one part of the whole, but none with full understanding. The aim of this article is to build further on previous suggestions for the advancement of the cognitive style field by focusing on six relevant, critical issues in the area of the theory, the measurement, and the practical relevance of cognitive styles: (1) the need for conceptual clarification to situate cognitive styles in the individual differences field, (2) the need for an overarching, contextualized individual differences model, (3) towards longitudinal, contextual research designs to find the origins of cognitive style, (4) the search for the fundamental cognitive style dimensions in the myriad of cognitive style models, (5) an evolution from self-report questionnaires to multi-source, multi-method approaches, and (6) bridging the relevance gap by different approaches of knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination. On the basis of an overview of past and present cognitive style research, we purport to suggest an agenda for future research in the field of cognitive styles. Ideally, cognitive style research evolves towards a ‘pragmatic science’, which combines high theoretical rigour with high practical relevance. |
| Keywords: | cognitive styles, review, future research agenda |
| Date: | 2007–06–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2007-19&r=knm |
| By: | Taryn Dinkelman (Department of Economics, University of Michigan); James Levinsohn (University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy and NBER); Rolang Majelantle (Department of Population Studies University of Botswana) |
| Abstract: | The spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still fueled by ignorance in many parts of the world. Filling in knowledge gaps, particularly between men and women, is considered key to preventing future infections and to reducing female vulnerabilities to the disease. However, such knowledge is arguably only a necessary condition for targeting these objectives. In this paper, we describe the extent to which HIV/AIDS knowledge is correlated with less risky sexual behavior. We ask: even when there are no substantial knowledge gaps between men and women, do we still observe sex-specific differentials in sexual behavior that would increase vulnerability to infection? We use data from two recent household surveys in Botswana to address this question. We show that even when men and women have very similar types of knowledge, they have different probabilities of reporting safe sex. Our findings are consistent with the existence of non-informational barriers to behavioral change, some of which appear to be sex-specific. The descriptive exercise in this paper suggests that it may be overly optimistic to hope for reductions in risky behavior through the channel of HIV-information provision alone. |
| JEL: | I18 O10 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mie:wpaper:553&r=knm |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi; Claudia Olivetti |
| Abstract: | Until the early decades of the 20th century, women spent more than 60% of their prime-age years either pregnant or nursing. Since then, the introduction of infant formula reduced women's comparative advantage in infant care, by providing an effective breast milk substitute. In addition, improved medical knowledge and obstetric practices reduced the time cost associated with women's reproductive role. We explore the hypothesis that these developments enabled married women to increase their participation in the labor force, thus providing the incentive to invest in market skills, which in turn reduced their earnings differential with respect to men. We document these changes and develop a quantitative model that aims to capture their impact. Our results suggest that progress in medical technologies related to motherhood was essential to generate a significant rise in the participation of married women between 1920 and 1950, in particular those with young children. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J2 J22 N3 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13179&r=knm |
| By: | Yusuf, Shahid |
| Abstract: | Mega urban regions are not a passing phenomenon. They are likely to persist and to enlarge their economic footprints because they benefit from the advantages of market scale, agglomeration economies, location, and the increasing concentration of talented workers. Metropolitan regions which are polycentric, relatively well managed, and have invested heavily in transport infrastructure are able to contain some of the problems attendant upon a concentration of people and industry. Moreover, with energy and water resources becoming relatively scarce and many countries anxious to pre serve arable land for farming, the economic advantages of densely populated urban areas are on the rise because they have a lower resource utilization quotient. During the next 15 years, mega urban economies could coalesce in three Southeast Asian locations: Bangkok, Jakarta, and the Singapore-Iskander Development Region (IDR, South Johor). The Bangkok and Jakarta (Jabotabek) metropolitan regions have passed the threshold at least in terms of population size but they have yet to approach the industrial diversity, dynamism, and growth rates of a Shanghai or a Shenzhen-Hong Kong region. Singapore, if coupled with IDR, has the potential but it is still far from being an integrated urban region. This paper examines the gains from closer economic integration and the issues to be settled before it could occur. The paper notes that a tightening of localized economic links between two sovereign nations through the formation of an urban region would involve a readiness to make long-term political commitments based on a widely perceived sense of substantial spillovers and equitably shared benefits. Delineating these benefits convincingly will be essential to winning political support and a precondition for a successful economic flowering. |
| Keywords: | Transport Economics Policy & Planning,ICT Policy and Strategies,Population Policies,Tertiary Education,Agricultural Knowledge & Information Systems |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4252&r=knm |