Industrial policy evaluation in the presence of spillovers

The shortage of studies on spatial spillovers of capital subsidy policies is rather surprising, considering that such policies are usually designed to generate spatial externalities. We propose a new framework that allows positive agglomeration effects to be contrasted with the negative cross-sectional substitution and the crowding-out effect. The global evaluation of the ATT and the spillover parameters shifts the spotlight from the policy effect on subsidised firms to the global effect of capital subsidy policies on the targeted territory. The empirical evaluation of a policy in Italy mainly directed towards small- and medium-sized firms shows that the impact on investments, turnover and employment is positive and large, but is negative on TFP. However, the employment growth is partially determined to the detriment of the untreated firms

SME Performance, Innovation and Networking - Evidence on Complementarities for a Local Economic System

The paper addresses the relevancy of networking activities and R&D as main drivers of productivity performance and ouput innovation, for small and medium enterprises (SME) playing in a local economic system. Given the intangible nature of many techno organisational innovation and networking strategies, original recent survey data for manufacturing and services are exploited. The aim is to provide new evidence on the complementarity relationships concerning different networking activities and R&D in a local SME oriented system in Northern Italy. We first introduce a methodological framework to empirically test complementarity among R&D and networking, in a discrete setting. Secondly, we consequently present empirical evidence on productivity drivers and on complementarity between R&D and networking strategies, with respect to firm productivity and process/product output innovation. R&D is a main driver of innovation and productivity, even without networking. This may signify, in association with the evidence on complementarity, that firm expenditures on R&D are a primary driver for performance. The complementarity with networking is a consequential step. Networking by itself cannot thus play a role in stimulating productivity and innovation. It can be a complementary factor in situations where cooperation and networking are needed to achieve economies of scale and/or to merge and integrate diverse skills, technologies and competencies. This is compatible with a framework where networking is the public good part of an impure public good wherein R&D plays the part of the private-led driving force towards structural break from the business as usual scenario. Managers and policy makers should be aware that in order to exploit asset complementarity, possibly transformed into competitive advantages, both R&D and networking are to be sustained and favoured. our evidence suggests that R&D may be a single main driver of performance. Since R&D expenditures are associated with firm size, a policy sustain is to be directed towards firm enlargement. After a certain threshold firms have the force to increase expenditures. The size effect is nevertheless non monotonous. Then, but not least important, for the majority of firms still remaining under a critical size threshold, policy incentives should be directed to R&D in connection with networking, through which a virtuous circle may arise. It is worth noting that it is not networking as such the main engine. Networking elements are crucially linked to innovation dynamics; it is nevertheless innovation that explains and drives networking, and not the often claimed mere existence of local spillovers or of a civic associative culture in the territory. Such public good factors exist but are likely to evolve with and be sustained by firm innovative dynamics

‘Better late than never’: the interplay between green technology and age for firm growth

This paper investigates the relationship between green/non-green technologies and firm growth. By combining the literature on eco-innovations, industrial organisation and entrepreneurial studies, we examine the dependence of this relationship on the pace at which firms grow and the age of the firm. From a dataset of 5498 manufacturing firms in Italy for the period of 2000–2008, longitudinal fixed effects quantile models are estimated, in which the firm’s age is set to moderate the effects of green and non-green patents on employment growth. We find that the positive effect of green technologies on growth is greater than that of non-green technologies. However, this result does not apply to struggling and rapidly growing firms. With fast-growing (above the median) firms, age moderates the growth effect of green technologies. Inconsistent with the extant literature, this moderation effect is positive: firm experience appears important for the growth benefits of green technologies, possibly relative to the complexity of their management

Heuristic Optimization Methods for Dynamic Panel Data Model Selection: Application on the Russian Innovative Performance

Innovations, be they radical new products or technology improvements are widely recognized as a key factor of economic growth. To identify the factors triggering innovative activities is a main concern for economic theory and empirical analysis. As the number of hypotheses is large, the process of model selection becomes a crucial part of the empirical implementation. The problem is complicated by the fact that unobserved heterogeneity and possible endogeneity of regressors have to be taken into account. A new efficient solution to this problem is suggested, applying optimization heuristics, which exploits the inherent discrete nature of the problem. The model selection is based on information criteria and the Sargan test of overidentifying restrictions. The method is applied to Russian regional data within the framework of a log-linear dynamic panel data model. To illustrate the performance of the method, we also report the results of Monte-Carlo simulations

The Relationship between Environmental Efficiency and Manufacturing Firm's Growth

This paper investigates the empirical link between emission intensity and economic growth, using a very large data set of 61,219 Italian manufacturing firms over the period 2000-2004. As a measure of lagged environmental performance (efficiency) at firm level we exploit NAMEA sector for CO2, NOx, SOx data over 1990-1999. The paper tests the extent to which (past) environmental efficiency/intensity, which is driven by structural features and firm strategic actions, including responses to policies, influences firms growth. Our results show, first, a typical trade off generally appearing for the three core environmental emissions we analyse: lower environmentally efficiency in the recent past allows higher degrees of freedom to firms and relax the constraints for growth, at least in this short/medium term scenario. Nevertheless, the size of the estimated coefficients is not large. Trade offs are significant for two emission indicators out of two, but quite negligible in terms of impacts, besides the case of CO2. For example, growth is reduced by far less than 0.1% in association to a 1% increase of environmental efficiency. In addition, non-linearity seems to characterise the economic growth-environmental performance relationship. Signals of inverted U shape appear: this may be a signal that both firm strategies and recent policy efforts are affecting the dynamic relationship between environmental efficiency and economic productivity, turning it from an usual trade off to a possible joint complementary/co-dynamics

The Link between Innovation and Productivity in Estonia’s Service Sectors

The emerging literature on the characteristics of innovation processes in the service sector has paid relatively little attention to the links between innovation and productivity. In this paper we investigate how the innovation-productivity relationship differs across various subbranches of the service sector. For the analysis we use the CDM structural model consisting of equations for innovation expenditures, innovation output, productivity and exports. We use data from the community innovation surveys for Estonia. We show that innovation is associated with increased productivity in the service sector. The results indicate surprisingly that the effect of innovation on productivity is stronger in the less knowledge-intensive service sectors, despite the lower frequency of innovative activities and the results of earlier literature. Non-technological innovation only plays a positive role in some specifications, despite its expected importance especially among the service firms. An additional positive channel of the effects of innovation on productivity may function through increased exports.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133027/1/wp1012.pd

A interculturalidade em Educação Patrimonial: desafios e contributos para o ensino de História

RESUMO No ensino de História, aspectos curriculares interdisciplinares relacionados com o uso do património cultural ou a problematização em torno do desenvolvimento de atitudes de tolerância, de respeito pela diferença e cooperação entre povos, necessitam de uma reflexão fundamentada e sistemática sobre concepções de alunos e professores em áreas centrais para a Educação Histórica, como a da interculturalidade. Com o objetivo de aprofundar, numa abordagem essencialmente qualitativa, a compreensão dos sentidos atribuídos por alunos e professores a fontes patrimoniais, em articulação com conceitos ligados à consciência histórica, nomeadamente os de identidade e de património, analisaram-se as concepções de alunos de 7.º ano e de 10.º ano de várias escolas do norte de Portugal, acerca da forma como interpretam fontes patrimoniais e, ainda, como os seus professores entendem o uso de fontes patrimoniais no ensino e aprendizagem de História, dada a sua relação com a interpretação como processo de construção de significado acerca do passado. Neste estudo registaram-se diferentes perfis de identidade consoante o padrão de pensamento, desde uma identidade local/nacional fundada nas origens, i.e. exclusiva, até uma identidade mais inclusiva e europeia/global. Os resultados do estudo permitem abrir possibilidades de novas formas de abordagem educativa relacionadas com a utilização do património como evidência histórica, contribuindo para o desenvolvimento da consciência histórica e patrimonial

Eliciting the Demand for Long Term Care Coverage: A Discrete Choice Modelling Analysis

We evaluate the demand for long term care (LTC) insurance prospects in a stated preference context, by means of the results of a choice experiment carried out on a representative sample of the Emilia-Romagna population. Choice modelling techniques have not been used yet for studying the demand for LTC services. In this paper these methods are first of all used in order to assess the relative importance of the characteristics which define some hypothetical insurance programmes and to elicit the willingness to pay for some LTC coverage prospects. Moreover, thanks to the application of a nested logit specification with partial degeneracy, we are able to model the determinants of the preference for status quo situations where no systematic cover for LTC exists. On the basis of this empirical model, we test for the effects of a series of socio-demographic variables as well as personal and household health state indicators