Challenges of Building a Knowledge Based Economy in Croatia

The objective of this paper is to explore the essential nature of knowledge-based economy and to examine the current position of Croatian economy in the process of establishing sufficient conditions for transition to it. Particular attention is given to the production, transmission and transfer of knowledge and information and communication technology (ICT) in Croatia which determine the pace, direction and success of creating a knowledge-based economy. The paper concludes with the policy suggestions how to narrow the gap between Croatia and developed nations relying on the knowledge and ICT as two essential and interrelated core elements of any strategy aiming to build a knowledge-based economy.knowledge-based economy, knowledge, information and communication technology, Croatia

Factors Affecting U.S. Trade and Shipments of Information Technology Products: Computer Equipment, Telecommunications Equipment, and Semiconductors

Despite a recent downturn, the information technology (IT) products sector experienced a tremendous expansion in trade and shipments during the last decade and became an increasingly important component of the U.S. economy. This expansion was driven by a variety of factors such as the globalization of IT production, constant technological innovation, rapid growth in worldwide consumption, and global trade liberalization. This working paper will examine these factors, providing particular attention to the computer equipment, telecommunications equipment, and semiconductor industries.International Development,

Potential Growth and Business Cycle in the Spanish Economy: Implications for Fiscal Policy

An accurately estimation of the cyclical position of an economy is a necessary condition for the success of fiscal stabilisation policies. In this paper we show that the estimation of the output gap by means of decomposing a production function produces similar results to univariate and multivariate methods, increasing their robustness and allowing us to conclude that most of the information on the economic cycle is included in the cyclical component of the unemployment rate. The results also indicate that there is reduced uncertainty about the periods when the Spanish economy has clearly been in a deep recession or in a sharp expansion. These periods have been limited and of relatively short duration. Fiscal policy should pay particular attention to these episodes, when discretionary stabilisation policies make most sense.potential growth, business cycle, speed-limit policies

Book Review - Yochai Benkler, the Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom

Benkler argues that the West is engaged in an escalating culture war between the industrial information economy - a one-way, capital-intensive, and professionally-produced model that has held sway for 150 years - and the networked information economy (NIE) - many-to-many, low-capital, and cooperative model that has been emerging in the last 15 years. The NIE is built on the infrastructure of the internet and is characterized by characterized by (1) non-proprietary strategies, (2) rising non-market production, and (3) more effective, large-scale cooperative efforts, in other words, peer production of information, knowledge, and culture. These aspects challenge our economies and our polities, and hold significant promise for enhancing personal autonomy, however, Benkler, in writing what amounts to a manifesto for the internet, pays little attention to the way in which the NIE is vulnerable to technical capture in the same way the industrial information economy is vulnerable to capital capture, taking a wait-and-see approach to regulatory intervention. Still, Wealth of Networks is a comprehensive and readable survey of the arguments for a commons-based approach to the development of the NIE

Deregulating technology transfer in agriculture : reform's impact on turkey in the 1980s

Turkey is one of a handful of developing countries that have liberalized regulation of agricultural inputs and welcome private firms delivering technology and inputs. The authors show that Turkish regulatory reform affecting seeds and other inputs in the 1980s: 1) Greatly increased private technology transfer into Turkey. 2) Encouraged market entry for more foreign and domestic companies involved in production and trade in Turkey. 3) Allowed private firms to increase their share of input markets. 4) Where inputs brought new technology, allowed farmers to significantly increase yields and production. The authors recommend that the World Bank and other donors involved with agriculture pay more attention to the regulation of inputs in developing countries. They also recommend that developing country governments revise regulations to leave choices about technology performance to farmers and markets - and to focus instead on externalities, removing unnecessary obstacles to provide technology transfer through the production and trade of inputs. Other countries that have similarly reformed the regulation of agricultural inputs include Chile (in the 1970s), Bangladesh and India (at the end of the 1980s), Malawi (in 1995-96), and Romania (in 1997).Knowledge Economy,Agricultural Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Agricultural Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

Testing the induced innovation hypothesis in South African agriculture (an error correction approach)

The authors investigate whether factor prices matter in agricultural production and in the selection of production technology. Each stage of the analysis corroborates the inducement hypothesis, which implies that factor prices do matter in agricultural production and in the selection of production technology. The empirical results also suggest that observed rates and biases of technological change are influenced by average farm size, by spending on research and extension, and by favorable tax and interest-rate policies. In South Africa, the authors contend, more attention should be focused on the technological needs of small-scale farmers. The lobbying power of the large commercial farmers, combined with policies followed under apartheid, must have influenced the allocation of research and development funds between labor- and land-saving technical change. This will have distorted the technological bias toward labor saving technical change, which is hardly appropriate for a labor-surplus economy in which small farmers in the former homelands face a chronic scarcity of land. These results show that factor prices do matter in agricultural production and the selection of production technology. And there seems to be merit to the World Bank's usual policy prescription - structural adjustment and market liberalization - for economies in which prices are controlled and distorted. They investigate the role of factor prices by applying cointegration techniques to a model of induced innovation based on the two-stage constant elasticity of substitution production function. This approach results in direct tests of the inducement hypothesis, which are applied to data for South African agriculture for the period 1947-92. They check the time series properties of the variables, establish cointegration, and construct an error correction model (ECM) that allows factor substitution to be separated from technological change. Finally, they subject the ECM formulation to tests of causality, which show that the factor price ratios induce the factor saving biases of technological change.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Markets and Market Access,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Science Education

Media Knowledge Consumers Protection

Complex and interdisciplinary researches demonstrate today, more powerful than ever, that we live in a knowledge-based society, a society in which the production, distribution and consumption of knowledge are fundamental processes. Land, labor and capital, the production factors that characterized previous societies, have been replaced in the macroeconomic indicators hierarchies by intellectual capital. Knowledge-based economy means not only the development of knowledge production and distribution, but also knowledge consumption. The new class of workers, the knowledge workers, signaled by Peter Drucker a few dcades ago, led to the development of a new class of consumers: knowledge consumers. From the wide class of knowledge consumers we will focus our attention on media knowledge consumers, respectively press and audiovisual media. The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the necessity of the conceptualization of this important class of consumers and to formulate a series of requirements for their protection. Having in mind the main purpose of this paper, we conducted a series of researches on two fundamental dimensions: a) the gathering of media information and knowledge from the most important newspapers and TV channels from Romania; b) the estimation of the degree of awareness of media knowledge consumers’ protection among members of the Romanian Parliament, members in change of legislating in our country. This paper presents the results of the first series of researches, on the two above mentioned dimensions.knowledge, knowledge consumers, consumers rights, media knowledge suppliers, knowledge consumers’ protection

ECONOMIC PROFILE OF BILLINGS COUNTY

Policies affecting the use of public lands can have direct consequences for industries that rely on outputs from those lands. In recent years, environmental concerns have prompted a revisiting of the policies governing the use of those lands. Subsequently, alternative policies have been proposed that would move the management of some public lands away from the concepts of "multiple use" to those of limited access or wilderness designations, ultimately eliminating many consumptive uses on those lands. Thus, for industries and regional economies relying on public resources, it is necessary to (1) draw attention to the economic importance of those lands, (2) identify the potential consequences of changes in their management and use, and (3) develop plans and options for the future use of those resources. Billings County, in western North Dakota, is comprised of about 50 percent public land. Natural resource use plays a critical role in the county's economy. Public lands provide important inputs for local industries in Billings County, such as oil and natural gas production, livestock grazing, wildlife production, scenic attractions, and outdoor recreation. Energy and agriculture are the largest industries, accounting for 88 percent of all "new wealth" in the county. The remaining activity comes from tourism and federal activities. Overall, the size of the county's economic base has been decreasing, paralleling declines in the energy industry. The economic effect of potential changes in local industries was demonstrated by changing the level of economic base activities in key industries and using input/output analysis to show the subsequent secondary effects on the regional economy. From the information provided, Billings County can determine the economic consequences of changes in the use of the county's natural resources.public land use, economic base analysis, basic sector industries, North Dakota., Community/Rural/Urban Development, Land Economics/Use,

Трансформація умов господарювання в економіці знань та її вплив на соціальну політику держави (Transformation of economic conditions in the economy of knowledge and its impact on social policy)

У статті охарактеризовано сутність глобалізації як системної трансформації світової економіки. Акцентовано увагу на особливостях мережевої (цифрової, символічної, швидкісної) економіки, що формується. Охарактеризовано її вплив на суспільні відносини та різнобічні аспекти пов’язаних із цим позитивних і негативних змін. Розглянуто перспективи трансформації «інформаційного суспільства» у «суспільство знань», основою якого стане «економіка знань» як втілення сінергетичного ефекту від використання основних факторів виробництва. Обґрунтовано необхідність корегування курсу ринкового реформування економіки України, його соціальної орієнтації на основі зміни сенсу та механізмів соціально-економічної політики. (The article describes the essence of globalization as a systemic transformation of the global economy. The attention is focused on the features of the network (digital, symbolic, high-speed) economy emerging. Characterized its impact on social relations and diverse aspects related positive and negative changes. The prospects of transformation «information society» in the «knowledge society», which will be the basis of «knowledge economy» as the embodiment synergetic effect of the use of production factors. The necessity of adjusting the exchange rate market reform Ukraine’s economy, its social orientation based on the change of meaning and mechanisms of social and economic policy.