What do we know from the literature on public e-services?.

Public e-services are a broad and growing research field in which scholars and practitioners from different domains are involved. However, the increasing attention devoted to public e-services only partially captures the extreme variety of aspects and implications of the diffusion of information and communication technologies at all levels of public administrations. The paper aims to develop a meta-analysis of the literature on the delivery, diffusion, adoption and impact of public e-services and examines current research trends in terms of differences in methodologies, approaches and key indicators across five service platforms: eGovernment, eEducation, eHealth, Infomobility and eProcurement. We examined 751 articles appeared in 2000-2010 in the top international academic journals listed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), as classified in the following fields: Communication, Economics, Education, Environmental Studies, Geography, Health Policy & Services, Information Science & Library Science, Law, Management, Planning & Development, Public Administration, Transportation and Urban Studies. We highlight a significant heterogeneity in scientific production across service domains, countries covered by empirical analyses, indicators used, and affiliation of authors. We also show an increasing diffusion of quantitative methods applied to different research fields which still appears to be constrained by data limitations. The overall picture emerging from the analysis is one characterized by largely unexplored service domains as well as scarcely analyzed issues both across and within individual service platforms (e.g. front vs. back office issues). Thus many research opportunities seem to emerge and need to be exploited from different disciplinary perspectives in this field of analysis.eGovernment, eEducation, eHealth, Infomobility, eProcurement, Bibliometrics, Metaanalysis, Innovation in services, Public e-services

Productivity Gaps, Inward Investments and Productivity of European firms

Using a balanced panel of firm-level data on the manufacturing industry in France, Italy and Spain over the 1993-1997 period, this paper examines the impact of foreign presence on the productivity of domestic enterprises. We innovate on existing literature by using firm-level data comparable across countries. A generalisation of the results obtained for individual countries is attempted by introducing two key variables in the analysis of the impact of inward investments on domestic performances: productivity gaps between foreign and domestic firms, and productivity levels of MNEs. It is shown that it is the combination of high gaps and high levels of foreign productivity that has the most positive effects. This leads to a critical consideration of both the “catching up” hypothesis, which identifies a positive relation between the size of technological gaps and growth opportunities induced by foreign investments; and the “technological accumulation” hypothesis, which stresses the role of domestic absorptive capacity and of coherence between foreign and domestic technology as determinants of virtuous effects of inward investments. Based on these results, policy implications are drawn, concerning the selection and promotion of inward investments in advanced countries.Multinationals, Technology Gap, Productivity

Location choices of multinational firms in Europe: the role of EU cohesion policy

In this paper we examine the determinants of location choices of multinational firms in Europe. In particular, we focus on the role of EU Cohesion Policy in attracting foreign investors from both within and outside Europe. Using data on 5,509 foreign subsidiaries established in 50 regions in 8 EU countries over the period 1991-1999, we estimate a mixed logit model of the determinants of MNFs’ location choices. We find that, after controlling for the role of agglomeration economies as well as a number of other regional and country characteristics and allowing for a very flexible correlation pattern among choices, Structural and Cohesion funds allocated by the EU to laggard regions have indeed contributed to attracting multinationals. These policies as well as other determinants play a different role in the case of European investors as opposed to non European ones.Europe; Foreign Direct Investments; Location Choice; Mixed Logit Models

Location choices of multinational firms in Europe: the role of national boundaries and EU policy

What determines multinational firms’ location choices in Europe? Do national boundaries matter in location decisions? To what extent are European regional policies (Structural and Cohesion Funds) able to mitigate the agglomeration forces at work? Do location determinants differ for EU and US MNEs? In this paper, we address these questions using data from 5,761 foreign subsidiaries established in 55 regions in 8 EU countries over the period 1991-1999 and estimating a nested logit model of location choices. Controlling for regional market size and potential, agglomeration economies and labor markets conditions, we find that EU policy, proxied by Cohesion Fund and Objective 1 eligibility, played a significant role in attracting multinationals. Differences emerge in determinants of EU and US multinationals location choices, with special reference to the role of labor markets. National boundaries do not seem to affect location decisions, with the relevant exception of Italy. Results suggest that multinational firms’ perceive European regions as geo-economic aggregates different from the actual political boundaries of countries.

Spatial dispersion effects upon local excitation of extrinsic plasmons in a graphene micro-disk

Excitation of surface plasmon waves in extrinsic graphene is studied using a full-wave electromagnetic field solver as analysis engine. Particular emphasis is placed on the role played by spatial dispersion due to the finite size of the two-dimensional material at the micro-scale. A simple instructive set up is considered where the near field of a wire antenna is held at sub-micrometric distance from a disk-shaped graphene patch. The key-input of the simulation is the graphene conductivity tensor at terahertz frequencies, being modeled by the Boltzmann transport equation for the valence and conduction electrons at the Dirac points~(where a linear wave-vector dependence of the band energies is assumed). The conductivity equation is worked out in different levels of approximations, based on the relaxation time ansatz with an additional constraint for particle number conservation. Both drift and diffusion currents are shown to significantly contribute to the spatially dispersive anisotropic features of micro-scale graphene. More generally, spatial dispersion effects are predicted to influence not only plasmon propagation free of external sources, but also typical scanning probe microscopy configurations. The paper set the focus on plasmon excitation phenomena induced by near field probes, being a central issue for the design of optical devices and photonic circuits

The Gravity of R&D FDIs.

The negative effect of distance is justified by the existence of transport costs which hamper the international exchange of final and intermediate goods, and by higher uncertainty about local markets. We submit that distance plays a remarkably different role in the case of R&D FDIs since they mainly involve the international transfer, absorption and use of knowledge. Using data on bilateral investment projects in R&D, manufacturing and other business activities between 58 countries, we find that geographic distance does not hinder R&D FDIs as much as in the case of production and other investment activities. Furthermore, once we control for institutional and psychic distance, in particular language and religious differences, the negative effect of geographic distance vanishes.Multinational Firms, International Business, Technological Change, Choices and Consequences, Diffusion Processes.