A decision support methodology to enhance the competitiveness of the Turkish automotive industry

This is the post-print (final draft post-refereeing) version of the article. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Three levels of competitiveness affect the success of business enterprises in a globally competitive environment: the competitiveness of the company, the competitiveness of the industry in which the company operates and the competitiveness of the country where the business is located. This study analyses the competitiveness of the automotive industry in association with the national competitiveness perspective using a methodology based on Bayesian Causal Networks. First, we structure the competitiveness problem of the automotive industry through a synthesis of expert knowledge in the light of the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness indicators. Second, we model the relationships among the variables identified in the problem structuring stage and analyse these relationships using a Bayesian Causal Network. Third, we develop policy suggestions under various scenarios to enhance the national competitive advantages of the automotive industry. We present an analysis of the Turkish automotive industry as a case study. It is possible to generalise the policy suggestions developed for the case of Turkish automotive industry to the automotive industries in other developing countries where country and industry competitiveness levels are similar to those of Turkey

LINGUISTIC STRATEGY AND ECONOMIC PROFITABILITY

How profitable is to know/speak one international modern language or another can be taken into consideration if we are aware that language skills have market value, implying some additional profit. We have a dimension, a commercial value of language. But we can not ignore the noncommercial value of a language; that value which is not reflected in the price, but it is perceived, by individuals, as making possible human contacts, access to the cultural values of a nation. Noncommercial but important, we’d say, because linguistic diversity has inestimable value for those who appreciate it as much as they appreciate their natural environment. In this logical reasoning, an individual can make a choice, and the authorities can guide the policy of learning modern languages.linguistic profit, commercial value of language, linguistic policy, linguistic justice, learning costs.

Geography, Demography, and Economic Growth in Africa

macroeconomics, Geography, Demography, Economic Growth, Africa

Basic income sustainability and productivity growth in cognitive capitalism: a first theoretical framework

This paper aims at proposing a first theoretical framework for studying the basic income sustainability. We consider the basic income not only as a tool of a policy to improve living standards and social well-being but, mostly, as the essential requisite to introduce a new stable compromise between capital and labour. Following the French Regulation School approach, we assert that the social compromise between capital and labour is founded on the redistribution of the productivity gains. Therefore we try to trace living standards and social well being problems back to their origins, i.e. the productivity growth. We think that describing the dynamics of productivity means understanding the main features of the contemporary capitalistic production. We first present a survey about BI in economic literature. We then focus on the socio-economic transformation of western countries and propose the term cognitive capitalism (CC) to describe the economic system after the Fordism paradigm crisis, highlighting the strong links between the exploitation of knowledge and the accumulation of surplus. Therefore we investigate the presence of a new type of Kaldor-Verdoorn law in cognitive capitalism (a virtuous circle among BI, increasing productivity - via knowledge and network externalities - output and employment). As a result, we first point out the ambiguous growth circle of the contemporary capitalism. Secondly we highlight that BI is compatible with the new way of accumulation, based on the exploitation of dynamic scale economies. BI increases productivity, through network (externalities) and learning processes and, at the same time, demand, via consumption level. This double result is not always guaranteed. It depends, on one side, on how much BI positively affects productivity, and the greater this probability, the lower the role played by intellectual property rights and the higher the diffusion of network economies (general intellect and social cooperation); on the other side, it depends on the way BI is financed. These results also depend on the assumption of closed economy, in which financial markets play no role at all.basic income, productivity, cognitive capitalism, crisis, Regulation School; Fordism; Post-fordism; knowledge; learning; externalities;, Kaldor-Verdoorn law; general intellect

EVOLUTIONS IN THE WORLD COMPETITIVENESS CLASSIFICATION –THE CASE OF ROMANIA*

This article approaches the problem of competitiveness and aims to outline the place of our country from the point of view of competitiveness as opposed to other countries; this analysis is carried out at a global level. One can notice that our country has a pretty low position in the world competitiveness classification, this position being influenced by a series of factors, as for example: underground economy and corruption, taxes, inefficient agriculture and high interests. In spite of these, there are still some factors which can improve this position, for which Romania has registered some significant progresses in the last years.competitiveness, World Competitiveness Yearbook, IMD

Where are the poor in International Economics?

Despite the fact that a very significant proportion of the human population is living with financial difficulties and other constraints typical of poverty, scientific studies in the areas of Economics and especially in International Economics that address the issue of poverty and of poor countries are very few. Using bibliometric techniques, we measured the attention paid by authors from the field of International Economics to poverty and poor countries. To this end, we sorted and analyzed all articles published in the most important journal in the field, the Journal of International Economics (JIE) over the last forty years. Evidence shows that the authors who have published articles in the JIE have mostly developed studies focused on ‘Meso (industry, region) and microeconomic policies and issues of ‘International Trade’ and ‘International Finances’, and are usually of the ‘Formal’ and ‘Formal and Empirical’ types, where the topic ‘Poverty’ is very marginal (only 13 articles published in the JIE, less than 1% of the total, address this matter in any of its dimensions). Furthermore, in the more empirical articles, no country among those included in the group ‘Less Developed Countries’ deserved particular attention. The neglect of poverty and of the poor contrasts (and is related to) with the significant weight of articles that make use of formalization (more than 80%). Despite the trend for a decrease in exclusively ‘Formal’ articles, without any applied/empirical component, the (still) excessive focus on ‘mathematical’ accuracy (i.e., formalization), and the concomitant limited capacity to deal with the (social) problems of the real world, is an effective challenge to authors in the field of international economics and, in particular, to those who publish in the JIE, which must be overcome if we do not want international economics to become a “cyborg” science.International Economics; Poor Countries; Poverty; Bibliometrics

Knowledge Flows and Productivity

National and international flows of knowledge are fundamental determinants of technological progress. In this article we review the existing literature on knowledge flows and we propose a method for estimating them, based on patent citations. Citations are links between inventions that reveal a learning process at the technological frontier. We use data for the period 1975-1996 for 147 subnational regions in Europe and North America. We find that geographical distance and technological differences constitute major barriers to knowledge flows. We also show that these flows may have positive, but small, effect on total factor productivity.

From economicist to culturalist development theories: how strong is the relation between cultural aspects and economic development?

development theory;Honduras;economic development;cultural factors