Productivity, Exporting and the Learning-by-Exporting Hypothesis: Direct Evidence from UK Firms

Case study evidence suggests that exporting firms learn from their clients. But econometric evidence, mostly using exporting and TFP growth, is mixed. We use a UK panel data set with firm-level information on exporting and productivity. Our innovation is that we also have direct data on the sources of learning (in this case about new technologies). Controlling for fixed effects we have two main findings. First, we find firms who exported in the past are more likely to then report that they learnt from buyers (relative to learning from other sources). Second, firms who had learned from buyers (more than they learnt from other sources) in the past are more likely to then have productivity growth. This suggests some support for the learning-by-exporting hypothesis, though is not clear whether firms deserve an exporting subsidy.Productivity, Exporting, Learning

Productivity, Exporting and the Learning-by-Exporting Hypothesis: Direct Evidence from UK Firms

Case study evidence suggests that exporting firms learn from their clients. But econometric evidence, mostly using exporting and TFP growth, is mixed. We use a UK panel data set with firm-level information on exporting and productivity. Our innovation is that we also have direct data on the sources of learning (in this case about new technologies). Controlling for fixed effects we have two main findings. First, we find firms who exported in the past are more likely to then report that they learnt from buyers (relative to learning from other sources). Second, firms who had learned from buyers (more than they learnt from other sources) in the past are more likely to then have productivity growth. This suggests some support for the learning-by-exporting hypothesis.Productivity, Exporting, Learning

Information Technology, Organisational Change and Productivity Growth: Evidence from UK Firms

We examine the relationships between productivity growth, IT investment and organisational change (Δ O) using UK firm panel data. Consistent with the small number of other micro studies we find (a) IT appears to have high returns in a growth accounting sense when Δ O is omitted; when Δ O is included the IT returns are greatly reduced, (b) IT and Δ O interact in their effect on productivity growth, (c) non-IT investment and Δ O do not interact in their effect on productivity growth. Some new findings are (a) Δ O is affected by competition and (b) we also find strong effects on the probability of introducing Δ O from ownership. US-owned firms are much more likely to introduce Δ O relative to foreign owned firms who are more likely still relative to UK firms.Information technology, Productivity growth, Organisational change

Productivity Growth, Knowledge Flows and Spillovers

This paper explores the role of knowledge flows and TFP growth by using direct survey data on knowledge flows linked to firm-level TFP growth data. Our knowledge flow data correspond to the kind of information flows often argued, especially by policy-makers, as important, such as within the firm, or from suppliers, purchasers, universities and competitors. We examine three questions (a) What is the source of knowledge flows? (b) To what extent do such flows contribute to productivity growth? (c) Do such flows constitute a spillover flow of free knowledge? Our evidence show that the main sources of knowledge are competitors; suppliers; plants that belong to the same group and universities. We conclude that the main "free" information flow spillover is from competitors and that multi-national presence may be a proximate source of this spillover.business services, structural change, economic growth, productivity

La Commedia di Ippolito e Leonora

Questo articolo presenta l’edizione critica dell’inedita Commedia di Ippolito e Lionora, tradita dal manoscritto 1612 della Biblioteca di Treviso. Si tratta di un testo teatrale in ottava rima, caratterizzato da un lungo prologo in forma di cantare, ed è un rimaneggiamento in versi della novella quattrocente­sca nota come Istorietta amorosa fra Leonora de’ Bardi e Ippolito Buondelmonti. L’edizione del testo è preceduta da uno studio introduttivo che dimostra l’identificazione di quest’opera con una commedia, ricordata da fonti storiche ma ritenuta perduta, messa in scena nel 1492 alla corte di Ercole I d’Este; essa è particolarmente interessante per la natura privata della rappresentazione: spettatori ed attori, infatti, erano membri della corte stessa.This article presents the critical edition of the unpublished Comedy of Ippolito and Lionora, contained in manuscript 1612 from Treviso pu­blic library. It is a dramatic text written in ottava rima, prefaced by a long pro­logue having the features of a cantare, and it is a poetry adaptation of the fifte­enth-century novella known as Istorietta amorosa fra Leonora de’ Bardi e Ippolito Buondelmonti. The critical edition is introduced by a study that demonstrates the identification of this work with a play, which is mentioned in historical sources but was considered lost. It was put on stage in 1492 in the court of Ercole I d’Este and is particularly interesting because its performance was pri­vate: spectators and actors, in fact, were members of the court

Productivity Growth, Knowledge Flows, and Spillovers

This paper explores the role of knowledge flows and productivity growth by linking direct survey data on knowledge flows to firm-level data on TFP growth. Our data measure the information flows often considered important, especially by policy-makers, such as from within the firm and from suppliers, customers, and competitors. We examine (a) what are the empirically important sources of knowledge flows? (b) to what extent do such flows contribute to TFP growth? (c) do such flows constitute a spillover of free knowledge? (d) how do such flows correspond to suggested spillover sources, such as multinational or R&D presence? We find that: (a) the main sources of knowledge are competitors; suppliers; and plants that belong to the same business group ; (b) these three flows together account for about 50% of TFP growth; (c) the main "free" information flow spillover is from competitors; and (d) multinational presence contributes to this spillover.

Emotion Recognition Deficits in the Differential Diagnosis of Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Cognitive Marker for the Limbic-Predominant Phenotype.

AbstractObjective:Late-onset amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) with long disease course and slow progression has been recently recognized as a possible phenotypical expression of a limbic-predominant neurodegenerative disorder. Basic emotion recognition ability crucially depending on temporo-limbic integrity is supposed to be impaired in this group of MCI subjects presenting a selective vulnerability of medio-temporal and limbic regions. However, no study specifically investigated this issue.Methods:Hereby, we enrolled 30 aMCI with a biomarker-based diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (i.e., aMCI-AD, n = 16) or a biomarker evidence of selective medio-temporal and limbic degeneration (aMCI-mTLD, n = 14). Ekman-60 Faces Test (Ek-60F) was administered to each subject, comparing the performance with that of 20 healthy controls (HCs).Results:aMCI-mTLD subjects showed significantly lower Ek-60F global scores compared to HC (p = 0.001), whose performance was comparable to aMCI-AD. Fear (p = 0.02), surprise (p = 0.005), and anger (p = 0.01) recognition deficits characterized the aMCI-mTLD performance. Fear recognition scores were significantly lower in aMCI-mTLD compared to aMCI-AD (p = 0.04), while no differences were found in other emotions.Conclusions:Impaired social cognition, suggested by defective performance in emotion recognition tasks, may be a useful cognitive marker to detect limbic-predominant aMCI subjects among the heterogeneous aMCI population

Risk-Aversion for Negative Health Outcomes May Promote Individual Compliance to Containment Measures in Covid-19 Pandemic

First-person experience of stressful life events can change individuals' risk attitudes, driving to increased or decreased risk perception. This shift to more risk-averse or risk-loving behaviors may find a correlate in the individual psycho-socio-emotional profile. To this purpose, we aimed to estimate the relationship between differences in risk-taking attitudes toward possible negative health outcomes and psycho-socio-emotional dimensions modulating the experience of life-threatening situations, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2020, we launched the PsyCovid Study (https://wprn.org/item/428452) to assess psycho-socio-emotional changes due to Covid-19 pandemic in the Italian population. Additionally, we distributed to 130 participants the Covid-19 Risk Task, including monetary and health-related stimuli, estimating a measure of risk-aversion toward health and classifying participants on the basis of their risk-attitude profiles. The set of psycho-socio-emotional variables was reduced to three PCA components: Proactivity, Isolation, Inactivity. The individual degree of risk-aversion toward negative health outcomes was directly related to Proactivity, encasing empathic, social support and positive coping strategies, which may prompt individuals to put in place self-protection strategies toward possible negative health consequences. These findings indicate that a risk-averse profile toward possible negative health outcomes may be associated to higher levels of individual prosocial and proactive dispositions, possibly making individuals' more compliant with the social and hygienic guidelines and, thus, reducing their exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 infection

Right limbic FDG-PET hypometabolism correlates with emotion recognition and attribution in probable behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia patients

The behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a rare disease mainly affecting the social brain. FDG-PET fronto-temporal hypometabolism is a supportive feature for the diagnosis. It may also provide specific functional metabolic signatures for altered socio-emotional processing. In this study, we evaluated the emotion recognition and attribution deficits and FDG-PET cerebral metabolic patterns at the group and individual levels in a sample of sporadic bvFTD patients, exploring the cognitive-functional correlations. Seventeen probable mild bvFTD patients (10 male and 7 female; age 67.8±9.9) were administered standardized and validated version of social cognition tasks assessing the recognition of basic emotions and the attribution of emotions and intentions (i.e., Ekman 60-Faces test-Ek60F and Story-based Empathy task-SET). FDG-PET was analysed using an optimized voxel-based SPM method at the single-subject and group levels. Severe deficits of emotion recognition and processing characterized the bvFTD condition. At the group level, metabolic dysfunction in the right amygdala, temporal pole, and middle cingulate cortex was highly correlated to the emotional recognition and attribution performances. At the single-subject level, however, heterogeneous impairments of social cognition tasks emerged, and different metabolic patterns, involving limbic structures and prefrontal cortices, were also observed. The derangement of a right limbic network is associated with altered socio-emotional processing in bvFTD patients, but different hypometabolic FDG-PET patterns and heterogeneous performances on social tasks at an individual level exist

Experimental Scattershot Boson Sampling

Boson Sampling is a computational task strongly believed to be hard for classical computers, but efficiently solvable by orchestrated bosonic interference in a specialised quantum computer. Current experimental schemes, however, are still insufficient for a convincing demonstration of the advantage of quantum over classical computation. A new variation of this task, Scattershot Boson Sampling, leads to an exponential increase in speed of the quantum device, using a larger number of photon sources based on parametric downconversion. This is achieved by having multiple heralded single photons being sent, shot by shot, into different random input ports of the interferometer. Here we report the first Scattershot Boson Sampling experiments, where six different photon-pair sources are coupled to integrated photonic circuits. We employ recently proposed statistical tools to analyse our experimental data, providing strong evidence that our photonic quantum simulator works as expected. This approach represents an important leap toward a convincing experimental demonstration of the quantum computational supremacy.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures (plus Supplementary Materials, 14 pages, 8 figures