Do Multinational enterprises push up wages of domestic firms in the Italian Manufacturing sector?

This paper analyzes the effects of foreign direct investment on wages paid by domestic firms in the Italian manufacturing sector over the period 2002–2007. In particular, the authors investigate the im-pact of multinational enterprises on wages paid by local firms which operate in the same industry, known and horizontal wage spillovers, or have linkages with multinational enterprises in both downstream and upstream industries, known as vertical wage spillovers. By using a large panel dataset, consisting of 551,000 observations, the authors find evidence of wage spillovers only at inter-industry level and, more specifically, for those firms who supply their goods to multinational enterprises, described as backward wage spillovers. Moreover, findings suggest that the wage spillover effect is strongly affected by the technological gap between local and foreign firms: only workers employed in domestic firms with a low-medium technological absorptive capacity seem to benefit from the presence of multinational enterprises in terms of higher wages

Risk based uncertainty quantification to improve robustness of manufacturing operations

The cyber-physical systems of Industry 4.0 are expected to generate vast amount of in-process data and revolutionise the way data, knowledge and wisdom is captured and reused in manufacturing industries. The goal is to increase profits by dramatically reducing the occurrence of unexpected process results and waste. ISO9001:2015 defines risk as effect of uncertainty. In the 7Epsilon context, the risk is defined as effect of uncertainty on expected results. The paper proposes a novel algorithm to embed risk based thinking in quantifying uncertainty in manufacturing operations during the tolerance synthesis process. This method uses penalty functions to mathematically represent deviation from expected results and solves the tolerance synthesis problem by proposing a quantile regression tree approach. The latter involves non parametric estimation of conditional quantiles of a response variable from in-process data and allows process engineers to discover and visualise optimal ranges that are associated with quality improvements. In order to quantify uncertainty and predict process robustness, a probabilistic approach, based on the likelihood ratio test with bootstrapping, is proposed which uses smoothed probability estimation of conditional probabilities. The mathematical formulation presented in this paper will allow organisations to extend Six Sigma process improvement principles in the Industry 4.0 context and implement the 7 steps of 7Epsilon in order to satisfy the requirements of clauses 6.1 and 7.1.6 of the ISO9001:2015 and the aerospace AS9100:2016 quality standard

Foreign presence, technical efficiency and firm survival in Greece: a simultaneous equation model with latent variables approach

The aim of the paper is to explain the role that technical efficiency and foreign spillover effects have on firm survival. Panel data from Greek manufacturing industry (3142 firms) in 1997-2003 are used. Technical efficiency is estimated through a CES translog production function. A hazard function is then used (corresponding to the Exponential and Weibull distributions as well as the Cox model) to estimate survival probabilities. While foreign spillovers exercise a positive impact on hazard, foreign firms do not have any distinctive survival advantage compared to their domestic rivals. On the contrary, technical efficiency affects hazard in a negative way, improving survival expectations

Foreign direct investment and technology spillovers: Which firms really benefit?

Foreign direct investment is thought to contribute to host economies by increasing their efficiency either directly or through technology diffusion. Such efficiency benefits are neither equally produced by foreign firms nor equally distributed to all domestic firms. The special question addressed in this study is related to how differentiated such effects are depending on size and degree of (foreign) ownership. Based on a sample of 3,742 manufacturing firms operating in Greece in 1997, it is found that, while it is large, majority-held foreign firms that exhibit higher productivity spillovers are important for small domestic firms and stem mostly from small joint ventures where the foreign partner owns a minor part of equity

Inequality and business cycles in the U.S. and European union countries

This paper derives the business cycle properties of some aggregate and disaggregate inequality indices for the U.S. and three European Union countries (United Kingdom, Italy, and Greece). The findings suggest that inequality indices move countercyclically with output in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, a procyclical behavior prevailed in Greece, and a mixed cycle influenced Italy. A common countercyclical pattern of inequality indices with inflation and unemployment characterizes the three large economies (U.S., United Kingdom, and Italy). Also, in most countries, the top income group seems to lose at the benefit of the rest during inflationary periods while, in all four countries, the poor will gain from inflation and suffer from unemployment. (JEL E32, D63, 057)

Trade with Central and Eastern Europe The case of Greece

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