The Impact of R&D Spillovers on Export Value: Does the Transmission Channel matter?

There is overwhelming evidence in the literature that open economies benefit from spillover effects from foreign R&D efforts. These effects increase in particular total factor productivity. Several transmission channels have been detected and studied intensively. Most of them are related to foreign direct investments or international trade. These real economic phenomena are themselves affected by spillovers, either indirectly through their effect on total factor productivity or directly through, for example, increased business contacts between investors, traders and producers.à In this empirical paper we study the effects of R&D spillovers on exports within the OECD. Previous evidence pointed to the crucial role of the transmission channel for such spillovers. Therefore we distinguish between trade-related and foreign-direct-investment related channels and indicators. By doing so we are able to determine the relevance and importance of each of the suggested channels and measures. We control for alternative determinants of export value by extending the well-accepted gravity model for international trade by incorporating R&D spillovers in the standard gravity specification. Our results indicate that – at least at the macro-level – the choice of the transmission channel matters. In particular we find clear evidence that imports are an important transmission channel for technological spillovers, whereas there is only weak evidence in favour of any role for foreign direct investments. Hence these findings simply that openness to trade is a better policy in order to benefit from foreign knowledge than openness to investments.

The Rise of China: Prospects of Regional Trade Policy

China now engages in multilateral trade liberalization as a new member of the WTO. Concurrently, the number of regional trade agreements is increasing worldwide. China and its trading partners would benefit from increased regional liberalization. Using a gravity equation for 23 Asia-Pacific countries between 1992 and 2000, we show that ASEAN and APEC currently have small effects on Asia-Pacific exports, which are mainly influenced by growth, trade barriers and common language. However, we find that China’s participation in regional agreements has large export potentials, not only with respect to ASEAN, but also in a broad agreement including South- and East-Asian countries.

Variety gains of trade integration in a heterogeneous firm model

The present paper studies the variety gains from trade integration. Applying a heterogenous firm model we simulate trade liberalisation in alternative integration scenarios, where per unit trade costs, fixed trade costs and both of them are reduced. The main innovation of our paper is that we estimate the structural parameters of the underlying heterogenous firm model econometrically based on a unique firm level panel data, which contains more than 250,000 observations for exporting firms. Our results suggest that the variety gains from trade integration are substantial. Reducing trade barriers by 15 percent induces variety growth, as a result of which the gains from trade integration are up to 17 percent higher than classical trade models would predict.Variety gains, extensive margin, structural estimation, trade integration, heterogenous firms.

The rise of China : prospects of regional trade policy.

China now engages in multilateral trade liberalization as a new member of the WTO. Concurrently, the number of regional trade agreements is increasing worldwide. China and its trading partners would benefit from increased regional liberalization. Using a gravity equation for 23 Asia-Pacific countries between 1992 and 2000, we show that ASEAN and APEC currently have small effects on Asia-Pacific exports, which are mainly influenced by growth, trade barriers and common language. However, we find that China’s participation in regional agreements has large export potentials, not only with respect to ASEAN, but also in a broad agreement including South- and East-Asian countries.

Can Belgian firms cope with the Chinese dragon and the Asian tigers ? The export performance of multi-product firms on foreign markets

Exporting firms are affected in many ways by competition on foreign markets. This paper focuses on the impact of Asian competition on the bilateral export performance of Belgian firms, controlling for firm level as well as destination-market characteristics. Export performance is measured in several ways, including the export intensity, the variety and quality of trade as well as the export intensity growth. Export performance appears to differ substantially across firms, across sectors and across destination markets. Our overall results indicate that both the export intensity and variety of Belgian firms’ exports are reduced by Asian competition. Especially the competitive pressure caused by mainland China and Hong Kong is strong. The competitive pressure is intense in labour-intensive sectors but also felt in a wide range of activities with a higher value added. Belgian exporters cope with foreign competition by following a variety-expansion or a quality-upgrading strategy.multi-product firms, international trade, variety, quality, export intensity, competition, Asia

Can Belgian firms cope with the Chinese dragon and Asian tigers? The export performance of multi-product firms on foreign markets.

Exporting firms are affected in many ways by competition on foreign markets. This paper focuses on the impact of Asian competition on the bilateral export performance of Belgian firms, controlling for firm-level as well as destination-market characteristics. Export performance is measured in several ways, including the export intensity, the variety and quality of trade as well as the export intensity growth. Export performance appears to differ substantially across firms, across sectors and across destination markets. Our overall results indicate that both the export intensity and variety of Belgian firms’ exports are reduced by Asian competition. Especially the competitive pressure caused by mainland China and Hong Kong is strong. The competitive pressure is intense in labour-intensive sectors but also felt in a wide range of activities with a higher value added. Belgian exporters cope with foreign competition by following a variety-expansion or a quality-upgrading strategy.

Explaining the Variation in housing princes: an economic geography approach

Housing prices vary geographically, even between municipalities. Local differences can be attributed to differences in incomes, demographic effects and real estate characteristics. This paper argues that one should additionally take into account the geographical location of municipalities. In particular, housing prices are affected by distance and travel-time to important economic centers offering jobs and extensive services. Following the economic geography literature, we develop a model showing the impact of geographical barriers on housing prices. We estimate this model on municipality-level housing prices for all 589 Belgian municipalities in 2001. We also differentiate between the two main regions of Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia) as both regions are characterized by political, economic and geographical differences. We distinguish between the attractive forces exercised by both the capital city Brussels and other regional clusters. Our empirical results confirm the expectations. Geographical barriers have significantly negative effects on housing prices. Nevertheless we find important differences between the regions and the means of transport considered.

Explaining the spatial variation in housing prices: an economic geography approach.

Housing prices vary geographically, even between municipalities. Local differences can be attributed to differences in incomes, demographic effects and real estate characteristics. This paper argues that one should additionally take into account the geographical location of municipalities. In particular, housing prices are affected by distance and travel-time to important economic centers offering jobs and extensive services. Following the economic geography literature, we develop a model showing the impact of geographical barriers on housing prices. We estimate this model on municipality-level housing prices for all 589 Belgian municipalities in 2001. We also differentiate between the two main regions of Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia) as both regions are characterized by political, economic and geographical differences. We distinguish between the attractive forces exercised by both the capital city Brussels and other regional clusters. Our empirical results confirm the expectations. Geographical barriers have significantly negative effects on housing prices. Nevertheless we find important differences between the regions and the means of transport considered.Prices;

Development of a land use regression model for black carbon using mobile monitoring data and its application to pollution-avoiding routing

Black carbon is often used as an indicator for combustion-related air pollution. In urban environments, on-road black carbon concentrations have a large spatial variability, suggesting that the personal exposure of a cyclist to black carbon can heavily depend on the route that is chosen to reach a destination. In this paper, we describe the development of a cyclist routing procedure that minimizes personal exposure to black carbon. Firstly, a land use regression model for predicting black carbon concentrations in an urban environment is developed using mobile monitoring data, collected by cyclists. The optimal model is selected and validated using a spatially stratified cross-validation scheme. The resulting model is integrated in a dedicated routing procedure that minimizes personal exposure to black carbon during cycling. The best model obtains a coefficient of multiple correlation of R = 0.520. Simulations with the black carbon exposure minimizing routing procedure indicate that the inhaled amount of black carbon is reduced by 1.58% on average as compared to the shortest-path route, with extreme cases where a reduction of up to 13.35% is obtained. Moreover, we observed that the average exposure to black carbon and the exposure to local peak concentrations on a route are competing objectives, and propose a parametrized cost function for the routing problem that allows for a gradual transition from routes that minimize average exposure to routes that minimize peak exposure

Laboratory Constraints on a 33.9 MeV/c^2 Isosinglet Neutrino: Status and Perspectives

An anomaly in the time behaviour of the signals observed by the KARMEN Collaboration may be interpreted as the possible decay signature of a 33.9 MeV/c$^2$ mainly sterile neutrino. This note discusses the parameter space still open for the mixing of this hypothetical particle with the neutrinos of known leptonic flavour, considering the experimental results which became available recently, as well as those to be expected from forthcoming measurements. It is concluded that if no positive signature is observed, the envisaged laboratory experiments are not expected to close enterily the parameter space of mixing amplitudes. However, a proper reassessment of the ALEPH upper bound on the $\nu_\tau$ neutrino mass including the possibility of $\tau$ flavour mixing, would certainly help in reducing the parameter space left open.Comment: LaTeX file, 11 pages, one figure available on reques