Technology Diffusion or Capital Accumulation? An Empirical Assessment of Convergence in Manufacturing

In this paper I consider 28 developed and developing countries, in the period 1980- 1995, and I employ the Within Group and the Generalized Method of Moments estimators to test, respectively, for Total Factor Productivity determinants and labor productivity convergence driving forces (i.e.capital accumulation and technological catch-up) in different manufacturing sectors, identified according the technological content of their production. Moreover, I test for inter-sectoral and cross-country heterogeneity of labor productivity convergence tendencies. My results show that technology growth rate is enhanced by technological transfer, in all manufacturing sectors and countries, and that cross-country convergence is determined by technology diffusion rather than capital accumulation. Further, I find that the rate of technological convergence appears higher in emerging economies, particularly in High Tech sectors. Finally, tertiary education seems to be relatively more important, as absorptive capability, than secondary one.Classical and Technological Convergence, Absorption Capabilities, Technological Gap, TFP growth, Manufacturing sectors, Panel data

A Reassessment of Italian Regional Convergence through a Non-Parametric Approach

This paper employs the distribution dynamics approach to investigate cross-regional convergence of GDP per worker in Italy, between 1980 and 2003. Two sets of competitive hypotheses are tested: absolute versus conditional and neoclassical versus technological. Supportive evidence of only technological conditional convergence is found. This means that, should the current dynamic persists, cross-regional convergence will take place only if the differences in technological initial conditions and structural characteristics will be evened out. Moreover, as the pervasiveness of organized crime has been considered as a structural factor, the analysis suggests that technical upgrading together with institutional strengthening should be policy makers’ priorities.Italian Regions; Neoclassical and Technological Convergence; Distribution Dynamics.

Going Clubbing in the Eighties: Convergence in Manufacturing Sectors at a Glance

I adopt the distribution dynamics framework to study labor productivity convergence, in the period 1980-1995, among 28 developed and developing countries, in different manufacturing sub-sectors, identified, as according their technological content into Resource Based, Low Technology, Medium Technology and High Technology. I find that, exception made for High Technology and Manufacturing as a whole, all subcompartments are predicted to converge within small groups, validating the so-called club-convergence hypothesis. Thus, as high tech sectors are the ones opening the best growth-equity prospects, developing countries should target these kind of productions.Italian Regions; Neoclassical and Technological Convergence; Distribution Dynamics.

Shortening university career fades the signal away. Evidence from Italy.

Italian university system was reformed in 2001. This paper tests the screening role of degree scores for 2004-Italian graduates. We find support of the strong screening hypothesis for prereform type degrees, while we do not find any evidence of signalling effects for post-reform 3-years degrees. We gauge that the shutting down of the signal can be partially ascribed to the poor quality of students who obtained a 3-years degree without taking any further education.Screening, Italy, Higher Education

Corporate social responsibility and Latin American firm performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on firm performance in six Latin American economies. Firm performance comprises the following five distinct dimensions: firm turnover, labour productivity, innovativeness, product differentiation and technological transfer. The countries under scrutiny are Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. Design/methodology/approach – Propensity Score Matching techniques are employed to identify the causal effect of CSR on firm performance. To this end, the World Bank Enterprise Survey (2006 wave) is employed. This dataset collects relevant firm-level data Findings – CSR has a positive impact on the outcome variables analysed, suggesting that corporate goals are compatible with conscious business operations. The results also vary across countries. Research limitations/implications – The pattern that emerges from the analysis seems to suggest that the positive effects of CSR depend on a country’s stage of industrialisation. In particular, the less developed the economy, the wider the scope of CSR. Nonetheless, the relationship among conscious business operations, firm performance and countries’ levels of development is not directly tested in the present work. Practical implications – The main practical implication of the study is that Latin American firms should adopt CSR. This is because corporate responsible practices either improve firm performance or are not shown to have a detrimental effect. Social implications – The major policy implication is that emerging countries' governments as well as international organisations should provide meaningful incentives for CSR adoption. Originality/value – The paper makes three major original contributions. First, it furnishes new descriptive evidence on CSR practices in Latin America. Second, it employs a broader and novel definition of firm performance intended to capture business dynamics in developing countries, as well as to overcome data limitations. Finally, it reassesses and extends the empirical evidence on the impact of CSR on firm performance. Keywords - Corporate Social Responsibility, Firm Performance, Propensity Score Matching, Latin Americ

The welfare effects of nonlinear health dynamics

We generate a continuous measure of health to estimate a non-parametric model of health dynamics, showing that adverse health shocks are highly persistent when suffered by people in poor health. Canonical models cannot account for this pattern. We incorporate this health dynamic into a life-cycle model of consumption, savings, and labor force participation. After estimating the model parameters, we simulate the effects of health shocks on economic outcomes. We find that bad health shocks have long-term adverse economic effects that are more extreme for those in poor health. Furthermore, bad health shocks also increase the disparity of asset accumulation among this group of people. A canonical model of health dynamics would not reveal these effects

The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis and the Role of External and Internal Factors in Emerging Economies

This article assesses the impact of trade, capital openness and institutions on emerging economies’ output loss during the “Great Recession.” The fixed-effect estimates of an unbalanced panel of 122 emerging countries observed from 2008 to 2010 yield three main results. First, trade openness has exacerbated output loss. Second, capital openness can help mitigate the negative impact of an external shock, but this is conditional on the level of financial development. Finally, the results also point out that the interrelations between financial and institutional development affect the crisis’s severity

Convergencia cultural en el consumo mundial de vino

This paper addresses the dynamics of world wine consumption over the past 50 years in 26 countries, verifying whether or not there is a macro-tendency towards a common consumption style, despite differences in taxation, economic policies and distribution systems among countries. From an empirical point of view, the σ and β convergence hypotheses were formally tested. Model results confirm the existence of both types of convergences. Per capita consumption of wine first experienced a reduction in differences between countries and then converged toward a central value. "Traditional" countries, with historically high levels of consumption, showed a decrease in wine consumption, while emerging countries with historically lower consumption levels showed an increase. These findings not only provide further support to the theory of international convergence of wine consumption on a volume basis, as already observed by other researchers in the European market, but they also offer support for the theory in major world markets. Furthermore, convergence appears to be happening not only at a quantitative level but at qualitative level as well, and this phenomenon may very well reflect the changing tastes of worldwide consumers towards a generalized structure of wine consumption.Este paper compara las dinámicas del consumo internacional de vino de los últimos 50 años en 26 países, con el objetivo de averiguar si existe una tendencia global hacia un estilo de consumo común, al margen de las diferencias impositivas y arancelarias, políticas económicas y sistemas de distribución de cada país. Los resultados del modelo confirman las hipótesis de convergencia de tipo σ y de tipo β: se observa una disminución en la diferencia d-el consumo per capita de vino entre países y posteriormente un aumento hacia un valor central, en términos de litros. Los países "tradicionales", con niveles de consumo históricamente altos, han experimentado una disminución del mismo, mientras que países emergentes con menor tradición de consumo de vinos han registrado un crecimiento. Estos resultados no solo apoyan la teoría del consumo internacional del vino desde un punto de vista cuantitativo, ya verificada en mercados europeos, sino que extiende su alcance hacia otros mercados. Se observa también una convergencia cualitativa, fenómeno que podría reflejar un cambio mundial en los gustos de los consumidores hacia un modelo con tendencias a la uniformidad.Fil: Dal Bianco, Andrea. Padova, Italia. Universidad de Padua.Fil: Boatto, Vasco. Padova, Italia. Universidad de Padua.Fil: Caracciolo, Francesco. Portici (Italia). Universidad de Naples Federico I

A FULLY IMPLICIT MATERIAL RESPONSE CODE WITH ABLATION AND PYROLYSIS FOR SIMULATION OF THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and describe a 2-D fully implicit numerical simulation tool capable of evaluating the behaviour of an ablative charring thermal protection system during atmospheric entry. In particular, the computational tool can model the heat transfer inside a solid porous material and the decomposition of the latter, pyrolysis gas density, pressure and speed distributions and surface recession. The governing equations are fully coupled and are integrated using a time-implicit scheme. The grid can contract to simulate the recession phenomenon and the recession rate can be evaluated using different ablation models, depending on the problem and on the available data. Spatial and temporal convergence tests demonstrated that the tool is second order accurate in space and time and comparisons with available numerical results are shown here for code verification