Innovative Tokyo

This paper compares and contrasts Tokyo's innovation structure with the industrial districts model and the international hub model in the literature on urban and regional development. The Tokyo model embraces and yet transcends both industrial districts and international hub models. The paper details key elements making up the Tokyo model-organizational knowledge creation, integral and co-location systems of corporate R&D and new product development, test markets, industrial districts and clusters, participative consumer culture, continuous learning from abroad, local government policies, the national system of innovation, and the historical genesis of Tokyo in Japan's political economy. The paper finds that the Tokyo model of innovation will continue to evolve with the changing external environment, but fundamentally retains its main characteristics. The lessons from the Tokyo model is that openness, a diversified industrial base, the continuing development of new industries, and an emphasis on innovation, all contribute to the dynamism of a major metropolitan region.Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Innovation

Vertical Specialization Across the World: A Relative Measure

This paper investigates a specific aspect of international production linkages that, following Hummels et al. (2001), is commonly designated as vertical specialization (VS) - the use of imported inputs to produce goods that are afterwards exported. We propose a relative measure of VS-based trade that combines information from Input-Output matrices and international trade data, producing results for a large sample of individual countries and geographical areas with a detailed product breakdown over the 1967-2005 period. This measure identifies a country’s trade flow as associated with VS activities when the share of exports of a good relatively to the world average is above a given threshold and it is accompanied by a relative share of imports of a related intermediate product that is also above the threshold. The quantification of VS-based trade for each country/product pair in each period is made in a relative and conservative manner, since it includes only the value of intermediate imports that surpasses what is implied by the chosen international threshold. The detailed results can be subsequently added up to get any product or geographical breakdown desired. We illustrate this measure by showing the evolution of VS activities at the world level over the last four decades using a product breakdown by technological intensity and a geographical breakdown by main areas. The results point to a substantial increase of VS in high-technology products over the last two decades. There is also empirical evidence on the sharp increase of VS activities in East Asia.

Innovation and productivity in SMEs. Empirical evidence for Italy

Innovation in SMEs exhibits some peculiar features that most traditional indicators of innovation activity do not capture. Therefore, in this paper, we develop a structural model of innovation which incorporates information on innovation success from firm surveys along with the usual R&D expenditures and productivity measures. We then apply the model to data on Italian SMEs from the “Survey on Manufacturing Firms” conducted by Mediocredito-Capitalia covering the period 1995-2003. The model is estimated in steps, following the logic of firms’ decisions and outcomes. We find that international competition fosters R&D intensity, especially for high-tech firms. Firm size, R&D intensity, along with investment in equipment enhances the likelihood of having both process and product innovation. Both these kinds of innovation have a positive impact on firm’s productivity, especially process innovation. Among SMEs, larger and older firms seem to be less productive.R&D, innovation, productivity, SMEs, Italy

Industrial Structure and Regional Employment Dynamics

Is there a relationship between a region's industrial structure and employment growth? The author pursues this question in three self-contained studies. These studies each examine a different aspect of this topic and form the three main chapters of this book. Chapter 2 ("Agglomeration and regional employment dynamics") documents the significance of positive agglomeration externalities for regional labor markets. Employment growth is more sustainable in industrial agglomerations than in other local industries. In Chapter 3 ("The mysteries of trade"), the sources of agglomeration externalities are explained through linkages between different, but related, industries. The main conclusion is that labor market pooling plays a key role. In Chapter 4 ("The rise of the East and the Far East"), Dauth examines how regional labor markets with differing industrial structures react to increasing exposure to international trade. He shows that Germany as a whole has experienced substantial gains in employment due to the economic rise of China and Eastern Europe.Gibt es einen Zusammenhang zwischen der regionalen Branchenstruktur und der Beschäftigungsentwicklung? Der Autor ist dieser Frage in drei eigenständigen Studien auf den Grund gegangen. Sie beleuchten jeweils unterschiedliche thematische Teilaspekte und werden in den drei zentralen Kapiteln dieses Bandes behandelt: Kapitel 2 ("Agglomeration and regional employment dynamics") belegt die Existenz von Agglomerationsvorteilen für den regionalen Arbeitsmarkt: In agglomerierten lokalen Branchen ist das Beschäftigungswachstum nachhaltiger als in nicht-agglomerierten. In Kapitel 3 ("The mysteries of trade") wird analysiert, inwiefern die Wechselwirkungen zwischen unterschiedlichen, aber verwandten Branchen die Existenz von Agglomerationsvorteilen erklären. Gemeinsame Arbeitsmärkte, so das zentrale Ergebnis, spielen dabei eine Schlüsselrolle. In Kapitel 4 ("The rise of the East and the Far East") untersucht Dauth, wie sich der internationale Handel auf Regionen mit unterschiedlicher Branchenstruktur auswirkt. Er weist nach, dass Deutschland durch den wirtschaftlichen Aufstieg Chinas und Osteuropas unterm Strich massive Beschäftigungsgewinne verzeichnen konnte

Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI): facing the challenges and pathways of global change in the twenty-first century

During the past several decades, the Earth system has changed significantly, especially across Northern Eurasia. Changes in the socio-economic conditions of the larger countries in the region have also resulted in a variety of regional environmental changes that can have global consequences. The Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI) has been designed as an essential continuation of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), which was launched in 2004. NEESPI sought to elucidate all aspects of ongoing environmental change, to inform societies and, thus, to better prepare societies for future developments. A key principle of NEFI is that these developments must now be secured through science-based strategies co-designed with regional decision-makers to lead their societies to prosperity in the face of environmental and institutional challenges. NEESPI scientific research, data, and models have created a solid knowledge base to support the NEFI program. This paper presents the NEFI research vision consensus based on that knowledge. It provides the reader with samples of recent accomplishments in regional studies and formulates new NEFI science questions. To address these questions, nine research foci are identified and their selections are briefly justified. These foci include warming of the Arctic; changing frequency, pattern, and intensity of extreme and inclement environmental conditions; retreat of the cryosphere; changes in terrestrial water cycles; changes in the biosphere; pressures on land use; changes in infrastructure; societal actions in response to environmental change; and quantification of Northern Eurasia’s role in the global Earth system. Powerful feedbacks between the Earth and human systems in Northern Eurasia (e.g., mega-fires, droughts, depletion of the cryosphere essential for water supply, retreat of sea ice) result from past and current human activities (e.g., large-scale water withdrawals, land use, and governance change) and potentially restrict or provide new opportunities for future human activities. Therefore, we propose that integrated assessment models are needed as the final stage of global change assessment. The overarching goal of this NEFI modeling effort will enable evaluation of economic decisions in response to changing environmental conditions and justification of mitigation and adaptation efforts

Essays on poverty issues: microeconomic evidence from african countries

Using household level panel data, the thesis provides comprehensive empirical evidence on poverty issues. The thesis constructs spatial and inter-temporal utility consistent poverty lines for Uganda, which are used as inputs to study the sources of poverty, distinguish chronic poverty from transitory poverty and the mechanisms affecting poverty persistence. Based on these poverty lines which are consistent across space and time, the poverty headcount in Uganda increases by about 9% as one moves from 2005 to 2009. In contrast, the official report suggests a reduction in poverty headcount by about 4.5% which is mainly due to low food and non-food consumer price indexes and low food share. Poverty in Uganda is largely chronic. The highest burden of inter-temporal poverty ascribes to households living in the North. Households with a large number of dependent members contribute to inter-temporal poverty more than their population share. The thesis estimates the dynamic random effect probit models and endogenous switching regression. After controlling for observed and unobserved differences in individual characteristics, the thesis still finds strong evidence of state dependence, which is that past poverty actually increases the risk of future poverty. In the presence of genuine state dependence, short run polices are effective. Since consumption in the household surveys is often measured with error, the thesis applies the mixed latent Markov model to estimate the extent of true mobility into and out of poverty. It finds that measurement error overstates the observed poverty transition probabilities or understates the true poverty persistence. Since the actual poverty persistence rate is at least 61%, the poverty in Uganda is largely permanent, not transitory. Measurement error also understates the impacts of observed individual characteristics on making poverty transition from one state to another. Land size per capita, having mobile phone and TV-radio reduce the probability of transiting into poverty as well as increase the chances of poverty exit. The empirical evidence suggests that policy makers have to target households whose consumption slightly above the poverty line and households who are very poor. Since poverty is state dependence, short run policies are effective to keep individuals not to fall into poverty in the first place because once they are poor, they are less likely to exit poverty. Since poverty is mainly chronic in Uganda, on the other hand, long term intervention through increasing human and physical capital and the returns to these assets is effective to the very poor households. Using employer- employee panel data from Ghana, the thesis also finds that poor women are disproportionately sorting into low paying firms. Even after controlling for gender difference in individuals endowments and sorting effects, firms actually pay different wage premium for comparable female and male. When wage inequality increases among the poor, chronic poverty increases. The result suggests that targeting female dominant firms to increase their productivity helps mitigate the national level chronic poverty. The thesis also identifies the type of firms that pay equal premium for comparable gender attributes

Vertical specialization across the world: a relative measure

This paper investigates a specific aspect of international production linkages that, following Hummels et al. (2001), is commonly designated as vertical specialization (VS) - the use of imported inputs to produce goods that are afterwards exported. We propose a relative measure of VS-based trade that combines information from Input-Output matrices and international trade data, producing results for a large sample of individual countries and geographical areas with a detailed product breakdown over the 1967-2005 period. This measure identifies a country’s trade flow as associated with VS activities when the share of exports of a good relatively to the world average is above a given threshold and it is accompanied by a relative share of imports of a related intermediate product that is also above the threshold. The quantification of VS-based trade for each country/product pair in each period is made in a relative and conservative manner, since it includes only the value of intermediate imports that surpasses what is implied by the chosen international threshold. The detailed results can be subsequently added up to get any product or geographical breakdown desired. We illustrate this measure by showing the evolution of VS activities at the world level over the last four decades using a product breakdown by technological intensity and a geographical breakdown by main areas. The results point to a substantial increase of VS in high-technology products over the last two decades. There is also empirical evidence on the sharp increase of VS activities in East Asia

Vertical specialization across the world: a relative measure

This paper investigates a specific aspect of international production linkages that, following Hummels et al. (2001), is commonly designated as vertical specialization (VS) - the use of imported inputs to produce goods that are afterwards exported. We propose a relative measure of VS-based trade that combines information from Input-Output matrices and international trade data, producing results for a large sample of individual countries and geographical areas with a detailed product breakdown over the 1967-2005 period. This measure identifies a country’s trade flow as associated with VS activities when the share of exports of a good relatively to the world average is above a given threshold and it is accompanied by a relative share of imports of a related intermediate product that is also above the threshold. The quantification of VS-based trade for each country/product pair in each period is made in a relative and conservative manner, since it includes only the value of intermediate imports that surpasses what is implied by the chosen international threshold. The detailed results can be subsequently added up to get any product or geographical breakdown desired. We illustrate this measure by showing the evolution of VS activities at the world level over the last four decades using a product breakdown by technological intensity and a geographical breakdown by main areas. The results point to a substantial increase of VS in high-technology products over the last two decades. There is also empirical evidence on the sharp increase of VS activities in East Asia

The pro-competitive effect of imports from China: an analysis of firm-level price data

The entry of China into world markets has been one of the strongest recent shocks to world trade and advanced countries. industrial sectors. This is particularly true for Italy where labour-intensive, low-technology production represents a large share of output. Using Italian manufacturing firm-level data on output prices over the period 1990-2006, we test whether increased import competition from China has affected firms’ pricing strategies causing a reduction in the dynamics of prices and markups. After controlling for other price determinants (demand and cost, domestic competition and import penetration), we find that this is indeed the case. Comparing China’s share of world exports to Italy with China’s total world export market share proves the causal nature of the relationship we find. Inspired by and in line with recent advances in the literature on international trade, we also show that the price effects of Chinese competitive pressures are stronger in less technologically advanced sectors and, within these sectors, on smaller firms.import competition, China, firms' prices and productivity