Markets for technology (why do we see them, why don't we see more of them and why we should care)

This essay explores the nature, the functioning, and the economic and policy implications of markets for technology. Today, the outsourcing of research and development activities is more common than in the past, and specialized technology suppliers have emerged in many industries. In a sense, the Schumpeterian vision of integrating R&D with manufacturing and distribution is being confronted by the older Smithian vision of division of labor. The existence and efficacy of markets for technology can profoundly influence the creation and diffusion of new knowledge, and hence, economic growth of countries and the competitive position of companies. The economic and managerial literatures have touched upon some aspects of the nature of these markets. However, a thorough understanding of how markets for technology work is still lacking. In this essay we address two main questions. First, what are the factors that enable a market for technology to exist and function effectively? Specifically we look at the role of industry structure, the nature of knowledge, and intellectual property rights and related institutions. Second, we ask what the implications of such markets are for the boundaries of the firm, the specialization and division of labor in the economy, industry structure, and economic growth. We build on this discussion to develop the implications of our work for public policy and corporate strategy

Markets for Technology and Their Implications for Corporate Strategy.

Although market transactions for technologies, ideas, knowledge or information are limited by several well-known imperfections, there is evidence that they have become more common than in the past. In this paper we analyze how the presence of markets for technology conditions the technology and corporate strategy of firms. The first and most obvious implication is that markets for technology increase the strategy space: firms can choose to license in the technology instead of developing it in-house or they can choose to license out their technology instead of (or in addition to) investing in the downstream assets needed to manufacture and commercialize the goods. The implications for management include more proactive management of intellectual property, greater attention to external monitoring of technologies, and organizational changes to support technology licensing, joint-ventures and acquisition of external technology. For entrepreneurial startups, markets for technology make a focused business model more attractive. At the industry level, markets for technology may lower barriers to entry and increase competition, with important implications for the firms' broader strategy as well.

Markets for technology in the knowledge economy.

The focus of this research has been the study of the nature and functioning of markets for technologyStrategic planning; Technological planning; Organizational change; Research & development;

Specialized technology suppliers, international spillovers and investment: evidence from the chemical industry.

In this paper we study how the development of specialized upstream technology suppliers in leading countries improves technology access and lowers investment costs for downstream firms in follower countries. We test this idea using a novel database covering all investments in chemical plants in less developed countries ŽLDCs. during the 1980s. We find that investments in chemical plants in the LDCs are greater, the greater is the number of technology suppliers that operate in the first world. A major contribution of this paper is to identify an important but understudied mechanism through which technology is made available.Market for technology; Specialization; Technology supply; Investment; Chemical industry;

The distribution of employees’ labour earnings in the European Union: Data, concepts and first results

This paper studies the distribution of labour earnings among employees within the EU using data from Wave 2007-1 of the Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EUSILC). The review of available information and the comparisons with external sources show that the EU-SILC data are not exempt from problems, particularly in some countries, yet can be fruitfully used to study the distribution of earnings in the EU; they also allow researchers to assess the sensitivity of results to various concepts of labour earnings. The ranking of countries by median full-time equivalent monthly gross earnings shows Eastern European nations at the bottom and Luxembourg at the top; earnings differences are sizeable, both across and within countries. Taking the euro area and the EU-25 (excluding Malta, for which data are unavailable) as a whole, inequality is higher when earnings are measured in euro at market rates rather than at purchasing power parities. The wage distribution is wider in the EU-25 than in the euro area, which is not surprising given that the former includes the poorer Eastern European countries that joined the Union in 2004. The higher inequality observed in the EU-25 is largely attributable to differences between countries, which are essentially due to the returns to individual attributes rather than to a different composition of the workforce with respect to these attributes.wage inequality, EU and euro area labour markets.

Redshift-space distortions of galaxies, clusters and AGN: testing how the accuracy of growth rate measurements depends on scales and sample selections

Redshift-space clustering anisotropies caused by cosmic peculiar velocities provide a powerful probe to test the gravity theory on large scales. However, to extract unbiased physical constraints, the clustering pattern has to be modelled accurately, taking into account the effects of non-linear dynamics at small scales, and properly describing the link between the selected cosmic tracers and the underlying dark matter field. We use a large hydrodynamic simulation to investigate how the systematic error on the linear growth rate, $f$, caused by model uncertainties, depends on sample selections and comoving scales. Specifically, we measure the redshift-space two-point correlation function of mock samples of galaxies, galaxy clusters and Active Galactic Nuclei, extracted from the Magneticum simulation, in the redshift range 0.2 < z < 2, and adopting different sample selections. We estimate $f\sigma_8$ by modelling both the monopole and the full two-dimensional anisotropic clustering, using the dispersion model. We find that the systematic error on $f\sigma_8$ depends significantly on the range of scales considered for the fit. If the latter is kept fixed, the error depends on both redshift and sample selection, due to the scale-dependent impact of non-linearities, if not properly modelled. On the other hand, we show that it is possible to get unbiased constraints on $f\sigma_8$ provided that the analysis is restricted to a proper range of scales, that depends non trivially on the properties of the sample. This can have a strong impact on multiple tracers analyses, and when combining catalogues selected at different redshifts.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

First-Principles Wannier Functions of Silicon and Gallium Arsenide

We present a self-consistent, real-space calculation of the Wannier functions of Si and GaAs within density functional theory. We minimize the total energy functional with respect to orbitals which behave as Wannier functions under crystal translations and, at the minimum, are orthogonal. The Wannier functions are used to calculate the total energy, lattice constant, bulk modulus, and the frequency of the zone-center TO phonon of the two semiconductors with the accuracy required nowadays in ab-initio calculations. Furthermore, the centers of the Wannier functions are used to compute the macroscopic polarization of Si and GaAs in zero electric field. The effective charges of GaAs, obtained by finite differentiation of the polarization, agree with the results of linear response theory.Comment: 12 pages, 2 PostScript figures, RevTeX, to appear in Physical Review