Sources and directions of technological accumulation in France: a statistical comparison with FR Germany and the UK

Technological activities are an important determinant of national economic performance. Data on R&D and on the national origins of patenting in the USA show that, compared to those of FR Germany and the UK, French technological activities have the following characteristics: (1) a relatively high rate of growth over the past 20 years in aggregate activity; (2) concentration of technological strength in sectors dominated by state procurement and related R&D funding, rather than in “core” technologies; (3) stronger performance in fast-growing technologies in defence, electrical products and fine chemicals, than in electronics and motor vehicles; (4) a relatively stable and speialized sectoral pattern of technological strengths and weaknesses; and (5) sectoral patterns of trading strengths and weaknesses that broadly reflect those in technology. These characteristics of France's technological activities cannot be explained by their greater or lesser concentration, which is very similar to that found in both FR Germany and the UK, both in aggregate and in specific sectors. As in the other two countries, a few large firms have a major influence on national technological activities, especially in R&D-intensive sectors and automobiles. These results are on the whole consistent with the recent assessment by INSEE and CEPII of France's competitive position in international markets. However, they do show a strong Franch “niche” in technologies linked to state markets, and they do suggest certain advantages in long-term stability, rather than rapaid change, in technological priorities.     

Private bureaucracies,organizational efficiency,and Australia's manufacturing trade structure: a comparison with Japan

This study tests the hypothesis that use of in-house information services, which are approximated by the relative size of private bureaucracies or the ‘management sector’, is a statistically significant determinant of Australia's manufacturing trade structure. Large private bureaucracies are a feature of industrialized economies. Their growth, and concomitantly huge resource use, suggest that informational and organizational efficiency have become of paramount importance for economic development. However, variables trying to capture these phenomena are neglected in mainstream trade analysis. The study is conducted for a cross-section of Australian industries and the results are compared with those obtained from a similar study for Japan. The empirical results confirm the importance of private bureaucracies as a trade determinant. Moreover, they seem to dominate some major conventional factors. In the Australian case, the new variables capture an increasingly important aspect of ‘human capital’, i.e., its potentially inefficient use due to lack of organizational innovation. Comparison with Japan indicates major structural weaknesses of Australian manufacturing which hinder the development of a revealed comparative advantage and exports. The paper also comments on the controversial debate concerning Australia's current account deficit, and on the broad implications of the study's findings for economic policy. It concludes with suggestions for further research.     

Sectoral shocks and business cycles: a disaggregated analysis of output fluctuations in the UK

In this paper we first show that it is possible to modify linear real business cycle models to allow for disaggregate (industry-specific) factors in the generation of macroeconomic fluctuations. We then try to determine the relative importance of aggregate and sectoral shocks by doing principal components analysis on the residuals from a VAR of output growth rates in 19 UK industrial sectors. We find that a significant percentage of the innovations in sectoral output growths can be accounted for by a single unobserved component. However, since the model only sets an upper bound to the explanatory power of aggregate impulses, the importance of using sectoral data to extract additional information to bear on the analysis of economic fluctuations is confirmed by our findings.     

Industrial Exploitation of Carbon Fibre in the UK, USA and Japan

This paper describes the invention of high strength carbon fibre and its subsequent exploitation by three companies: Courtaulds in the UK, Hercules in the USA and Toray in Japan. Of these, Toray has become the most successful. Courtaulds ceased carbon fibre production in 1991, whilst Hercules sold its carbon fibre plant in 1996. Without a special relationship with a large local market (such as the US Department of Defence), success in the manufacture of an internationally traded material such as carbon fibre depends on achieving competitive quality and price. Toray's consistent investment in process technology improvements has enabled them to become the world leader in carbon fibre production. This has been achieved, despite periods of negligible profitability, because of the characteristics of the Japanese innovation system.     

When economics harmonized mathematics in Japan: a history of stability analysis

This article discusses how economics was mathematized by Japanese theoretical economists with the cooperation of Japanese mathematicians before 1950. Mathematicians played the leading part in assimilating European scientific ideas and providing an internationally oriented attitude in Japan from the mid nineteenth century. They began to publish many updated textbooks in Japanese from around 1930 on. In the 1940s, Japanese mathematical economists were intensively studying the so-called stability problem, thereby mathematizing economics more rapidly than ever before. Their research activity will give us an interesting example of a process of organizing economic knowledge by introducing more mathematics into the economics literature.     

Aggregate imports and expenditure components in the UK: an empirical analysis

This paper examines the long-run relationship between UK aggregate imports and the macroeconomic components of final expenditure, using the Johansen multivariate cointegration analysis. It is found that there are significant differences between the long-run elasticities of import demand with respect to the different components of final expenditure, over the period 1972 to 1990. An error correction model is proposed for short-run forecasting of UK aggregate imports. The short-run model appears to track the data well.     

A cost-utility analysis of adjunctive treatment with newer antiepileptic drugs in the UK

Summary

A recent review found that economic assessment of epilepsy treatment relies largely on hypothetical modelling of outcomes and combining these with resource and cost data from different sources. Prospective evaluations combining cost studies with outcome assessments are lacking. However, such a prospective observational study has been carried out previously, but only partially reported. We present a comprehensive cost-utility analysis of adjunctive newer antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) based on observational data from that study, and assess the uncertainty of the results using bootstrapping.

A total of 125 patients with intractable epilepsy were recruited. Each patient was about to start treatment with a new adjunctive AED [clobazam, (non-proprietary) gabapentin (Neurontin®, Parke-Davis, UK), lamotrigine (Lamictal®, GlaxoSmithKline, UK), topiramate (Topamax®, Janssen-Cilag, UK), or vigabatrin (Sabril®, Aventis Pharma, UK)]. Patients completed semi-structured interviews on resource use, side effects, and the EuroQol EQ-5D. Patients were followed up for 6 months. Patient-specific cost and utility data were analysed separately for each AED on an intent-to-treat basis. Uncertainty in the estimated incremental cost-utility ratios was quantified using the non-parametric bootstrap method, and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves were calculated.

At 6 months, 78 patients were still on their prescribed drug. Only topiramate and vigabatrin patients showed an increase in EQ-5D scores, and therefore dominated

other AEDs. Topiramate had an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of £7,869/QALY compared with vigabatrin, and had more than a 50% chance of being optimal if the ceiling ratio was above £10,000/QALY.

Observational studies provide a valuable source of information for the economic evaluation of AEDs. In this study non-parametric bootstrapping was used to confirm the cost-effectiveness of adjunctive topiramate for patients with refractory epilepsy.     

Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding vs standard medical management in obese patients with type 2 diabetes: a budget impact analysis in the UK

Abstract

Objective:

To evaluate the financial consequences of using laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) in place of standard medical management (SMM) in obese patients with type 2 diabetes from a UK healthcare payer perspective.     

Foreign direct investment in the UK: evidence from a disaggregated panel of the UK food sector

Most empirical studies of foreign direct investment (FDI) typically use either a cross-sectional (capturing ownership-specific and industry determinants) or time-series (capturing the determinants of FDI over time) approach. Panel data techniques, however, have the advantage of combining both aspects of the data. Using disaggregated panel data for the UK food sector – a leading recipient of FDI in the UK – the results in this paper highlight the predominance of ownership-specific and industry characteristics in determining the presence of foreign-owned firms in this sector while macro-economic factors have a more marginal effect.     

A comparison of clustering dynamics in the US and UK computer industries

This paper compares the dynamics of the process by which geographical clusters emerge in the US and UK computer industries, by modelling the evolution of firm growth and entry. In both countries, new companies are attracted by industry strength in particular sub-sectors in a particular region. Moreover, incumbent firms located in a cluster that is strong in their own sub-sector of the industry tend to grow faster than average. While there are some second order differences between the models estimated for the US and the UK, it appears that the dynamics of clustering are similar. In particular, there is no evidence that clustering effects are weaker in the UK than in the US.     

An investigation of regime shifts in UK commercial property returns: a time series analysis

The random-walk hypothesis, vis-à-vis asset price, suggests that prices traded in a market cannot be predicted based on historical information. Employing unsecuritized UK commercial property returns, we analyse this hypothesis by investigating regime shifts or multiple changes in persistence in the series. Our results uncover regime shifts in both the aggregate and sector-specific data. Specifically, the shifts are less frequent in the Industrial sector, compared to the Office, Retail and Aggregate returns data. We highlight some implications for academics, practitioners and regulators.     

Cost comparison of prostaglandin analogues: a Canadian population-based analysis

Abstract

Objectives: Glaucoma is a fairly common disease, however, little is known about the costs associated with prostaglandin analogues (PAs). The costs between the three available PAs (Lumigan® (bimatoprost), Xalatan® (latanoprost) and Travatan® (travoprost)) were compared as monotherapy and when adjunctive therapy was used.

Methods: From the Québec drug claims database, all patients who used these drugs for 1 full year were identified. From the Ministry of Health (MoH) perspective, the average cost for all reimbursed costs (drug costs and pharmacist fees) were calculated. Those costs plus the patient out-of-pocket copayments were used for the payer + user (PU) perspective.

Results: Data from 4,653 patients were analysed (3,606 on monotherapy and 1,047 on combination treatment with adjunctive therapy), 59.7% were females, and the average age was 72.6 ± 10.4 years. MoH perspective costs were $410 ± $167 for bimatoprost, $381 ± $145 for latanoprost and $298 ± $121 for travoprost (all differences p<0.001), for patients on monotherapy. Costs of combination treatment with adjunctive therapy were $786 ± $416, $686 ± $313, and $623 ± $521, respectively (travoprost significantly lower than each of the other two p<0.001, others=not significant). Results from the PU perspective were comparable.

Conclusions: Travoprost had the lowest cost, both as monotherapy and in conjunction with other glaucoma treatments. Further comparative pharmacoeconomic evaluation is warranted.     

Cost-effectiveness analysis of quadrivalent influenza vaccination in at-risk adults and the elderly: an updated analysis in the UK

Abstract

Objective:

To update an earlier evaluation estimating the cost-effectiveness of quadrivalent influenza vaccination (QIV) compared with trivalent influenza vaccination (TIV) in the adult population currently recommended for influenza vaccination in the UK (all people aged ≥65 years and people aged 18–64 years with clinical risk conditions).     

Testing tariff endogeneity in Japan: A comparison of pre- and post-war periods

This paper tests an endogenous tariff model for Japan (1890–1970). Using a vector autoregression (VAR), I find that tariff changes are endogenous in the post-war period. Rather than being designed to promote economic activity, this suggests that tariffs respond to macroeconomic disturbances.     

Regional policy implications from inter-regional input–output tables: a comparison of two UK inter-regional tables

Two inter-regional input–output tables for the UK are used to consider three questions relating to regional policy. The two regions considered are Scotland and The Rest of the UK (RUK). It is shown that the feedbacks from RUK to the Scottish economy are of the order of 3.5%. The paper demonstrates that expenditures by government (amongst others) will have different total effects depending on the location of the initial injection. Finally, the paper shows that the input–output framework may be used to provide an estimate of the cost of regional policy where that policy is designed to create jobs, and provide a comparison of different ways of increasing employment.     

Volatility transmission between Japan,UK and USA in daily stock returns

In the past, there are a lot of studies which conclude that the holiday, asymmetry and day-of-the-week effects influence stock price volatility. Most of the studies are based on a class of generalized auto-regressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models. No one examines these effects simultaneously using stochastic volatility (SV) models. In this paper, using the SV model, we examine whether these effects play an important role in stock price volatilities. Furthermore, we consider spillover effects between Japan, UK and USA, where spillover effects in price level as well as volatility are taken into account. We are grateful to two anonymous referees for suggestions and comments. We also acknowledge Toshiaki Watanabe who gave us a lot of helpful suggestions and comments in the preliminary version of this paper. This research is partially supported from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) #18530158, 2006–2009, and Grant-in-Aid for COE Research) and the Zengin Foundation (Grant-in-Aid for Studies on Economics and Finance), which are acknowledged by H. Tanizaki.     

A comparison of national saving rates in the UK, US and Italy

We develop the approach of Gokhale, Kotlikoff and Sabelhaus [1996. Understanding the postwar decline in US saving: A cohort analysis. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 0, 315-390], based on the life-cycle model of savings, to decompose the differences in the national saving rates between the UK, US and Italy. Our work suggests that the US saving rate is lower principally because Americans on average retire later. In contrast, the Italian saving rate is higher predominantly because Italians are credit constrained, particularly when young. We also found that demography and the different tax and benefit systems are able to explain little of the cross-sectional differences in saving rates. The study accounts for the possible importance of inter-generational private transfers in determining saving rates.