Measuring Smile Curves in Global Value Chains

The logic of the ‘smile curve’ in the context of global value chains (GVCs) has been widely used in case studies of individual firms, but rarely identified at the country-industry level by using real data. This paper puts forward a proposal, based on an inter-country input–output model, to consistently measure both the gain of value added and the position of countries and industries when they join GVCs. This allows for better identification and mapping of economy-wide smile curves in a given conceptual value chain. Using the World Input-Output Tables, we identify the Information and Communications Technology exports-related smile curves for China and the United States (US), which provide an intuitive and visual representation of who gains value added and jobs through joining GVCs, and to what extent. Further insight into the distributional implications of GVC expansion, based on our analysis of labour markets for China and the US, provides a strong support for the so-called ‘Paradoxical Pair of Concerns’ between developed and developing countries. Our empirical results show that gains through joining GVCs may vary greatly across different skill levels of labour domestically, a fact that has, at least in part, been a driver of the backlash against globalization and the rise of trade protectionism.     

贸易开放是否影响了中国产业结构升级？

研究目标：探讨贸易开放是否影响了中国产业结构升级。研究方法：利用2003～2014年省际面板数据，采用中介效应检验方法。研究发现：贸易开放在加快产业结构整体优化的同时还有助于服务业与工业内部行业的变革。同时，贸易开放可以借助增加物质资本积累、刺激消费需求、提升技术进步、促进制度变革等方式间接加速产业结构整体升级和产业结构高级化发展。加工贸易对产业结构升级的促进力度小于非加工贸易，东部地区对产业结构升级的促进力度大于中西部地区，欧美发达国家对产业结构升级的促进力度大于东亚发达国家。研究创新：深入探讨了贸易开放影响产业结构升级的理论机制，并从产业间与产业内视角构建多维产业结构升级指数检验贸易开放对产业结构升级的影响。研究价值：有利于缩小贸易区域差异以及环境承载力差异对产业结构升级的影响，为实现产业转型升级提供科学决策依据。     

GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS: A SURVEY OF DRIVERS AND MEASURES

Global value chains (GVCs) emerged as the paradigm for the international organization of production. For most goods and services production is nowadays vertically fragmented across different countries and this reality gave rise to a significant new strand of research in international trade. This article starts by discussing the major driving forces of GVCs in recent decades. Next, it surveys the main measures of GVCs, accounting for their different scopes and required data sets. The article highlights the timing of the contributions to the literature, signalling their sequential nature and the trend toward more accurate and data‐demanding indicators.     

United we stand,divided we fall? Clustered firms’ relationships after the 2008 crisis

Abstract

Research on clusters or industrial districts within various schools of thought focuses on the relationships between clustered firms. We observed that the territory can produce sources of advantage, but also disadvantages, for firms. Using an exploratory and qualitative approach, the aim of this work is to determine what happened in the Spanish ceramic tile industrial district firms’ relationships after the 2008 crisis. The analysis has been performed in three of the dimensions in which these connections can take place: cooperation – horizontal and vertical cooperation, knowledge transfer and supporting institutions, along with innovation as a measure of performance. In order to examine these shifts, members of the firms and institutions in the cluster were interviewed, resulting in eight propositions for changes that may take place when the competition is intensified within a cluster, suggesting an analytical framework that could be tested in future research.     

The career competencies of self-initiated and assigned expatriates: assessing the development of career capital over time

Abstract

Building on a modern careers approach, we assess the effects of working abroad on individuals’ career capital. Given the dearth of longitudinal studies, we return to a sample of economics graduates in Finland eight years later. We measure changes in three dimensions of career capital; ‘knowing how’, ‘knowing whom’, ‘knowing why’ and find that company assigned expatriates learn more than self-initiated expatriates. All three career capital areas benefit from international experience and all are increasingly valued over time. Based on our findings, we conclude that a dynamic notion of career capital acquisition and use is needed. Managerial implications include the need for a wider view of talent management for international businesses.     

Industrial districts: something more than a neighbourhood

The expansion of globalization has led to the relocation of many industrial activities. In particular, this process has affected industrial districts in the traditional industries. However, different districts vary in their capacity to retain activities. The robustness of industrial districts and, in consequence, their capacity to retain core activities at home and thus avoid painful relocations can be analysed by means of the relational capital developed at the district level. The relational structure within the district affects and determines the capacity of innovation of the district firms. This paper analyses the extent to which innovation depends on the amount of relational capital developed at the district level. We have addressed this proposition using internal human mobility, shared vision and trusting co-operation as indicators of the amount and quality of relational capital. In order to support theoretical propositions we have conducted empirical research comparing different industrial districts in the Valencian region of Spain. Research findings suggest a significant association between social capital variables and innovation outcomes. In consequence, these factors can facilitate retaining activities in districts.     

Analytical and Empirical Comparison of Policy-Relevant Key Sector Measures

Abstract

We consider the 10 most salient key sector measures (linkages) and identify groups of the most similar indicators on both analytical and empirical grounds. We derive new closed-form formulas for the generalized complete and partial hypothetical extraction linkages and add the up-till-now-undefined forward counterpart of the net backward linkage. The analytical relations and some stylized facts enable us to formulate hypotheses about the direction and strength of the relationships between various linkages. To study policy-relevant measures, our empirical tests are based on income (GDP) linkages, CO₂ emission linkages and employment linkages for 34 industries and 33 countries. The data show that the information on the 10 key sector measures may be summarized by three to at most four measures.     

河南省产业集聚区建设的现状分析与对策建议

2010年,河南省产业集聚区继续保持良好发展态势,在一系列政策措施的推动下,产业集聚态势逐步形成,整体竞争力明显上升。但同时,河南省产业集聚区在建设中还存在发展不平衡、产业转型升级缓慢、主导产业带动力不强、创新驱动力不足等问题。当前,河南省的产业集聚区不仅面临激烈竞争,而且发展的制约因素不断增强,必须进一步提高政策的灵活性和针对性,通过推进产业优化升级、加快发展方式转变、改革考核方式等措施推动产业集聚区进一步加快发展。     

Comparing Public and Private Sector Employees’ Innovative Behaviour: Understanding the role of job and organizational characteristics,job types,and subsectors

Abstract

Innovation is argued to be of key importance in the public sector. Little is known about possible sector differences in innovative behaviour. The stereotype in literature is that public employees are less innovative. We analyse whether sector is associated with innovative behaviour and the influence of job/organizational characteristics. We test this by using a three-country representative survey in Scandinavia with 8,310 respondents. We control for subsectors/industries and job functions. We do not find that public employees are less innovative. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of understanding the major differences in innovative behaviour between different subsectors/industries and job types.     

The measurement of human capital: a multivariate macro-approach

We examine the human capital status of 123 countries by employing factor analysis on various national human capital indicators for the period 2000–2008 to construct two new measures. The first measure is based on advanced human capital, while the second is based on basic human capital. Our measures differ substantially from indicators used in previous studies on human capital and also lead to different rankings of countries. As rankings are not that informative without further information, we analyzed the distance between each country and the sample mean. Differences between countries are much more pronounced for our measure on advanced human capital than for our measure on basic human capital. Using cluster analysis, we classified the countries in four homogenous groups.     

财税政策影响产业升级的理论机制分析——基于地方政府竞争视角

财税政策通过促进关键生产要素流入可促进产业升级。通过构建动态模型分析地方政府财税竞争对要素流动、社会福利及产业升级的影响。研究发现，提高生产要素的税率不仅会导致该生产要素外流，还会导致其他生产要素外流；在税率变化冲击下，要素存量调整至新的均衡状态与生产函数凹性和调整成本函数凸性有关；对发达地区落后产业实行高综合税率以及新兴产业实行低综合税率会促进地区产业升级，对落后地区实行低综合税率会促进地区经济发展和产业升级；政府的财税协调有利于地区间实现产业升级和提高社会福利水平；地区居民对企业的持股份额会影响地区福利水平。     

Industrial structure distortion and urban ecological efficiency from the perspective of green entrepreneurial ecosystems

Improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem plays an important role in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and achieving the coordinated development of economy and environment among cities is important for improving the quality and efficiency of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Using the panel data of 286 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2016, this study adopts the global reference super efficiency slack-based measure model considering undesirable output to measure China's urban ecological efficiency. In addition, the spatial lag model is used to investigate the impacts of industrial structure advancement and rationalization on ecological efficiency, and the impacts of the heterogeneity of industrial structure and economic development under the distortion of resource dependence on ecological efficiency. The results show that: every one-unit increase in the advancement of industrial structure will lead to a 0.0741 unit increase in ecological efficiency, but the high dependence on natural resources will inhibit the promoting effect of industrial structure advancement on ecological efficiency, and such an inhibiting effect will weaken with the improvement of economic development level; moreover, the influence coefficient of industrial structure rationalization on ecological efficiency is not significant, nor is it affected by the natural resource dependence and the level of economic development. This paper hereby proposes that in the process of promoting green entrepreneurial activity at present, the Chinese government should give full play to the role of industrial structure advancement on improving ecological efficiency, actively break through the constraints restricting the impact of industrial structure rationalization, reduce excessive dependence on resource industries, improve the level of regional economic development, and strive to transform resource-intensive industries to technology-intensive industries to support the sustainable development of a green entrepreneurship ecosystem.     

Trade intensity,country size and corruption

Abstract. Several authors claim to provide evidence that governmental corruption is less severe in countries where trade intensity is higher or populations are smaller. We argue that theory is highly ambiguous on these questions, and demonstrate that empirical links between corruption and trade intensity – or country size, strongly related to trade intensity – are sensitive to sample selection bias. Most available corruption indicators provide ratings only for those countries in which multinational investors have the greatest interest: these tend to include almost all large nations, but among small nations only those that are well-governed. We find that the relationship between corruption and trade intensity disappears, using newer corruption indicators with substantially increased country coverage. Similarly, the relationship between corruption and country size weakens or disappears using samples less subject to selection bias. Received: July 2001 / accepted: April 2002 We thank Anand Swamy and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions, Paul Schorosch for able research assistance, and Ray Fisman, Roberta Gatti, Aart Kraay, and Shang-jin Wei for kindly providing data. The conclusions of this paper are not intended to represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.     

Structure and Governance in Industrial Districts: Implications for Competitive Advantage

The existing research on industrial districts is fragmented, and yields conflicting advice for managers about the benefits and costs of locating in an industrial district. We resolve much of this ambiguity by synthesizing and integrating the existing research, and developing a typology of districts based on the continuous dimensions of need for coordination and centralization of control. In so doing, we elucidate why different types of industrial districts have different structures, and different competitive implications. We introduce four archetypes of industrial districts (based on extreme values of our two dimensions), and for each we discuss the benefits and costs of locating in the district, the sources of competitive advantage for members of the district vis‐à‐vis non‐members, and the sources of competitive advantage a district firm may gain over other members of the same district.     

珠江三角洲产业结构升级策略研究──基于中山市产业结构调整的调研

加快经济结构转型、实现产业升级与产业结构升级已经成为保持和加强中山市经济竞争优势的唯一出路。为此,广东省及中山市政府相继制定了一系列有关产业结构升级的政策,但政策的实施效果与政府预期相差甚远。将产业结构升级简单理解为以技术、资本密集型产业代替劳动密集型产业的认识是错误的,过分强调高新技术产业的培育和发展,忽视劳动密集型产业的就地改造和升级的做法是危险的。中山市乃至珠三角对现有劳动密集型产业进行就地改造和升级才是保证经济可持续性发展的当务之急。     

全球价值链理论与发展中国家产业升级研究进展

目前有关全球价值链理论的研究,主要集中于全球价值链概念、类型、治理和全球价值链的产业集群升级模式等方面。而在此基础上的发展中国家产业升级的研究,主要集中于全球价值链治理模式对发展中国家产业升级的影响、在全球价值链之下发展中国家升级产业的动力机制、以及产业集群升级的途径等方面。在经济全球化背景下,研究全球价值链理论和发展中国家产业升级问题,对研究我国产业提升问题有重要的参考价值。     

The Deterrent Effect of Whistleblowing on Tax Collections

Abstract

Many countries use tax-related whistleblowing programs, but the evidence on these programs suggests information provided by whistleblowers yields modest tax collections. However, when every citizen could become a whistleblower, deterrence from tax evasion can by itself increase tax collections. We find that tax collections significantly increased after the introduction of the whistleblowing mechanism in Israel in February 2013, although this mechanism directly yielded little or no tax collections. In support of the hypothesis that deterrence led to the increase in tax collections, we find that collections increased in industries with high tax-evasion risk, but not in industries with low tax-evasion risk. Furthermore, the increase in tax collections occurred in corporations, where the timing and magnitude of tax payments are more discretionary, but not from employees, for whom employers directly deduct taxes. Eventually, following reports that the whistleblowing mechanism is ineffective, deterrence diminished and tax collections decreased, suggesting the deterrence effect was temporary.     

The Role of Built,Human, Social,and Natural Capital in Determining Land Values,and the Influence of Demographics upon this Relationship

Abstract

We use various statistical methods to compare the extent to which different households are willing to invest in and pay for access to four types of capital—built, human, natural, and social. We further assess to what extent such preferences can be predicted by a measure of neighbourhood demographics. We develop indicators for each of the four types of capital at the census block group level for Baltimore, MD, USA. We use analysis of variance to examine differences in these indicators between demographic groups and multiple linear regression to examine the influence on unimproved land values of the four types of capital.     

CAREER ORIENTATIONS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND COMPANIES: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF WEST GERMAN,BRITISH AND US INDUSTRIAL R&D PROFESSIONALS[1]

This study examined dimensions and levels of career orientations and their correlation with work-related outcome criteria among industrial R&D professionals. Questionnaire data were obtained in 11 West German, 4 British, and 2 US R&D units of large industrial companies. Respondents were 729 West German, 217 British, and 124 US scientists and engineers. Managerial career orientation and professional/scientific career orientation emerged from factor and scale analyses as two independent orientation dimensions with similar meaning across the three countries and the 17 R&D organizations. Results indicated significant cross-country differences in levels of professional/scientific career orientation, but not in levels of managerial career orientation. Significant differences in levels of both orientation dimensions were detected between R&D units within countries. Distinctive characteristics of West German firms employing R&D staff with particularly strong professional/scientific or managerial career orientations are suggested. Managerial and professional/scientific career orientations were found to be differentially related to objective indicators and self-ratings of research performance. Directions for future research and managerial implications for selecting and rewarding R&D employees with different patterns of career orientations are discussed.     

贸易成本、比较优势与出口结

研究目标：总体贸易成本对一国出口贸易结构的影响。研究方法：测算30个样本国与其所有贸易伙伴国的双边贸易成本和各国的总体贸易成本,并利用行业层面数据构建计量模型,将贸易成本与劳动力和资本等要素禀赋一起,经验地研究总体贸易成本对一国出口结构的影响。研究发现：总体贸易成本可以和资本与劳动力等要素禀赋一样,成为比较优势的来源,影响一国对外出口行业的选择;一国即便不具有资本禀赋的优势,但只要不断降低总体贸易成本,完全可能选择生产并出口高贸易成本密集度和资本密集型行业的商品。研究创新：从比较优势的角度经验研究了总体贸易成本对出口结构的影响。研究价值：为产业结构升级提供了新思路。