Revisiting the investment development path (IDP): A non linear fluctuation approach

The investment development path (IDP) approach claims that countries go through five stages with respect to their net outward investment positions as they develop. Attempts to test its validity using time-series or cross-section estimation techniques were moderately successful and the functional specifications used did not reflect IDP structure well. In this study, we introduce a fluctuation function, which is obtained from the general solution of an exponential function reflecting a continuous compounding process. It has extra properties that help capture the idiosyncratic shape of IDP and gives parameter estimates that facilitate interpretation of the stage a country is at.investment development path, trigonometric function, nonlinear estimation

Cross sectoral FDI spillovers and their impact on manufacturing productivity

This paper explores the relationship between FDI spillovers and productivity in manufacturing firms in five European transition countries. The novelty of our approach lies in exploring different mechanisms of horizontal spillovers and disentangling the impact of backward and forward vertical spillovers from services and manufacturing sectors. We rely on firm level data obtained from the Amadeus database and annual input-output tables. The results from dynamic panel model estimations reveal that local manufacturing firms benefit from the presence of foreign firms in upstream services, especially in the knowledge intensive services, and in downstream manufacturing sector. Demonstration effect is found to be negatively associated with domestic firms’ productivity, while worker mobility and increased competition appear to be the main channels of horizontal knowledge diffusion. The firms’ productivity is also influenced positively by human capital and intangible assets. Finally, we show that the direction and intensity of both vertical and horizontal spillovers depend on the absorptive capacity of domestic firms

FDI spillover effects on innovation activities of knowledge using and knowledge creating firms: Evidence from an emerging economy

The beneficial effects of innovation for firm performance and competitiveness are well established but it has been suggested in recent years that innovation regimes differ between advanced and emerging economies. While advanced economies rely on knowledge generation, their emerging counterparts follow mainly knowledge use regime through the application of existing knowledge and technology. Climbing up the technological ladder can be helped through spillovers from foreign investors to local firms. We investigate whether FDI spillovers influence different phases of innovation process (from decision to innovate to productivity) among knowledge using and knowledge creating firms in an emerging European economy. The results show that innovation process in emerging economies is closer to imitation than creation of novel products. Local firms benefit from foreign counterparts in the early phase of innovation process. Stronger FDI effects are found on firms that undertake innovation through knowledge use than through knowledge generation

What do strokes teach us about collaborative design ?

peer reviewedUnderstanding collaborative design goes far beyond analyzing group dynamics, tasks allocations or negotiation during decision-making processes. In this paper, we focused on the collaborative sketching process, during which the intentions of designers are supported by their sketches and by specific strokes.Twelve professional designers attended an experimental design session, where they were asked to express, share, capture or interpret sketches. A qualitative and quantitative fine-grained analysis of strokes teach us (i) how designers tend to deal with representations that are not theirs; (ii) what main graphical key-features constitute the inner nature of the shared information and (iii) how and when can this graphic essence be shared with collaborators

Gender Roles and the Education Gender Gap in Turkey

Using nationally representative data on individual subjective views on gender roles, we examine the gender gap in educational achievement in Turkey and show that the cultural bias against the education of girls is a fundamental factor behind their low educational attainment in socially conservative societies. The 1997 education reform in Turkey extended compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years. Using the reform as a natural experiment, we investigate the impact of the reform on the effects of mothers' traditional views in determining children's educational attainment. We find that the reform helped reduce school dropout rates across the country. Nevertheless, regardless of the mother's view on gender roles, the reductions in school dropout rates were similar for boys and girls, failing to eliminate the gender gap against girls. Turkey is an excellent environment to study the effects of societal gender roles since it combines modernity with traditionalism and displays a wide spectrum of views on gender roles. It is also one of the few developing countries where a gender gap to the detriment of females still exists in educational achievement