Voluntary Provision of Public Goods and Technology

This paper highlights issues in the theory of voluntary provision of public goods, building on the investigation by Peacock in connection with the contributions by Coase and Buchanan. Our goal is twofold. We first draw attention to the early literature investigating the provision of public goods and to the successive theoretical analysis. We then focus on the impact of technology on supply and demand. Examples of different types of public goods are provided, with special attention to the cultural sector, to investigate whether and how technology affects the efficiency and the effectiveness of the related public goods provision. The implementation and exploitation of technological advancements are investigated in view of the role of different actors (public, private) at different levels of government.     

The Impact of Competition and Trade Unions on Workplace Reform and Organisational and Technological Change

This article addresses two research questions, firstly to test the hypothesis that organisational and technological changes are more likely to occur in the traded goods sector, in the private sector relative to the public sector and in more competitive product markets. Secondly, to examine whether trade unions have a positive or negative effect on the implementation of different types of workplace reforms, and organisational and technological changes. The analysis supports the hypothesis that workplaces in the traded goods sector are more likely to implement organisational and technological changes. It also indicates that workplaces in the private sector are more likely to implement certain types of reforms, whereas workplaces in the public sector are more likely to implement others. However, this study does not provide conclusive evidence that competitive pressure in product markets increases the probability that a firm will implement each workplace reform mentioned in this study. The evidence on unions provides tentative support to the view that more unionised workplaces are less likely to implement the reforms in question.     

Indra-Industry Trade,Endogenous Technical Change,Wage Inequality and Welfare

By using alternative intra-industry trade models (1. New goods cannot be introduced into the economy; 2. The possibility for a set of capital goods available in the economy to vary; the models consider the existence of intersectoral linkages), I show by means of Applied General Equilibrium (AGE) analysis that trade rises wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers; but the impact on wage inequality is far larger, when countries are assumed to exchange differentiated capital goods. The latter result has been obtained by using an imperfect competitive model, which embodies a sector bias technological change that arises from trade. In addition, the gains from trade, insignificant under the standard trade hypotheses, are extraordinarily large when endogenous technological change is taken into account. The main policy conclusion is that if policy makers of flexible wage economies introduce trade barriers to reduce wage inequality, these protective measures, by affecting the diffusion of technology, would cause a large welfare loss. [D58, f12, F43, J3, O3]     

Targeting Sectors for Foreign Capital Inflow in a Small Developing Economy

We argue, in a model with trade and unemployment, that exogenous inflow of foreign capital may deliver the desired result when it flows to a protected intermediate-goods sector. Whether foreign investment should be directed towards an intermediate-goods sector or to a final-goods sector depends on the technological specifications of either type of goods as well as on the existing set of trade policies.     

Income distribution,technology and employment in developing countries: An application to Ecuador

In this paper the relationships between the distribution of income, technology and employment are analyzed for the industrial sector of Ecuador. The main conclusion is that the effect of a redistribution of income in favour of the lower income groups on employment is positive but of little significance. However, if such redistribution is complemented by a technological policy which promotes the use of more labour intensive techniques where economically feasible, and by orientation of the increased demand for consumption goods, employment in the industrial sector can be increased by around 18 percent. An integrated model of the input-output type is used to analyzed the effects of different policies on the variables mentioned.     

The Behavior of Nontradable-Goods Prices In Europe: Evidence and Interpretation*

This paper examines the evolution of the relative price between tradable and nontradable goods in a group of European countries. A model of an open economy is used to analyze different factors that can account for an increase in the relative price of nontradable goods. These factors are (a) faster technological progress in the tradable goods sector, (b) demand shifts toward nontradable goods, and (c) real wage pressures. the relevance of these factors is analyzed empirically for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.     

Technology and obsolescence: A reinterpretation of the specific-factor model of production

We develop a two sector general equilibrium model with a continuum of sector-specific capital goods in each sector, where each capital good represents a particular type of technology. Even without the standard assumptions usually made in the context of specific-factor models, similar results are derived. This framework is used to analyze the impacts of growth and technological change on the degree of obsolescence in each sector. Innovation and an increasing capital stock increase the degree of obsolescence. On the other hand, growth of labor and modernization of existing technologies reduce the stock of obsolete capital.The paper has benefitted from the comments of the seminar participants at Rutgers University, Cornell University, Columbia University, and at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. Special thanks are due to Subhasis Gangopadhyay for helpful suggestions. Comments from two anonymous referees of this journal were extremely rewarding. The usual disclaimer applies.     

外部性与重工业优先发展

In the framework of a dynamic general equilibrium model, this paper studies how vertical externalities affect the development of heavy industry in a developing economy. The model is comprised of an intermediate and a consumer product sector. The production of both types of goods has pecuniary externalities as they are featured by increasing return to scale. However, the production of an intermediate product has an additional advantage to have externalities through its technological linkage with the production of consumer goods. This is related to the nature of the roundabout production of consumer goods: a larger number of intermediate products lead to higher productivity in the production of consumer goods than do more inputs of a fixed number of intermediate products. Therefore, private investment in the intermediate sector is below the social optimal level. Government subsidies can restore the economy to the social optimum, but they become less needed as the consumer sector grows larger and the advantage of the intermediate good sector diminishes. __________ Translated from Nankai Jingji Yanjiu 南开经济研究 (Nankai Economic Studies), 2007, (2): 3–19     

Transfer sciences and the Austrian system of innovation

This paper attempts to outline the technological position of Austria, its catching up process following World War II and the national system of innovation. Furthermore the process of knowledge production and application in a national system of innovation is highlighted. Austria went through a rapid catching up process after the second world war. The industrial structure of Austria has improved in the sense that the importance of the basic goods sector has continuously diminished whereas medium and high-tech activities have been enforced. Simultaneously, the technological position measured in R&D expenditures and patent grants has also improved. Three possible modes of knowledge production (i.e. interaction between universities and industry) in the national system of innovation can be distinguished: classical relationships, co-operative relationships and transfer sciences. Transfer sciences offer new options for science and technology policy and challenge the more traditional modes of knowledge production.     

HOW THE GLOBALIZATION OF R&D COMPETITION AFFECTS TRADE AND GROWTH

The implications of international R&D competition on trade and growth are investigated. The model is one in which a separate R&D sector competes with the manufacturing sector to secure human capital, and technology is licensed to manufacturers by the winner of a pre-emptive R&D competition. The results show that globalization of R&D competition leads to trade between countries (even identical countries), because the result of competition leads to a reallocation of human capital between sectors. The winning country exports technology and traditional goods, while the loser exports manufactured goods. Globalization with indiscriminate technology licensing increases the world's economic growth rate.     

Toward ‘privatization’ of public sector output: decentralized contracting for public and private goods

Public sector goods and services can be produced in the private sector. The challenge is to provide incentives for allocative and technological efficiency. Either of two mechanisms is proposed to accomplish this. To ensure allocative efficiency, the proposed mechanisms require knowledge of the complete schedule of benefits. Alternatively, they can use information available on benefits in an efficient manner. Costs need not be known to authorities. Profit maximization leads to efficient private sector responses to cost changes over time. Either mechanism can be combined with the demand revealing process to circumvent the need for ex ante information on benefits.     

The Cosine-Shaped Pattern of Innovations and Technological Advantages： Theory and Evidence

Using data from 24 OECD countries, we find that the relationship between a country＇s R＆D investment and technological advantage in a sector （measured by the country＇s labor productivity of the sector relative to the rest of the world） is non-monotonic. In particular, for countries whose technology levels are much lower or higher than the rest of the world in a sector, their sectoral R＆D investment declines as their advantages in the sector improve; for counties with middle technology levels, the opposite is true. Extending the Eaton and Kortum framework, we develop a static model to theoretically analyze the relationship between R＆D investment and technological advantages. We show that when the research efficiency in a sector is sufficiently elastic with respect to the sectoral technological advantage, a country＇s R＆D investment increases with its technological advantage, and vice versa.     

进口结构与技术进步：中国的经验证据

本文针对进口能否产生技术溢出从而促进进口国的技术进步或生产率提高这一问题,首先构造了进口结构指标及技术进步指标,然后对进口结构与技术进步的相互作用进行了协整分析和格兰杰因果关系检验。结果表明:资本品、中间品的进口均对技术进步有长期稳定的促进作用;我国进口存在技术溢出,且中间进口品的技术溢出作用较强,但进口结构与技术进步之间不存在双向因果关系,贸易结构改善与技术进步之间的良性循环并未形成。根据以上结论,本文提出了加强对外贸易、充分利用技术传递,将技术创新与技术传递有机结合,用竞争扶持代替关税保护这三项政策建议。     

DOES TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS MAGNIFY REGIONAL DISPARITIES?

We study how technological progress in manufacturing and migration costs interact to shape the space economy. Rising labor productivity in the manufacturing sector fosters the agglomeration of activities, whereas falling transport costs associated with technological and organizational innovations foster their dispersion. Since these two forces have been at work for a long time, the final outcome must depend on how drops in the costs of producing and trading goods interact with the various costs borne by migrants. Various extensions show the robustness of these conclusions.     

International Technology Diffusion and the Growth of TFP in the Manufacturing Sector of Developing Economies

This paper evaluates various channels through which foreign technology diffuses to the manufacturing sector of developing economies. These economies undertake virtually no own R&D, so they rely on foreign technology to a much larger extent than developed economies. We investigate the direct effect of foreign R&D, as well as technology embodied in imports of intermediate and capital goods and foreign direct investment, on the growth of total factor productivity and value added in the manufacturing sector of 32 economies during 1965–92. We find that foreign R&D typically has the biggest positive impact on domestic productivity and value‐added growth. Imports of capital goods and foreign direct investment also play a similar role, but their effect is of smaller magnitude and is not always significant.     

国际贸易结构分析:贸易品的技术分布

对国际贸易结构的理论与经验研究已经充分揭示了技术在贸易中的重要作用。但是,对于如何识别贸易品的技术差异,如何分析贸易品的技术分布状况,进而如何从技术分布来分析贸易结构等,目前还没有非常成熟的方法。本文试图通过完善关志雄(2002)在这方面的努力来提供基于贸易品技术分布的贸易结构分析法。本文用显示技术附加值赋值原理作为识别贸易品技术附加值高低的理论基础,然后根据这一原理提供了具体的赋值方法,并提出了四种基于贸易品技术分布的贸易结构分析方法,分别是:竞争互补指数、竞争压力指数、技术高度曲线和贸易品高低技术分类分析法。最后,本文用上述方法分析了中国的对外贸易结构。     

Measuring the Technological Structure of Chinese Imports

This paper uses the optimal partitioning method of clustering analysis using orderly samples to classify trade goods and analyzes the technological structure of Chinese imports. The results indicate that since 2000, medium–high technology products have made up the majority of China's imported goods, while the shares of medium or higher technology products have decreased and the share of medium–low technology products has increased sharply. The number of imported goods with a comparative advantage in the Chinese market decreased, while the overall comparative advantage of imported goods also declined. China imports different types of products from different countries and regions around the world. The findings suggest that China should increase the import scale of high technology products.     

有偏技术进步、要素替代与创新溢出效应——2000—2017年中国工业经验分析

在要素替代框架下，构建一个有偏技术进步的超越对数成本函数模型，利用2000—2017年中国工业面板数据估计有偏技术进步对创新溢出效应的影响。结果发现：资本和能源有偏技术进步对创新溢出存在显著负向效应，劳动有偏技术进步对创新溢出存在显著正向效应，而中间品有偏技术进步对创新溢出的正向效应不显著。进一步将要素替代弹性变量纳入模型后发现，当资本、劳动、能源和中间品替代弹性临界阈值分别高于2.864 0、5.234 1、6.453 2及4.163 9时，有偏技术进步对创新溢出具有显著正向效应。上述发现表明，技术进步遵循具有比较优势的创新资源，本质上有利于提升创新溢出效应。     

Product variety and technical change

Motivated by growth models based on the variety of capital goods, recent empirical studies have established links between productivity and several trade-based measures of product variety, carrying the implication that these measures may represent technology. We study this implication by explicitly proposing the variety of capital goods available for production as a direct measure of the state of technology. Within a simple growth and development framework, we derive a ‘conditional technological convergence’ hypothesis on how this variety should behave if it were indeed to represent the state of technology. The hypothesis is tested with highly disaggregated trade data, using tools from the income convergence literature. The results suggest that a trade-based count measure of the variety of available capital goods, allowing for product differentiation by country of origin, indeed behaves ‘as if’ it represented technology when change of technology is understood as a learning process, and that there is conditional technological convergence among our panel of mainly OECD and transition economies.     

Dynamic Analysis of Imitation and Technology Gap

This paper investigates how imitation activities affect the technology gap between developing and developed countries using a North-South model in which the variety of goods is expanding over time. If imitation productivity is high enough, nonrivalrous ideas and inexpensive labor enables developing countries to reduce their technological backwardness by imitating products even if their initial level of technology is far behind the technology in developed countries. We also show that the rise of imitation productivity may benefit both developing and developed countries if they prefer a sufficient variety of goods.