What drives export performance of firms in Eastern and Western Poland?

We use a unique firm-level survey dataset that draws from the EFIGE (European Firms In Global Economy) questionnaire, to unveil differences in factors driving export performance in structurally most diverse areas of Poland. While conventional results about the role of size, foreign ownership and innovation activity are confirmed at the aggregate level, the picture breaks down when Western and Eastern macroregions are extracted. Our results suggest that the common perception of a more developed West (Poland “A”) and a backward East (Poland “B”) might be outdated. Rather, firms in both regions seem to follow distinct strategies and have dissimilar success factors for competing internationally. Interestingly, export performance in the East is found to benefit from family ties in business, but also product innovation and non-price competitiveness. In the West, it is in turn associated mostly with size and foreign ownership. Overall, our results on the one hand add support to the ‘New’ new trade theory and ‘New’ new economic geography’s premises related to the importance of microeconomic factors and, on the other, shed a new light on the pattern of regional development in Poland. We also discuss some implications for policy makers and managers and suggest directions of further research.National Science Centre, grant no. DEC-2011/03/D/HS4/0195

CLASSIFICATION OF EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES FROM DATA MINING POINT OF VIEW, USING SAS ENTERPRISE GUIDE

With the development of computers and the increasing the amount of data it appeared the need of identifying new acquaintances, unknown until that moment in a relatively short time. The term of data mining involves the analysis of data from different views (aspects) in order to extract the knowledge to use them further in the foundation of decisions at microeconomic or macroeconomic levels. In this article we apply data analysis techniques such as principal component analysis and cluster analysis in order to group the countries of the European Union based on the financial indicators registered at the end of 2009 year.classification, cluster, data mining, European Union, financial indicators

The increasing demand for skilled workers in Australia: the role of technical change

Examines how technological change has affected the demand for skilled workers. Over the past twenty years, there has been a shift toward employment of skilled workers in Australia, as well as in many other industrialised economies. While it has sometimes been argued that the trend toward skilled workers is due to increased trade with low wage countries, the paper shows other factors are at work. Changing employment patterns are more closely associated with a pull toward skilled workers, rather than a push away from lower skilled workers. The paper emphasises the role technology has played in shaping this demand.labour market - skilled workers - technical change - computers - employment - high skilled labour

Productivity Drivers in British Columbia: Strategic Areas for Improvement

A brief analysis of British Columbia’s productivity performance and the state of the drivers of this performance reveals that five areas merit additional focus and research. They are, in the proposed order of completion: Education and literacy, including professional qualifications and education for targeted groups such as aboriginals and recent immigrants, credentials recognition. Public and private investment, including public infrastructure, business investment and taxation structure. Research and innovation, including R&D investment, product and process innovation, knowledge diffusion and technology adoption. Resource reallocation, including competition policy, improving market mechanisms, product market regulation and foreign ownership rules. Trade and migration, including interprovincial and international movement of goods and services, skilled and unskilled immigration and emigration and interprovincial migration.Productivity, Diagnosis, British Columbia,Human Capital, Physical Capital, Innovation,

Latin America in the rearview mirror

Latin American countries are the only Western countries that are poor and that aren't gaining ground on the United States. This paper evaluates why Latin America has not replicated Western economic success. We find that this failure is primarily due to TFP differences. Latin America's TFP gap is not plausibly accounted for by human capital differences, but rather reflects inefficient production. We argue that competitive barriers are a promising channel for understanding low Latin TFP. We document that Latin America has many more international and domestic competitive barriers than do Western and successful East Asian countries. We also document a number of microeconomic cases in Latin America in which large reductions in competitive barriers increase productivity to Western levels.Latin America - Economic conditions

Latin America in the Rearview Mirror

Latin American countries are the only Western countries that are poor and that aren't gaining ground on the United States. This paper evaluates why Latin America has not replicated Western economic success. We find that this failure is primarily due to TFP differences. Latin America's TFP gap is not plausibly accounted for by human capital differences, but rather reflects inefficient production. We argue that competitive barriers are a promising channel for understanding low Latin TFP. We document that Latin America has many more international and domestic competitive barriers than do Western and successful East Asian countries. We also document a number of microeconomic cases in Latin America in which large reductions in competitive barriers increase productivity to Western levels.

R&D in China and the implications for industrial restructuring

The nation-wide introduction of foreign technology in China has been going on for over 20 years. This paper examines the R&D incentive of the Chinese innovators by analyzing the patent data for the period from 1985 to 1999. The following findings were obtained. First, individual innovators, as opposed to industrial enterprises and research institutes, have been supplying over 70% of all patent applications filed domestically. Second, innovators in China, including the industrial enterprises, have been devoting their R&D resources disproportionately to small innovations, rather than major ones. Third, the large and medium-sized enterprises are not yet the main force for innovation in China. The impacts of industrial structure on R&D incentive are emphasized. Regression analysis for 37 manufacturing industries in China shows that R&D output, measured by the number of patents per firm, is positively related to the eight-firm concentration ratio. I also analyze the microeconomic channels through which the vertical structure of an industry affects firm incentive to absorb imported technologies. “Excessive competition” and a low degree of vertical integration in Chinese industries are major factors leading to small-scale innovation, high propensity to purchase foreign technologies, and low propensity to absorb them. Establishing enterprise groups that are truly subject to market discipline can speed up the “imitation-first-and-then-innovate” process