ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY AND KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS FOR LARGE INTERNATIONAL FIRMS: A SURVEY

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Private monetary transfers and altruism: an empirical investigation on Italian families

The aim of this paper is to explore the motivation of monetary transfers received by household heads. Indeed, the financial transfers may be motivated by altruism or by the expectation of future services. For this reason, we select a sample of Italian families from the 2006 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) dataset. The empirical analysis is divided into two parts. First, we consider the transfer decision and try to account for the factors that affect the probability that the household member will receive a transfer. Next, we restrict our analysis to those families who did receive a positive transfer and examine the factors that affect the size of the transfer. The economic interest in the intrinsic explanation of monetary transfers is supported by the efficacy of policy makers instruments. For this reason, we also explore the relationship between private and public financial transfers. The main contribution to the existing literature is to investigate the social motivation of private transfers and their implications in terms of policy in a unified framework.Altruism; Household behaviour; Cross-sectional Models

DOMESTIC VERSUS INTERNATIONAL R&D SPILLOVERS AND PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE OF LARGE INTERNATIONAL FIRMS

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An investigation of the relation between the number of children and education in Italy

In this paper we have investigated the impact of the level of education on the number of children in Italy. We have selected 1,490 families from the 1997- 2005 Longitudinal Investigation on Italian Families (ILFI) dataset. Our dependent variable is represented by the number of children ever born to each respondent (and to his partner). Since the number of children ever born (CEB) is a count variable, we have implemented three empirical models: Poisson, Zero-Truncated Poisson and an Instrumental Variable Poisson, where grandparents’ education is exerted as an instrument of parents’ education. In particular, we have considered two stages for each model: in the first stage, we have estimated the impact of female’s education on her number of children, and in the second one, we have used also partner’s education to identify the previous effect. From the empirical results, we may observe a significant negative effect of the level of education on the number of children.Fertility; Human Capital; Education

Human Capital and Ferility Decisions: A Comparative Microeconometric Analysis in Europe

In this paper we have investigated the relationship between human capital proxied by the schooling level and fertility decisions for some EU countries. For this purpose we have resorted to a dynamic random effect probit model controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and initial problem, by using eight waves of 2001 European Community Household Panel (ECHP) data. The main objective has been to compare the effects of education on the probability of having a child for some EU countries. Since the probability of having a child is affected by the same probability related to the previous year, we have implemented a dynamic model instead of a static one. From the empirical results, we have found out a significant relationship between the schooling level and fertility decisions.

Firms' Innovation in Waste Management and Land Fertilizers within the Triad

In this paper we investigate agricultural innovation in three economic areas: the USA, Japan and Europe, taking into account simultaneously both the spatial and technological dimensions.In particular, we introduce a theoretical framework and an empirical analysis based upon a dataset composed of worldwide R&D-intensive firms to discuss the role of spillover components in the waste management efficiency at firm level. The technological relatedness between the firms is computed through an original Mahalanobis Environmental industry weight matrix, based on the construction of technological vectors for each firm. Methodologically, from one hand, we explore the extent to which knowledge spillovers are important through spatial analysis procedure and from the other hand, we measure the effects of technology spillovers on firms' productivity through econometric methods to handle heterogeneity and endogenous explanatory variables. The findings show a positive impact of Jacobian R&D spillovers on firms' productivity and environmental performance and this result can be relevant repercussions in terms of policy implications

Knowledge spillovers and productivity in Italian manufacturing firms

In this paper we analyze the relationship between R&D spillovers and productivity. To this aim, we use data from 9th and 10th “Indagine sulle imprese manifatturiere” (IMM) surveys carried out by Capitalia. These two surveys, which cover the period 2001-2006, contain both quantitative and qualitative information on a large sample of Italian firms. The main contribution of this paper is to stress the importance of replacing the traditional high-tech/low-tech industries with a classification more suitable to capture the nature of new technologies. Indeed, the industry data are summarised in a particular taxonomy, according to Pavitt methodology: Supplier dominated, Scale intensive, Specialized suppliers and Science based. This taxonomy accounts for differences in the knowledge intensity and innovative activities within sectors. The estimation method takes into account the endogeneity of regressors and simultaneity issue regarding firms’ decision to invest in R&D. The results provide evidence of higher productivity in R&D intensive industries and this can be interpreted as the signal of the relevance of spillover effects

Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Energy Production Efficiency Activity

The objective of this paper is to explore the energy production efficiency activity of large R&D-intensive firms. Research methodology follows two steps: first, we describe the theoretical background through a firm level model and, second, we develop econometric techniques that explore spatial spillovers and deal with the endogeneity of the explanatory variables. The findings show a significant effect of energy innovation externalities on firms' environmental performance

Knowledge spillovers and productivity in Italian manufacturing firms

In this paper we analyze the relationship between R&D spillovers and productivity. To this aim, we use data from 9th and 10th “Indagine sulle imprese manifatturiere” (IMM) surveys carried out by Capitalia. These two surveys, which cover the period 2001-2006, contain both quantitative and qualitative information on a large sample of Italian firms. The main contribution of this paper is to stress the importance of replacing the traditional high-tech/low-tech industries with a classification more suitable to capture the nature of new technologies. Indeed, the industry data are summarised in a particular taxonomy, according to Pavitt methodology: Supplier dominated, Scale intensive, Specialized suppliers and Science based. This taxonomy accounts for differences in the knowledge intensity and innovative activities within sectors. The estimation method takes into account the endogeneity of regressors and simultaneity issue regarding firms’ decision to invest in R&D. The results provide evidence of higher productivity in R&D intensive industries and this can be interpreted as the signal of the relevance of spillover effects