Absorptive Capacity and Efficiency: A Comparative Stochastic Frontier Approach Using Sectoral Data

In this paper, we investigate differences in and determinants of technical efficiency across three groups of OECD, Asian and Latin American countries. As technical efficiency determines the capacity with which countries absorb technology produced abroad, these differences are important to understand differences in growth and productivity across countries, especially for developing countries which depend to a large extend on foreign technology. Using a stochastic frontier framework and data for 22 manufacturing sectors for 1996-2005, we find notable differences in technical efficiency between the three country groups we examine. We then investigate the effect of human capital and domestic R&D, proxied by the stock of patents, on technical efficiency. We find that while human capital has always a strongly positive effect on efficiency, an increase in the stock of patents has positive effects on efficiency in high-tech sectors, but negative effects in low-tech sectors

Total expenditure elasticity of non-durable consumption of European households

This document presents the results of an empirical analysis carried out in order to estimate total expenditure elasticities for the household consumption module of the FIDELIO model. The estimates are based on survey data for the following six European countries: Austria, France, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, and the UK. The analysis deals with twelve categories of non-durable consumption: four energy- and eight non-energy-related goods and services. Results appear to be in line with the comparable elasticity estimates of the existing literature. Socio-demographic controls related to both household characteristics and housing conditions offer interesting additional results that may be useful at a later stage of the analysis with the FIDELIO model.JRC.J.5-Sustainable Production and Consumptio

Improving the European input–output database for global trade analysis

There are increasing numbers of published articles in the feld of input–output analysis and modelling that use the GTAP input–output database; particularly, in relation to the estimation of carbon, energy and water footprints and the analysis of global value chains and international trade. The policy relevance of those topics is also increasing, thus calling for consistently linking these databases with ofcial statistics. Although, so far, GTAP has been using their own classifcation and reconciliation methods, this paper develops a new conversion method for the EU that guarantees that the EUGTAP database respects the new statistical standards and Eurostat ofcial statistics. We recommend for future updates, a shift of the current GTAP classifcation of industries to the new ofcial standard classifcations to which countries are progressively moving to. Otherwise, the lack of matching ofcial data would jeopardize the usefulness of such database. This method can be extended to other similar input–output databases with diferent classifcation schemes from the original input data source

Absorptive Capacity and Efficiency: A Comparative Stochastic Frontier Approach Using Sectoral Data Absorptive Capacity and Efficiency: A Comparative Stochastic Frontier Approach Using Sectoral Data Absorptive Capacity and Efficiency: A Comparative Stochas

Abstract In this paper, we investigate differences in and determinants of technical efficiency across three groups of OECD, Asian and Latin American countries. As technical efficiency determines the capacity with which countries absorb technology produced abroad, these differences are important to understand differences in growth and productivity across countries, especially for developing countries which depend to a large extend on foreign technology. Using a stochastic frontier framework and data for 22 manufacturing sectors for 1996-2005, we find notable differences in technical efficiency between the three country groups we examine. We then investigate the effect of human capital and domestic R&D, proxied by the stock of patents, on technical efficiency. We find that while human capital has always a strongly positive effect on efficiency, an increase in the stock of patents has positive effects on efficiency in high-tech sectors, but negative effects in low-tech sectors

Technology, development and welfare: two essays in international trade and development economics

My PhD thesis seeks to answer two important questions in a world where the spread of technology from the North to the South has accelerated as never before, and most emerging countries are experiencing large productivity improvements. First, should advanced countries welcome productivity improvements in their backward trading partners? And second, what are the factors that affect a country’s capacity to absorb foreign technology? Chapters 1 and 2 contain a short outline of the questions motivating my research, and an overview of the existing literature on international technology transfer, welfare and absorptive capacity. In chapter 3, I investigate the welfare effects that developed countries experience after productivity improvements occur in their backward trading partners. I use a two-country model featuring pro-competitive effects of trade, where one country has better technology than the other. I model the technology advantage of the leading country by assuming that the productivity distribution its firms draw from stochastically dominates that of the laggard country. Calibrated to match aggregate and firm level statistics of the US economy, the model predicts that the country with better technology has a higher productivity cutoff level, higher average productivity and higher welfare. Productivity improvements in the backward country generate selection and raise welfare everywhere, with both the selection effect and the positive welfare effect being stronger in the laggard country. Finally, trade liberalization is associated with more selection and higher welfare in both the leading and the laggard country. In chapter 4 (co-authored with Michael Rochlitz), we investigate differences in and determinants of technical efficiency across three groups of OECD, Asian and Latin American countries. As technical efficiency determines the capacity with which countries absorb technology produced abroad, these differences are important to understand differences in growth and productivity across countries, especially for developing countries which depend to a large extend on foreign technology. Using a stochastic frontier framework and data for 22 manufacturing sectors for 1996- 2005, we find notable differences in technical efficiency between the three country groups we examine. We then investigate the effect of human capital and domestic R&D, proxied by the stock of patents, on technical efficiency. We find that while human capital has always a strongly positive effect on efficiency, an increase in the stock of patents has positive effects on efficiency in high-tech sectors, but negative effects in low-tech sectors. Finally, chapter 5 sums up the main results and outlines possible future research directions

The EU28 GTAP Input-Output Tables

This paper describes the so called EU-GTAP conversion method developed by the European Commission to produce a set of Input-Output Tables for the 28 Member States for the reference year 2010 under the new European System of Accounts methodology (ESA2010, complying with UN SNA2008) and in compliance with GTAP submission requirements. Such conversion method allows the transformation of the ESTAT Input-Output Tables from NACE Rev.2/ISIC Rev.4 into the GTAP sectorial classification by means of several steps. The resulting EU GTAP IO tables fully comply with Eurostat aggregates and subtotals at a certain common level of aggregation as well as with other official statistics on gross output, value added and foreign trade statistics

Improving the EU Input-Output Database for Global Trade Analysis: the EU-GTAP Project

The European Commission’s DG TRADE and DG Joint Research Centre (DG JRC) are presently working together in the so called EU-GTAP Project. The objective of the EU-GTAP project is to ensure that the Commission bases its trade modelling analysis on the most reliable and recent Supply, Use and Input-Output tables as inputs to its modelling tools, mainly the GTAP database. Bearing this in mind, the main outcome of this project is the submission (to GTAP) of a set of Input-Output Tables for the 28 Member States for the year 2010 under the new European System of Accounts (ESA2010) methodology and in compliance with GTAP submission requirements