El impacto de la crisis asiática en el Cono Sur latinoamericano

La crisis del sudeste asiático y la recesión en Japón parecieran tener un efecto directo relativamente acotado en los flujos de comercio agregados del Cono Sur, sin embargo parece ser significativo el impacto de la turbulencia en los mercados de capitales. Chile y Brasil confrontan esta situación con déficits de balanza de cuenta corriente difíciles de sostener, sin recurrir a políticas de cambio más activas, con tasas de devaluación más aceleradas, acompañadas con políticas fiscales y monetaria contractivas para evitar repuntes inflacionarios. Por su parte, la economía argentina evidencia, una vez más, su capacidad de mantener la convertibilidad del peso aún en situaciones de fuerte recesión, cuya profundidad dependerá de dos factores: las posibilidades de acceso a capitales internacionales, y de la evolución del plan de estabilización brasileño.

What Explains Developing Country Growth?

Among developing countries, there was no gross relationship between real income per capita in 1960 and subsequent growth in per capita income. However, once other significant influences, such as education, changes in labor force participation rates, inflows of foreign investment, price structures, and fixed investment ratios are taken into account, the lower the 1960 income level, the faster the income growth. This "conditional" convergence was particularly strong among the poorest half of the developing countries, contradicting the idea of a "convergence club" confined to relatively well-off countries. Inflows of direct investment were an important influence on growth rates for higher income developing countries, but not for lower income ones. For the latter group, secondary education, changes in labor force participation rates, and initial distance behind the United States were all major factors.

Is Fixed Investment the Key to Economic Growth?

This paper examines shares of fixed capital formation in GOP and rates of economic growth for more than 100 countries over successive 5-year periods between 1965 and 1985 to determine the direction of causality between them. Simple regressions and multiple regressions including several standard determinants of growth, as well as a simple causality test, provide more evidence that increases in growth precede rises in rates of capital formation than that increases in capital formation precede increases in growth. High rates of fixed capital formation accompany rapid growth in per capita income, but we find no evidence that fixed investment is the only or main source of ignition for economic growth.

Changing perspectives on the internationalization of R&D and innovation by multinational enterprises: a review of the literature

Internationalization of R&D and innovation by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) has undergone a gradual and comprehensive change in perspective over the past 50 years. From sporadic works in the late 1950s and in the 1960s, it became a systematically analysed topic in the 1970s, starting with pioneering reports and “foundation texts”. Our review unfolds the theoretical and empirical evolution of the literature from dyadic interpretations of centralization versus decentralization of R&D by MNEs to more comprehensive frameworks, wherein established MNEs from Advanced Economies still play a pivotal role, but new players and places also emerge in the global generation and diffusion of knowledge. Hence views of R&D internationalization increasingly rely on concepts, ideas and methods from IB and other related disciplines such as industrial organization, international economics and economic geography. Two main findings are highlighted. First, scholarly research pays an increasing attention to the network-like characteristics of international R&D activities. Second, different streams of literature have emphasized the role of location- specific factors in R&D internationalization. The increasing emphasis on these aspects has created new research opportunities in some key areas, including inter alia: cross-border knowledge sourcing strategies, changes in the geography of R&D and innovation, and the international fragmentation of production and R&D activities

New Ventures of Acquisitions. The Choice of Swedish Multinational Enterprises.

This study examines the factors influencing the multinational enterprises' choice between the takeover of already existing firms and investment in new ventures as a means of entering a foreign market. The results suggest that the degree of industrial diversification of the parent company and the host country's per capita income seems to have a positive influence on the propensity for takeovers. This propensity appears to be negatively related to the rate of growth of industrial production in the industry entered. Further, the author finds that the more recent the entry into a foreign market, the greater the probability for choosing acquisition. Copyright 1990 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Overseas R&D by Multinationals in foreign Centers of Excellence

This paper examines the determinants of overseas R&D by Swedish multinationals. Our empirical results indicate that the location of R&D abroad to a large extent is motivated by the need to adapt products and processes to conditions in the foreign markets where the firms operate. However, we also find that the MNEs tend to locate their R&D in host countries which are relatively specialized technologically in the firms' own areas. This finding may suggest that one additional motive to locating R&D abroad is to gain access to knowledge in foreign "centers of excellence" and benefit from localized spillovers.Overseas R&D; technology sourcing; multinationals