13,594 research outputs found
Foreign ownership and productivity: new evidence from the service sector and the R&D lab
This paper examines the relationship between foreign ownership and
productivity, paying particular attention to two issues neglected in the existing literature â
the role of multinationals in service sectors and the importance of R&D activity conducted
by foreign multinationals. We review existing theoretical and empirical work, which
largely focuses on manufacturing, before presenting new evidence using establishment level
data on production, service and R&D activity for the United Kingdom. We find that
multinationals play an important role in service sectors and that entry of foreign
multinationals by takeover is more prevalent than greenfield investment. We find that
British multinationals have lower levels of labour productivity than foreign multinationals,
but the difference is less stark in the service sector than in the production sector, and that
British multinationals have lower levels of investment and intermediate use per employee.
We also find that foreign-owned multinationals conduct a substantial amount of UK R&D.
We discuss the implications of these and other findings for the policy debate on incentives
to influence multinational firmsâ location choices
The effects of entry on incumbent innovation and productivity
How does firm entry affect innovation incentives and productivity growth in incumbent firms? Micro-data suggests that there is heterogeneity across industries--incumbents in technologically advanced industries react positively to foreign firm entry, but not in laggard industries. To explain this pattern, we introduce entry into a Schumpeterian growth model with multiple sectors which differ by their distance to the technological frontier. We show that technologically advanced entry threat spurs innovation incentives in sectors close to the technological frontier--successful innovation allows incumbents to prevent entry. In laggard sectors it discourages innovation--increased entry threat reduces incumbents' expected rents from innovating. We find that the empirical patterns hold using rich micro-level productivity growth and patent panel data for the UK, and controlling for the endogeneity of entry by exploiting the large number of policy reforms undertaken during the Thatcher era
Experimental inhibition of a key cellular antioxidant affects vocal communication
1. There is substantial interest of evolutionary ecologists in the proximate mechanisms that modulate vocal communication. In recent times, there has been growing interest in the role of oxidative stress as a mediator of avian song expression.
2. Here, we tested whether the experimental inhibition of the synthesis of a key cellular antioxidant (glutathione) reduces song rate metrics of male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). We measured the effect of our treatment on total song rate and on its two components, undirected and nest-box-oriented song, outside the breeding season.
3. Treated males that did not own a nest-box (subordinate males likely to be of lower quality) suffered increased oxidative stress relative to untreated males, while treated males that owned a nest-box (dominant males likely to be of higher quality) did not. Treated non-owners also reduced their undirected song rate, whereas treated nest-box owners did not suffer any reduction in song rate.
4. Our results revealed that inhibition of a key cellular antioxidant results in decreased vocal communication in a social vertebrate, and that this effect is dependent on its social status (nest-box owner vs. non-owner).
5. This work provides support for the hypothesis that acoustic signals may honestly convey information about the individual oxidative status and capacity to regulate the oxidative balance. Our findings raise the possibility of hitherto unexplored impacts of oxidative stress on fitness traits in social species
Entry and productivity growth: evidence from microlevel panel data
How does entry affect productivity growth of incumbents? In this paper we exploit policy reforms in the United Kingdom that changed entry conditions by opening up the U.K. economy during the 1980s and panel data on British establishments to shed light on this question. We show that more entry, measured by a higher share of industry employment in foreign firms, has led to faster total factor productivity growth of domestic incumbent firms and thus to faster aggregate productivity growth
Spin state transition in LaCoO3 by variational cluster approximation
The variational cluster approximation is applied to the calculation of
thermodynamical quantities and single-particle spectra of LaCoO3. Trial
self-energies and the numerical value of the Luttinger-Ward functional are
obtained by exact diagonalization of a CoO6 cluster. The VCA correctly predicts
LaCoO3 as a paramagnetic insulator and a gradual and relatively smooth increase
of the occupation of high-spin Co3+ ions causes the temperature dependence of
entropy and magnetic susceptibility. The single particle spectral function
agrees well with experiment, the experimentally observed temperature dependence
of photoelectron spectra is reproduced satisfactorily. Remaining discrepancies
with experiment highlight the importance of spin orbit coupling and local
lattice relaxation.Comment: Revtex file with 10 eps figure
Endohedral Impurities in Carbon Nanotubes
A generalization of the Anderson model that includes pseudo-Jahn-Teller
impurity coupling is proposed to describe distortions of an endohedral impurity
in a carbon nanotube. Treating the distortion within mean-field theory,
spontaneous axial symmetry breaking is found when the vibronic coupling
strength g exceeds a critical value g. The effective potential in the
symmetry-broken state is found to have O(2) symmetry, in agreement with
numerical calculations. For metallic zigzag nanotubes endohedrally-doped with
transition metals in the dilute limit, the low-energy properties of the system
may display two-channel Kondo behavior; however, strong vibronic coupling is
seen to exponentially suppress the Kondo energy scale.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Correlated band structure of NiO, CoO and MnO by variational cluster approximation
The variational cluster approximation proposed by Potthoff is applied to the
calculation of the single-particle spectral function of the transition metal
oxides MnO, CoO and NiO. Trial self-energies and the numerical value of the
Luttinger-Ward functional are obtained by exact diagonalization of a
TMO6-cluster. The single-particle parameters of this cluster serve as
variational parameters to construct a stationary point of the grand potential
of the lattice system. The stationary point is found by a crossover procedure
which allows to go continuously from an array of disconnected clusters to the
lattice system. The self-energy is found to contain irrelevant degrees of
freedom which have marginal impact on the grand potential and which need to be
excluded to obtain meaningful results. The obtained spectral functions are in
good agreement with experimental data.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure
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