Patterns of inter-sectoral diffusion of technological growth: income, concentration, and public capital stocks

This paper investigates the existence and character of technological growth diffusionin form of learning spillovers at the sector level of the economy. Based on panel datafor 47 countries during the postwar period the evidence suggests robust statisticalregularities of inter-sectoral learning resulting from a changing structure of demand.The findings further show differences in the magnitude of productivity spilloversacross sectors. In particular, the patterns reveal a distinctive role for upstreamproduction activities esp. manufacturing as a source of diffusion. When thetechnological growth potential of sectors in low-income economies is compared tohigh-income countries the empirical evidence does not show a tendency for catchingup to occur. However, higher potential for inter-sectoral diffusion of technologicalgrowth is associated with (i) low income concentration, and (ii) high public (humanand physical) capital stocks.economics of technology ;

Die Kaufempfehlungen des "Effecten-Spiegel": Eine empirische Untersuchung im Lichte der Effizienzthese des Kapitalmarktes

Der "Effecten-Spiegel" ist mit einer wöchentlichen Auflage von über 100.000 Exemplaren der größte europäische Börsendienst. In jeder Ausgabe erscheint auf Seite 8 die Anlagekolumne "Aktien im Blickpunkt: Börsenfavoriten". Diese Kolumne steht im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung. Es wird überprüft, inwieweit die Veröffentlichung eine meßbare Informationswirkung besitzt und effizient vom Markt verarbeitet wird. Darüberhinaus wird die kurzfristige Performance der Kaufempfehlungen dahingehend analysiert, ob es einem Anleger möglich, auf ihrer Basis systematisch Überrenditen zu erzielen. Die Untersuchung zeigt, daß für die Segmente "Sehr kleine Gesellschaften" und "Kleine Gesellschaften" Informationseffizienz vorliegt. Für diese Segemente könnte eine Überrendite in der Zeit vor der Veröffentlichung erzielt werden. Danach konnten keine Überrenditen beobachtet werden

Feminist Economics, Setting out the Parameters

___Introduction___ Feminist economics has developed its position over the past decade, towards a firmer embeddedness in economic science and a source of inspiration for activists, policy makers, and social science researchers in a wide variety of fields of research. This development has come about in a relatively short period of time, as is reflected, for example, in the follow-up book of the feminist economic primer Beyond Economic Man (Ferber/Nelson 1993), published ten years later: Feminist Economics Today (Ferber/Nelson, 2003) The strengthened position of feminist economics also shows in the 10-year anniversary of the prize-winning journal Feminist Economics, the flourishing of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), as well as the more regular demand for feminist economic policy advise by institutions like the UN, OECD and governments in developed and developing countries, and in well-established training courses in feminist economics, such as at the Institute of Social Studies and University of Utah . It is impossible to give a fair overview of the state of the art of feminist economics in the number of pages available, even when limited to issues pertaining to development and macroeconomics . As a consequence, this is a very sketchy and subjective overview of what I perceive to be recent developments in feminist economics that have relevance for feminist development analysis and policy. The next section recognizes three trends in feminist economics, in particular the engagement of feminist economists with heterodox schools of economics. The following sections will briefly review developments in methodology and methods in feminist economics. These will be followed by three sections on topics that have recently become key themes or areas of research in feminist economics, in particular in the area of development economics: unpaid labour and the care economy; the two-way relationship between gender and trade; and gender, efficiency and growth. Each of these topics will be introduced, with references to the main literature, and some links to policy recommendations. The paper will end with a conclusion

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract: Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM−/− patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors

CYP3A7*1C allele: linking premenopausal oestrone and progesterone levels with risk of hormone receptor-positive breast cancers

Funder: Breast Cancer Now (BCN); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100009794Funder: Cancer Research UK (CRUK); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000289Funder: RCUK | Medical Research Council (MRC); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000265Funder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH)Funder: Wellcome Trust (Wellcome); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100004440Funder: EC | EC Seventh Framework Programm | FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific Programme: "Ideas" Implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013)); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100011199; Grant(s): HEALTH-F2-2009-223175, HEALTH-F2-2009-223175Funder: Genome Canada (Génome Canada); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100008762Funder: Gouvernement du Canada | Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Instituts de Recherche en Santé du Canada); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000024Funder: Quebec Breast cancer Foundation Genome QuebecFunder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100000092Funder: EC | EC Seventh Framework Programm | FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific Programme: "Ideas" Implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013))Funder: European Union’s Horizon 2020Funder: Deutsche Krebshilfe (German Cancer Aid); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100005972Funder: BCAST - European Union’s Horizon 2020Funder: Breast Cancer Now; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007913Abstract: Background: Epidemiological studies provide strong evidence for a role of endogenous sex hormones in the aetiology of breast cancer. The aim of this analysis was to identify genetic variants that are associated with urinary sex-hormone levels and breast cancer risk. Methods: We carried out a genome-wide association study of urinary oestrone-3-glucuronide and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide levels in 560 premenopausal women, with additional analysis of progesterone levels in 298 premenopausal women. To test for the association with breast cancer risk, we carried out follow-up genotyping in 90,916 cases and 89,893 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. All women were of European ancestry. Results: For pregnanediol-3-glucuronide, there were no genome-wide significant associations; for oestrone-3-glucuronide, we identified a single peak mapping to the CYP3A locus, annotated by rs45446698. The minor rs45446698-C allele was associated with lower oestrone-3-glucuronide (−49.2%, 95% CI −56.1% to −41.1%, P = 3.1 × 10–18); in follow-up analyses, rs45446698-C was also associated with lower progesterone (−26.7%, 95% CI −39.4% to −11.6%, P = 0.001) and reduced risk of oestrogen and progesterone receptor-positive breast cancer (OR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.82–0.91, P = 6.9 × 10–8). Conclusions: The CYP3A7*1C allele is associated with reduced risk of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer possibly mediated via an effect on the metabolism of endogenous sex hormones in premenopausal women

Sectoral Regularities of Productivity Growth in Developing Countries: A Kaldorian Interpretation

Keywords: increasing returns, sector-specific productivity growth, Kaldor-Verdoorn Law, nonlinear statistical modeling JEL: O14, O11, O30, O40 This paper provides a Kaldorian interpretation for empirical regularities of productivity growth at the sectoral level of the economy. The statistical evidence is based on a data set drawn from internationally compatible time series for employment and value added in thirty developing countries. Based on novel nonlinear statistical techniques the findings show: (i) a regular pattern of positive sectoral employment elasticities with respect to output growth, (ii) robust differences across sectors in the magnitude of the employment elasticities, and (iii) employment elasticities for all sectors that are significantly less than unity suggesting strong evidence for increasing returns across sectors

Deindustrialisation and the social and economic sustainability nexus in developing countries: Cross-country evidence on productivity and employment

In an empirical investigation of the interactions between industrial structure and macro outcomes, an accounting framework was applied to relate changes in sectoral employment and output compositions to changes in overall productivity growth over time. The numerical results were interpreted using a taxonomy describing industrialisation and deindustrialisation in developing countries. The findings suggest that, in particular, industrial performance correlates with the overall performance of an economy, and therefore is the key sector in explaining the sustainability of different regional patterns in overall productivity and employment growth. That is, negative rates of productivity growth in the industrial sector are strongly associated with negative productivity growth for the economy as a whole, and vice versa. Further, slow industrial growth may lead to low road development, in which productivity growth trades off with employment growth, while high road development is defined as simultaneously expanding employment and overall productivity growth.

Deindustrialization and the Social and Economic Sustainability Nexus in Developing Countries: Cross-Country Evidence on Productivity and Employment

In an empirical investigation of the interactions between industrial structure and macro outcomes, an accounting framework was applied to relate changes in sectoral employment and output compositions to changes in overall productivity growth over time. The numerical results were interpreted using a taxonomy describing industrialization and deindustrialization in developing countries. The findings suggest that, in particular, industrial performance correlates with the overall performance of an economy, and therefore is the key sector in explaining the sustainability of different regional patterns in overall productivity and employment growth. That is, negative rates of productivity growth in the industrial sector are strongly associated with negative productivity growth for the economy as a whole, and vice versa. Further, slow industrial growth may lead to low road development, in which productivity growth trades off with employment growth, while high road development is defined as simultaneously expanding employment and overall productivity growth.deindustrialization; employment; aggregate productivity; economic growth; structural change; sustainability

Fleetmanagementmodel for the sector of dangerous goods

Der Verkehr auf deutschen Straßen wird immer dichter. Dies gilt auch für den Gefahrgutverkehr. Folge dieser Entwicklung sind verstopfte Straßen, zeitverzögerte Auftragserfüllung und erhöhte Emissionen. Wachsender Marktdruck und fallende Preise stellen für Klein- und Mittelstandsunternehmen einen existenzbedrohenden Zustand dar. Mit dem Kyoto-Protokoll und dem nationalen Klimaschutzprogramm hat sich Deutschland zu einer Reduktion von Luftemissionen verpflichtet. Ein Schritt, dieses Ziel zu erreichen, ist die Reduzierung der Luftemissionen durch den Güterverkehr. Ziel des in dieser Untersuchung entwickelten Flottenmanagementmodells, ist die Reduzierung von Kosten und Luftemissionen im Gefahrguttransport. Das Modell basiert auf der Reorganisation von transportbezogenen Unternehmensprozessen und ist auf alle Sparten der Transportbranche übertragbar. Die Auftragsabwicklung wird optimiert und Kooperationen zwischen Transportunternehmen werden standardisiert. Alle Steuerungsprozesse wie Auftragsannahme, Datenverarbeitung und die Verteilung und Verwaltung von Aufträgen werden über einen zentralen Leitstand abgewickelt. Die kooperierenden Unternehmen übernehmen die operativen Leistungen. Durch das Flottenmanagementmodell können Aufträge gebündelt, Frachtbörsen integriert, Verkehrsträger wie Schiene und Wasser eingebunden werden. Mit Hilfe von computergestützter Auftragsabwicklung und dem Einsatz von Telematiksystemen wird ein durchgehender und schneller Informationsfluss geschaffen. Laderäume werden besser ausgelastet, so dass weniger Fahrten für die Beförderung gleicher Mengen erforderlich sind. Die positiven Auswirkungen dieses Modells auf die Kosten und Luftemissionen wird für ein Beispiel anhand eines Entsorgungsunternehmens für den Raum Berlin und Brandenburg berechnet und dargestellt. Die vorliegende Untersuchung zeigt, dass die Verknüpfung von der sogenannten alten und neuen Ökonomie in der Transportwirtschaft wirtschaftliche und ökologische Vorteile bringen kann