The role of innovation in venture capital: empirical evidence from European Union and EFTA countries

This article investigates the effects of innovation attempts on the venture capital and investment activity in the cases of the selected European Union plus European Free Trade Agreement countries using annual panel data and by controlling for real income growth and business sophistication. Our findings suggest that innovation has positively significant effects on venture capital in the cases without opt-out countries (United Kingdom and Denmark); however, these effects become negative in the cases with opt-out countries. Policy implications are provided in the conclusion section of this study.     

Addressing the disenchantment: universities and regional development in peripheral regions

The paper addresses the rising criticism to innovation policies that have assumed a direct and massive impact of universities in regional economies. It integrates the literature in economics of innovation, higher education, economic geography and regional studies. The paper shows why research excellence is considered a necessary condition for regional impact, why it is not sufficient, and whether there are substitutes. The Additional Material section includes an analysis, based on original data, on research excellence in universities in European peripheral regions. The policy implications call for a new approach to the role of universities.     

Knowledge externalities,innovation and growth in European countries: the role of institutions

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the linkages between institutions and economic growth in the European context and highlights innovation as the intermediate variable that drives this interplay. Building on the literature in the evolutionary approach to the economics of innovation and in the economic growth theory with a political economic perspective, we assume that knowledge externalities can fully take place where institutions guarantee a level playing field in the access to knowledge. We estimate the effects of a set of relevant institutional variables on the growth rate of technological knowledge and per capita GDP for a sample of European countries. The empirical analysis confirms that institutions that tend to equalise opportunities to innovate significantly amplify the impact of an exogenous increase in the knowledge base on the growth rate of per capita GDP.     

Trade and the Transmission of Technology

This paper integrates earlier studies on the link of productivity and research and development (R&D) in different industries of a closed economy with the more recent emphasis on R&D-driven growth and international trade in open economies. In this framework, technology in the form of product designs is transmitted to other industries, both domestically as well as internationally, through trade in differentiated intermediate goods. I present empirical results based on a new industry-level data set that covers more than 65 percent of the worlds manufacturing output and most of the worlds R&D expenditures between 1970 and 1991. The analysis considers productivity effects from R&D in the domestic industry itself, from R&D in other domestic industries, as well as in the same and other foreign industries. I estimate strong productivity effects both from own R&D spending and R&D conducted elsewhere. The contribution of R&D in the industry itself is about 50 percent in this sample. Domestic R&D in other industries is the source of 30 percent of the productivity increases, and the remaining 20 percent are due to R&D expenditures in foreign industries.     

The role of China in the world economy: evidence from a global VAR model

Since the 1980s, China has experienced very high economic growth, and its share in global trade has increased rapidly. Currently, however, the Chinese economy is rebalancing, and its growth is slowing. This paper investigates the spillover effects on other countries of a negative demand shock and negative stock price shock in the Chinese economy. We apply a global vector autoregressive model, which enables us to model international linkages between countries. Our results show that a one per cent negative China GDP shock reduces global growth by 0.22% in the short run. We find that GDP shock affects emerging economies more strongly than advanced economies. We also show that a stock price shock affects only emerging economies and does not affect advanced economies.     

The legacy and promise of Vannevar Bush: rethinking the model of innovation and the role of public policy

The linear model of innovation argues that innovation takes place in a unidirectional sequence, with basic research directly diffusing in marketable product or process innovations. This perspective has served society well in past decades. However, recent productivity slowdowns in developed economies and the failure of innovation policies to continue to deliver desired results have called this perspective into question. Scholars explain these slowdowns by the oversimplification of the linear model which fails to consider the complexities associated with innovation processes. Although it is generally believed that Vannevar Bush’s report Science – The Endless Frontier – was based on his belief in a linear model of innovation and the notion that basic research is the ultimate source of all innovation, an examination of Bush’s writings and his life reveals that he believed in a more sophisticated model in which basic and applied research cross-fertilize each other and in which government’s job is not so much to stimulate basic research as it is to facilitate interactions between basic and applied research for the benefit of both and the prosperity of society. This paper explicates Bush’s model of the research and innovation process, explores the implications of that model, and derives policy recommendations.     

高校财务人员素质提升探析

高校财务管理主体的财务工作人员,是高校财务管理创新的关键因素。高校财务管理管理中如何提高财务人员的素质,为高校教育的有序开展提供后勤支持,是当前高校财务管理中需要迫切解决的问题。阐述了高校财务人员应具备的基本素质,并提出了提高高校财务人员素质的基本对策。     

The importance of being informed: Experimental evidence on demand for environmental quality

To what extent does information affect the demand for environmental quality? A randomly selected group of households in an Indian city were informed whether or not their drinking water had tested positive for fecal contamination using a simple, inexpensive test kit. Households initially not purifying their water and told that their drinking water was possibly contaminated, were 11 percentage points more likely to begin some form of home purification in the next eight weeks than households that received no information. They spent $7.24 (at PPP) more on purification than control households. By way of comparison, an additional year of schooling of the most educated male in the household is associated with a 3 percentage-point rise in the probability of initial purification, while a standard-deviation increase in the wealth index is associated with a 12 percentage-point rise in this probability and an $11.75 rise in expenditure. Initially purifying households that received a “no contamination” result did not react by reducing purification. These results suggest that estimates of the demand for environment quality that assume full information may significantly under-estimate it.     

Revisiting measure of R&D spillovers: empirical evidence on OECD countries and industries

Using data for 17 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over 29 years for 28 industries, this paper estimates industry-wise research and development (R&D) spillovers from the largest R&D investors and the most R&D-intensive industries that contribute 80% of global R&D. In doing so, it tests several assumptions made in the literature, and data rejecting them, proposes a methodology on R&D return estimation devoid of these assumptions. Results show that R&D has substantial spillovers, justifying R&D support policy. Each dollar of R&D generates about 29 cents in spillovers domestically and 4 cents in foreign countries. However, both intra- and inter-industry spillovers vary by industries, implying that the policy of supporting each R&D dollar uniformly across industries is suboptimal. Contrary to industry heterogeneity, the R&D spillovers from an industry do not vary substantially across countries, suggesting that optimal R&D policy across OECD countries might be uniform. An industry-by-industry technology matrix shows that sometimes an idea generates a greater impact on other industries than where it is generated.     

政府创新补贴对中国工业自有研发支出的影响研究 ——基于空间计量模型

从空间关联视角再审视政府创新补贴的效应,并基于2001—2017年我国省际面板数据,运用空间面板模型分析了政府创新补贴对中国工业自有研发支出的影响。结果表明,政府创新补贴显著激励了本省市工业自有研发支出,同时,也正向影响相邻省市工业自有研发支出。在控制了内生性问题后,该结论依然成立。另外,在不同所有制和创新水平下,政府创新补贴对工业自有研发支出的空间影响效果存在差异。根据研究结论,本文提出加大政府创新补贴力度并充分考虑溢出效应、融合政府激励和市场驱动以及营造支持成功创新的环境等4项政策建议。     

Relationship lending and innovation: empirical evidence on a sample of European firms

This paper investigates the impact of relationship lending on innovation (the probability to innovate and the intensity of innovation). Using a unique dataset providing detailed information on bank–firm relationships across European firms, we relate different proxies of relationship lending (soft information, long-lasting relationships, number of banks and share of the main bank) to innovation. We find a very strong and robust positive effect of ‘soft-information-intensive’ relationships, a less robust positive effect of long-lasting relationships and a negative effect of credit concentration as measured by the number of banking relationships. We also find that ‘soft-information-intensive’ relationships reduce credit rationing for innovative firms, while long-lasting relationships seem to favour innovation via other relational channels. These results raise some concern on the impact of screening processes based on automatic procedures, as those suggested by the Basel rules, on firms' capability to finance innovative activities in Europe.     

医护人员良好职业素养养成研究

医护人员职业素养对于其自身职业长远发展、切实改善医患关系、形成优良医院企业文化具有重要意义。作为医护人员,要努力提高自己的医术,用精湛的技术帮助病患解除病痛,注重自身外部形象的塑造,以高度的责任心、耐心,细心对待病人及其家属,从而养成良好的职业素养。     

The role of spillovers in research and development expenditure in Australian industries

Using administrative data from firms in Australia that conduct research and development (R&;D), we examine how R&;D activity of other firms and public institutions affect a firm's own R&;D expenditure. We distinguish between the impact of peers, suppliers and clients. We examine whether geographical proximity and industrial clustering affect R&;D spillovers. Overall, we detect positive effects on R&;D expenditure from spillovers from peers and clients to firms that are nearby; within 25 or 50?km. R&;D expenditure by academia, unlike by government bodies, has a positive influence on a firm's own R&;D expenditure within state boundaries. We fail to find any significant role for industrial clusters in augmenting spillover effects.     

The economics of research,consulting, and teaching quality: theory and evidence from a technical university

We investigate the effect of both research and consulting on teaching quality in higher education, at the individual level. We propose a theoretical model in which academics allocate effort between the three activities, over a two period time horizon, under the assumption of positive spillovers from research to both consulting opportunities and teaching, and of life-cycle effects on incentives. Propositions from the model are tested against data from a mid-sized Italian engineering faculty. We find that teaching quality is negatively related to consulting and positively related to research experience. However, both relationships are not linear, due to the importance of several mediating factors, such as seniority and the role of scientific publications as a signal for attracting consulting opportunities.     

The two ways of FDI R&D spillovers: evidence from the French manufacturing industry

Using French firm-level panel data, this study investigates R&D spillovers from inward foreign direct investment (FDI) with respect to both horizontal and vertical linkages (backward and forward). Using a Crepon, Duguet and Mairesse (CDM) model, we estimate an R&D-augmented Cobb–Douglas production function to assess the impact of R&D spillovers on firm performance. The results emphasize that international spillovers (from foreign affiliates to local firms) have a greater effect on firm performance than reverse spillovers (from local firms to foreign affiliates) and are more likely to be backward than forward. Moreover, the effect of backward spillovers depends on a firm’s absorptive capacity and is amplified in the case of outsourcing relationships.     

基于创新创业的区域创新效率时空特征研究

本文利用2014-2019年30个省级行政区的面板数据,从创新创业促进创新效率的理论机制出发,根据创新创业的目标导向构建测度创新效率的指标体系,分别利用DEA模型和超效率DEA模型来评估省域创新效率。研究发现：省域创新效率呈U形发展趋势,总体上呈上升趋势,创新创业能有效提升创新效率。省域间创新效率存在差异,但DEA无效的原因不同。东部地区创新效率较高,其它依次是西部地区、中部地区和东北地区。为了进一步地提升创新效率,在加大创新创业投入,改善营商环境的同时,要加强创新创业的联动。     

The role of codified sources of knowledge in innovation: Empirical evidence from Dutch manufacturing

This paper explores ongoing debates about the role that codified forms of knowledge play in fostering innovative behaviour. It aims to provide an empirical exploration of the use of codified sources of information for innovation at the firm and sectoral level. Despite considerable interest in David and Forays (1995) work on the codification of knowledge and the changing nature of innovation due to the use of information and communication technologies, there are relatively few empirical studies that probe the role of codified sources of information in the innovation process. Our goal is to assess how important codified sources of information are for innovation among different firms and sectors. We find that use of codified sources of knowledge is highly concentrated in high technology sectors and among firms with existing absorptive capacity. The analysis shows that the use of other sources of information for innovation is a strong predictor of a firms use of codified sources. The data used for the analysis is based on The Netherlands Community Innovation Survey (II) for the manufacturing sector and covers over 2001 firms in 11 industries.JEL Classification: L60, O32, O33     

The impact of population on CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions: evidence from European countries

This paper analyses the impact of population growth on CO₂ emissions in European Union countries. Traditionally, researchers have assumed a unitary elasticity of emissions with respect to population growth. In this study population is treated as a predictor in the model, instead of being included as part of the dependent variable (per capita emissions), thus relaxing the above-mentioned assumption of unitary elasticity. We also contribute to the existing literature by taking into account the presence of heterogeneity in the sample and considering a dynamic specification. The sample covers the period 1975–1999 for the current European Union members. Our results show that the impact of population growth on emissions is more than proportional for recent accession countries whereas for old EU members, the elasticity is lower than unity and non significant when the properties of the time series and the dynamics are correctly specified. The different impact of population change on CO₂ emissions for the current EU members should therefore be taken into account in future discussions of climate change policies within the EU.      

The influences of different R&D types on productivity growth in OECD countries

Productivity has become an important concern for the sustainable development and growth of a country. Countries, such as those in the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD), that actively innovate and conduct Research and Development (R&D) activities always have high productivity growth, with research to date examining the positive influences of R&D on productivity. R&D activities are classified into three types: basic research, applied research and experimental development. To test the different influences of the different R&D types, panel data from 23 OECD countries for the period 1996–2010 have been constructed and the Data Envelopment Analysis method is used to measure and decompose productivity growth. Moreover, based on Mansfield's [“Basic Research and Productivity Increase in Manufacturing.” The American Economic Review 70: 863–873] model, the influences of each R&D type on productivity growth are tested. The empirical tests show that R&D investments in experimental development and applied research have a positive effect on productivity growth in the immediate period; basic research influences productivity growth with a lengthier lag, even up to three periods.