The establishment-size wage premium: evidence from European countries

This study examines the magnitude and determinants of the establishment-size wage premium in five European countries using a unique harmonised matched employer–employee data set (the 1995 European Structure of Earnings Survey). This data set enables to test the validity of various traditional explanations of the size wage gap (i.e. the labour quality hypothesis, the theory of compensating wage differentials, the role of monitoring and institutions) and of more recent hypotheses (i.e. size differences in job stability and in the concentration of skilled workers). We find some support for traditional explanations, but there remains a significant wage premium for workers employed in large establishments. Further results indicate that the magnitude of this premium fluctuates substantially across countries and appears to be negatively correlated with the degree of corporatism.     

基于创新型企业的风险投资发展对策探析

二十世纪90年代以来,以高新技术产业为主导的知识经济浪潮席卷全球,推动了风险投资的发展;技术创新作为企业创新的重要内容,是国内企业迎接全球经济一体化,提高核心竞争力的必然选择。笔者在回顾国内外风险投资理论研究成果的基础上,基于我国经济社会发展现状,就若干风险投资研究的前沿领域,从公司治理、价值评估、运作与退出机制、宏观环境等方面,讨论了风险投资的发展对策。     

Industrial structure and innovation - evidence from European regions

Whether the composition of industrial activity influences innovation is the key question of this paper. The analysis is based on a model that integrates different kinds of diversity measures aiming at capturing Jacobs externalities, a production specialisation measure aiming at capturing Marshall-Arrow-Romer (MAR) externalities and regions as well as sector specific variables. Tested with an extended sample of 153 European regions and 16 manufacturing sectors, the estimates suggest that both kinds of externalities significantly influence innovation, although the influence of Jacobs externalities is more important in the context of high density regions as well as for high tech sectors.JEL Classification: R00, O18, O31Lydia Greunz: The author wishes to thank Henri Capron and two anonymous referees for their useful comments and suggestions. An earlier version of this paper was presented at Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, January 2004, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.     

Financial innovation: theoretical issues and empirical evidence in Italy and in the UK

In the first part of the paper, we try to clearly identify financial innovations and draw a general framework. Despite the relevance of financial innovations, a unique definition is difficult to find. We then provide empirical evidence of such innovations on a sample of Italian and UK listed banks over the period 2005–2007 using financial account data. First, the absence of any mention of a specific organizational unit in charge of research and development (R&D) is highlighted. However, the existence of a research and developmental function involving different organizational units cannot be excluded. Second, innovation seems to be mainly concentrated in the product area, both in Italy and in the UK. This could be accounted for by the difference in the “life cycles” of innovations and by the different operational conditions of banks in both systems. Third, larger banks seem more innovative, both in Italy and in the UK. No clear relation between innovation and cost reduction/revenue increase seems to exist, at least in Italy. In the light of the above considerations, policy implication comes to light on whether the choice of not establishing a specific organizational unit dedicated to R&D could turn out effective in the medium-long term.

Venture capital,innovation, and growth: evidence from Chinese metropolitan data

Using panel data from 282 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2015, we estimate the impact of venture capital (VC) on innovation, employment, and payroll in metropolitan areas. Controlling for endogeneity, VC investments are significantly positively related to metropolitan innovation, employment, and payroll in a fixed effects panel regression and dynamic GMM estimation. Using the number of IPOs (Initial public offerings) in the city as an instrumental variable to again control for endogeneity, VC remains significant. Our results show that VC is significantly contributing to the metropolitan economy as a whole by supporting innovation, creating jobs, and generating wealth in the local cities.     

The role of human capital and innovation in economic development: evidence from post-Malthusian Prussia

The effect of human capital on growth involves multiple channels. On the one hand, an increase in human capital directly affects economic growth by enhancing labor productivity in production. On the other hand, human capital is an important input into R&D and therefore increases labor productivity indirectly by accelerating technological change. In addition, different types of human capital such as basic and higher education or training-on-the-job might play different roles in both production and innovation activities. We merge individual data on valuable patents granted in Prussia in the late nineteenth-century with county-level data on literacy, craftsmanship, secondary schooling, and income tax revenues to explore the complex relationship between various types of human capital, innovation, and income. We find that the Second Industrial Revolution can be seen as a transition period when it comes to the role of human capital. As in the preceding First Industrial Revolution, “useful knowledge” embodied in master craftsmen was related to innovation, especially of independent inventors. As in the subsequent twentieth century, the quality of basic education was associated with both workers’ productivity and firms’ R&D processes. In a final step, we show that literacy had also a negative effect on fertility which increased with innovation. In general, our findings support the notion that the accumulation of basic human capital was crucial for the transition to modern economic growth.     

Regional social capital: Embeddedness, innovation networks and regional economic development

Technology is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for regional economic development. Regional innovation networks transform technology into competitiveness of firms and thus contribute to economic development. Intangible assets, such as social capital, decide how effective regional innovation networks function. Differences in regional social capital thus help explain regional differences in economic development. Regional social capital originates from the embeddedness of firms in regional webs of social relations. The norms, values and customs of these networks facilitate collaboration for mutual benefit. As innovation is increasingly a network effort, embeddedness and social capital also help explain how and why networks of innovating companies are successful, as the case study of the Stimulus Cluster Scheme shows.     

The effectiveness of capital controls: evidence from Colombia and Thailand

In the run up to the financial crisis of 2007–2009 many developing nations were subject to massive inflows of capital, capital that their financial systems found difficult to absorb. One of a number of policy options to respond to such inflows is unremunerated reserve requirements (URR). Two countries, Colombia and Thailand, deployed URR in the second half of the decade. This paper analyses the effectiveness of the URR in those two instances. We find that URRs were modestly successful in Colombia and Thailand. In Colombia, the controls were able stem an asset bubble in the stock market. In Thailand, the URR reduced the overall volume of flows, and the announcement of the URR caused a sharp drop in asset prices. However, some of the other goals of capital controls were not fulfilled. The results in this paper demonstrate that there is still a role for capital controls in the twenty-first century, but such controls should be more sophisticated than in years past.     

Human capital,innovation capability and economic growth in Portugal, 1960-2001

In maintaining that the main flaw in empirical studies on economic growth derives from the fact that they employ Solow-style neoclassical growth models, rather than testing actual endogenous growth theory, we examine the human capital-innovation-growth nexus, thus testing new growth theory more directly. We test its insights against the economic evolution of an individual country, Portugal, using time series data from 1960 to 2001. Estimates based on vector autoregressive and cointegration analysis seem to confirm that human capital and indigenous innovation efforts were enormously important to the economic growth process in Portugal during the period of study. In particular, the indirect effect of human capital through innovation, emerges here as being critical, showing that a reasonably high stock of human capital is necessary to enable a country to reap the benefits of its indigenous innovation efforts.Received: November 2003, Accepted: November 2004, JEL Classification: C22, J24, O30, O40 Correspondence to: Aurora A.C. TeixeiraThe authors are grateful to two anonymous referees, Paulo Brito and the participants of the 2003 Portuguese Society for Economics Research (SPiE) in Lisbon, Portugal for helpful comments and suggestions. CEMPRE - Centro de Estudos Macroeconómicos e Previsão - is supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the Programa Operacional Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (POCTI) of the Quadro Comunitário de Apoio III, which is financed by FEDER and Portuguese funds.     

The sources and aims of innovation in services: Variety between and within sectors

Services dominate economic activity, but remain under-researched by analysts of innovation and technological change. The early 'one size fits all' theories of innovation in services have in recent years given way to an appreciation that services are diverse, not least in their innovation activities. This paper draws on recent empirical evidence from large-scale surveys undertaken in 13 western European countries, to investigate the extent and the sources of innovation in five services sectors. The analysis includes the extent to which services innovate, and amongst innovators the extent to which they engage in R&D and collaborative arrangements for innovation. The analysis supports the recent literature which emphasises significant differences between sectors in their pattern of innovation behaviour, but also highlights significant intra-sectoral differences in innovation behaviour. This intra-sectoral variation deserves much fuller investigation in the future.     

The dynamic impact of intellectual capital on firm value: evidence from China

We examine the dynamic relationship between intellectual capital (measured by human capital and organizational capital) and firm value of Chinese listed firms. We do causality identification using system GMM and IV estimation, and find no significant relation between human capital and firm value, but organizational capital positively affects firm value with a lag. Our findings are robust to firms with different property rights, of different sizes, or in different industries, with the only exception of capital-intensive firms, in which human capital has a significant influence on firm value. The results imply that the improvement of organizational system plays a more important role in raising the value of a firm in a typical developing country, like China.     

The structure of income mobility: empirical evidence from five UE countries

In this paper we use the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to assess differences in the level and structure of income mobility in a selected sample of European countries. We adopt recent theoretical proposals for the decomposition of axiomatic and welfare measurements of mobility in exchange, structural and growth components. Decomposition exercises which take into account some type of division of the population and income sources are also performed. We find that cross-country income mobility comparisons largely depend on the type of indices used. The relative positions of the countries considered change when the analysis is based on ethical instead of objective measures of income mobility. Results also show that in most countries income growth has a very limited effect upon aggregate mobility, being the most important determinant the rerankings of individuals, with a little weight for inequality changes. Although some common results exist concerning the delimitation of groups experiencing the greatest income fluctuations, such as individuals belonging to single-parent households or young household heads, the intensity of these results varies greatly across countries. The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Science and Technology (grant SEJ2004-07373-c03-03) and the Instituto de Estudios Fiscales. We would also like to acknowledge the help given by the European Centre for Analysis in Social Sciences of the University of Essex.     

Cooperatives and happiness. Cross-country evidence on the role of relational capital

Why is the share of happy people higher in some countries than in their equally developed neighbours? We conjecture that the apparent contradiction might depend on a country’s endowment of relational capital, which we proxy empirically with the extent of cooperativeness. In particular, within the black box of social capital, we consider relational capital as the outcome of the civil economy paradigm and use cooperativeness as the macro and objective proxy of long term face-to-face interaction. Compiling an index of the importance of the cooperative sector, we test whether more cooperativeness associates with more happiness controlling for countries’ HDI and other control variables. Checking for endogeneity, using various country samples, and through different regression methods we find support for our hypothesis. This suggests that, indeed, an institutionalized cooperative culture can promote happiness.     

The size and growth of banks: evidence from four European countries

This paper tests for mimicry in local tax setting, by using a panel data set of the English non-metropolitan districts in the 1980s — when property tax rate variability across districts was highest. The results confirm the presence of large and significant spatial interactions among districts. Even after allowing for district-specific and time effects, a district appears to be significantly affected by its neighbours' policies. A 10% increase in the local property tax rate of a district's neighbours leads to an increase of 4–5% in its own property tax rate. On the other hand, the absence of correlation in tax rates between lower tier (district) authorities and upper tier (county) authorities suggests that the spatial pattern in district tax rates is not simply driven by spatially auto-correlated shocks.     

The role of human and social capital in growth: extending our understanding

Human capital, institutions and social capital are now all recognisedas significant factors of growth. They have largely been studiedseparately, and although they present sufficient common characteristicsto be conceptualised as one main category distinct from physicalcapital, it may still be more important to focus on the linksbetween their specific sub-categories. Direct links with incomemay be spurious, as there appears to be a ‘web of associations’between the sub-categories, which would benefit from furtherempirical investigation. This paper reviews the literature onhuman capital, institutions and social capital, extracting threesub-categories of human capital (human skills capital, stock-of-knowledgeand entrepreneurship) and two of social capital (low- and high-rationalisation).Specific areas are then suggested for further empirical study.     

Privatization and capital formation in developing countries: an empirical analysis

The spur for privatization and its impact on economic performance have been analysed from many perspectives, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, and institutional economics. Previous research has focused on efficiency reasons for privatization at the level of the firm, and the relative performance of state‐owned enterprises and privately owned firms. This article investigates the macroeconomic facet of privatization with particular attention paid to the relation between privatization and capital formation in developing countries. Our study uses recent World Bank data on privatization for 105 countries over the time period 1988–2003. We explore the impact of privatization on capital formation by conducting two‐stage least squares and ordinary least squares estimations within three time frames. Our findings indicate that the effect of privatization on capital formation varies across regions and time frames. In general, privatization is neutral with regard to investment.     

National borders and international trade: evidence from the European Union

In this paper the impact of national borders on international trade within the European Union is considered. Using a gravity model, I find that, averaged over all EU countries, intranational trade is about ten times as high as international trade with an EU partner country of similar size and distance. This relatively strong home bias suggests that even within the European Union national borders still have a decisive impact on trade patterns. JEL Classification: F02, F14, F15, O52
Ce mémoire examine l'impact des frontières nationales sur le commerce international à l'intérieur de l'Union européenne. On montre que, en moyenne pour tous les pays de l'Union européenne, le commerce intranational est à peu près dix fois plus important que le commerce international avec un pays partenaire de l'Union européenne de même taille et à même distance. Ce degré relativement important de préférence nationale suggère que, même dans le cadre de l'Union européenne, les frontières nationales ont encore un impact déterminant sur les patterns de commerce.     

Venture capital in Japan and enlightenment to China

In the business world, there have always been people are willing to start business, and other people are willing to back them and share the risks and rewards of enterprises, so in a sense, there has always been entrepreneurship and venture capital （VC）. Despite of Japanese VC has gone through ups and downs, Japanese VC continues to lead Asia and is second only to U.S. Japanese government has recognized the economic benefits of fostering the creation and development of venture finns, and has applied themselves assiduously to the task of creating a supportive environment. This paper provides some context for understanding the Japanese venture capital industry. Then it set forth an evolution of Japanese venture capital. The heart of the paper is devoted to discussion of the key features of Japanese venture capital. This includes information concerning the size of the industry, the players, and the nature of the Japanese venture capital investment. This is followed by an analysis of some of the obstacles to a more vibrant Japanese venture capital industry which gives us some enlightenment to Chinese venture capital development now. This paper also shows that the relative of the US, the Japanese venture capital industry is a young, small industry. In a word, it shows that there is still a substantial space for further development, which makes VC is still a promising industry in Japan.     

Modes of innovation in knowledge-intensive business services evidence from Lombardy

The present paper investigates the sectoral variety and common patterns across different typologies of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). We examine this issue by considering the case of Lombardy, a highly developed manufacturing area the industrial activities of which are experiencing a pervasive transformation towards higher knowledge content, demanding stronger and more pervasive support by advanced services. Drawing on an original survey-based firm-level dataset, we analyze innovation patterns across KIBS, evaluating the explanatory power of traditional classifications of the service sector, as well as the heterogeneity driven by firm and market specific characteristics. Our findings highlight four profiles of KIBS: interactive innovation mode, product innovation mode, conservative innovation mode and techno-organizational innovation mode. When examining in more depth the variables that are associated with cluster membership, we find that firm strategy is the most significant determinant, with size, customer location, and training also playing a role in defining cluster specificities.