Spatial econometrics of innovation: Recent contributions and research perspectives

Preliminary introduced by Anselin, Varga and Acs (1997) spatial econometric tools are widely used in economic geography of innovation. Taking into account spatial autocorrelation and spatial heterogeneity of regional innovation, this paper analyzes how these techniques have improved the ability to quantify knowledge spillovers, to measure their spatial extent, and to explore the underlying mechanisms and especially the interactions between geographical and social distance. It is also argued that the recent developments of spatio-dynamic models opens new research lines to investigate the temporal dimension of both spatial knowledge flows and innovation networks, two issues that should rank high in the research agenda of the geography of innovation.Geography of innovation; spatial correlation; spatio-dynamic panels; innovation

The Foundations of the Economics of Innovation

During the last forty years, economics of innovation has emerged as a distinct area of enquiry at the crossing of the economics of growth, industrial organization, regional economics and the theory of the firm, becoming a well identified area of competence in economics specializing not only in the analysis of the effects of the introduction of new technologies, but also and mainly in understanding technological change as an endogenous process. As the result of the interpretation, elaboration and evolution of different fields of analysis in economie theory, innovation is viewed as a complex, path dependent process characterized by the interdependence and interaction of a variety of heterogeneous agents, able to learn and react creatively with subjective and procedural rationality.

Corruption and economic growth: A meta-analysis of the evidence on low-income countries and beyond

Corruption is a symptom and outcome of institutional deficiency, with potentially adverse effects on economic growth. This paper aims to provide a synthesis of the existing evidence on the relationship between corruption and economic growth - controlling for effect type, data sources, and country groupings. Using 32 key search terms and 43 low-income country names, we searched in 20 electronic databases and obtained 1,002 studies. Initial screening on the basis of PIOS (Population-Independent Variable-Outcome-Study Design) criteria and critical evaluation on the basis VRA (Validity-Reliability-Applicability) criteria led to inclusion of 115 studies for analysis. We conduct a meta-analysis of the empirical findings in 72 empirical studies, using fixed-effect and random-effect weighted means and testing for significance through precision-effect tests (PETs). Our findings indicate that corruption has a negative effect on per-capita GDP growth overall. We also report that corruption is relatively more detrimental in mixed countries as opposed to low-income countries only and that indirect effects of corruption on growth (through the human capital and public finance channels) are larger than its direct effects.Corruption, institutions, governance, economic growth, meta-analysis, systematic reviews

Corruption, Military Spending and Growth

This paper considers the complementary effect of corruption and military spending on economic growth, analyzing both the direct impact of public spending and effect of allocating resources between categories of public spending within the framework of an endogenous growth model. The non-linearities that emerge from are the result of the links between the components of public spending, corruption and economic growth. The main findings of the empirical analysis confirm the expectation that corruption and military burden lower the growth rate of GDP per capita. They also suggest that when the the complementarity effect between military spending and corruption is omitted, as in most studies, the impact of military burden on economic performance is underestimated.corruption, military spending, development economics

Policy implications of the New Keynesian Phillips curve

This article surveys recent advancements in the theory of optimal monetary policy in models with a New Keynesian Phillips curve. It identifies four policy implications. First, near price stability is optimal. Second, simple interest rate feedback rules that respond aggressively to price inflation deliver near-optimal equilibrium allocations. Third, interest rate rules that respond to deviations of output from trend may carry significant welfare costs. Fourth, the zero bound on nominal interest rates does not appear to be a significant obstacle for the actual implementation of low and stable inflation.Inflation (Finance) ; Phillips curve

Longevity and Education: A Macroeconomic Perspective

This paper investigates the determinants of longevity at a macroeconomic level, emphasizing the important role played by education. To analyze the determinants of longevity, we build a model where households intentionally invest in health and education, and where education exerts external effects on longevity. Performing an empirical analysis using data across 71 countries, we find that society’s tertiary education attainment rate is important for longevity, in addition to any role that basic education plays for life expectancy at the individual level. This finding uncovers a key externality of education, consistent with the theoretical hypothesis advanced in our macroeconomic model.Education, life expectancy, health, externalities, absorptive capacity, welfare

Individual and Collective Reputation: Lessons from the Wine Market

The concept of reputation has been used in every field of economic research, given its capacity to affect the outcome of all economic and financial transactions. The theoretical debate on reputation is very rich, but the mechanisms of reputation building have not been explored enough from the empirical viewpoint. In this paper we investigate the determinants of firm reputation taking into consideration the interactions between individual and collective reputation. This paper is one of the first attempts to provide robust evidence on the determinants of firm reputation using a large set of controls applied to a database not affected by self-selection bias. In fact, we constructed a new database containing the universe of wineries located in four regions of the North-West of Italy with an established national reputation and focus on the determinants of the “jump” from national to international reputation. Our research confirms the prediction of the theoretical literature and shows the positive effect of firm age, size, investments and producer’s intrinsic motivations, and of collective reputation on individual firm reputation. Cooperatives seem to decrease their reputation when the number of associated members rises, due to free-riding and traceability problems. In contrast with previous research, relying on well-known external consultants does not acquire any outside reputation. Finally, by comparing the regression results on the determinants of national and international reputation it emerges the relevance of the mechanisms of the evaluation process: the higher proximity to the wineries of a national observer permits a better and more technical knowledge of the quality provided, allowing small niche producers with very low productivity to emerge and be known. For the same reason, the national classification system (i.e. the DOCG system) exerts a significant effect only on the international reputation of wineries, but not on the national one where the effect of collective reputation (i.e. the reputation of single denominations like Barolo) seems to prevail.reputation, credibility, asymmetric information, quality standards, Industrial Organization, L14, L15,

REsCape: an Agent-Based Framework for Modeling Resources, Ethnicity, and Conflict

This research note provides a general introduction to REsCape: an agent-based computational framework for studying the relationship between natural resources, ethnicity, and civil war. By permitting the user to specify: (i) different resource profiles ranging from a purely agrarian economy to one based on the artisanal or industrial extraction of alluvial or kimberlite diamonds; (ii) different patterns of ethnic domination, ethnic polarization, and varying degrees of ethnic salience; as well as (iii) specific modes of play for key agents, the framework can be used to assess the effects of key variables — whether taken in isolation or in various combinations — on the onset and duration of civil war. Our objective is to make REsCape available as an open source toolkit in the future, one that can be used, modified, and refined by students and scholars of civil war.Agent-Based Model, Ethnicity, Salience, Polarization, Domination, Civil War, Greed, Natural Resources

Motives and Giving Norms Behind Remittances: the Case of Filipino Overseas Workers and their Recipient Households

The literature has focused on motives to explain remittance behavior. But as non-anonymous transfers, remittances are liable to be influenced by giving norms as well. We formulate an empirical specification that takes account of remittance motives involving worker-household pairs. We find that altruism dominates the exchange motive among overseas workers who are likely to be the primary breadwinners of their recipient households. We also find that, in the subsample in which overseas workers are likely to be secondary breadwinners, (a) household labor income is an endogenous explanatory variable and (b) the error covariance of the household income and remittance selection equations is positive. A possible reason for (a) is that secondary breadwinners use household income as an imperfect signal of opportunity cost or to detect unobserved effort, i.e., moral hazard, in generating income. As for (b), we surmise that it indicates the presence of incentive-compatible mechanisms against moral hazard. On giving norms, we find that in samples that include overseas workers who are secondary breadwinners, remittance amounts are afflicted with negative selectivity. We present evidence that this is consistent with Filipino giving practices, in which everyone gives but in modest amounts.Remittances, remittance motives, giving norms

Learning in evolutionary environments

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