MODELING AND MEASURING THE ECONOMIC ROLES OF TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE

Designing and managing an economy's technology infrastructure requires both accurate economic models and data to drive them. Previous models treat technology as a homogeneous entity, thereby precluding assessing investment barriers affecting infrastructure elements. The model presented overcomes this deficiency by disaggregating the knowledge production function into key elements of the typical industrial technology based on the distinctly different investment incentives associated with each element. Without such a model, the economist's ability to assess important market failures associated with investment in the major technology elements, including those with infrastructure (public-good) characteristics, is compromised. Unfortunately, even with the correct knowledge production function, the required data are difficult to collect. This forces government agencies, which fund a majority of technology infrastructure research, to use second-best approaches for economic analyses. The second half of this paper therefore presents an analytical framework that can be driven by more accessible data and provide reasonable impact assessments until better data become available.     

THE ASCENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AS AN ACTOR IN THE MONETARY INTEGRATION PROCESS IN THE 1960s

This paper discusses macroeconomic and monetary policy making at the European Commission in the 1960s. The Commission, in its analysis, focused strongly on economic imbalances in the Community, as they could threaten the common market project. In order to strengthen the system of economic governance of the Community, the Commission advocated an improved monetary cooperation, in line with the internal logic of the integration process. This contrasted with the view of the central bankers, who took the international monetary system as the framework for their analysis. This paper shows the ascent of the Commission as an actor in the monetary area, notwithstanding the relatively limited provisions of the European Economic Community Treaty.     

Broad-based intangibles as generators of growth in Europe

This paper analyzes broad performance-based measures of intangibles in European Union countries to find new sources of growth and shows that intangible capital (IC)-driven growth was halted in European industries during the 2008–2013 financial crisis period. Much of this IC, such as purchased organizational, research and development (R&;D) and information and communication technology capital, is unaccounted for in systems of national accounts, so that total IC investment is 29.6% of value added, with R&;D having the lowest gross domestic product share at 5.0%. On average, deteriorating IC growth has decreased labor productivity by ?2.9% annually. Policies fostering multifactor productivity growth have been strongly biased and have ignored the loss of those skills necessary for long-term growth. During 2008–2013, innovation thus failed to compensate for Europe’s dwindling fixed-capital-intensive manufacturing and job losses, but broad-based IC offers a roadmap for recovery by relying on an increasing role for IC-producing services.     

R&D internationalisation patterns in the global pharmaceutical industry: evidence from a network analytic perspective

This study adopts a Social Network Analysis (SNA) perspective to investigate global R&D internationalisation patterns of the pharmaceutical industry. We use co-inventorships identified in pharmaceutical patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) between 1996 and 2013, giving rise to an international collaboration network by drawing a cross-country link when a patent lists at least two inventors located in different countries. We describe changing R&D internationalisation patterns by exploring network structures as a whole as well as the changing role of different countries. The results show that R&D internationalisation indeed has gained momentum in pharmaceutical innovation, in particular after the year 2006. The network has developed from a mono-centric, star-like network – with the USA constituting the only hub – to a more distributed and dense network. The relative decline of the USA has not taken place at the expense of emerging economies but at the expense of European countries.     

KNOWLEDGE ACCUMULATION, AND PRODUCTIVITY: EVIDENCE FROM PLANT-LEVEL DATA FOR IRELAND

This paper investigates whether knowledge accumulating activities, such as exporting, R&D, or worker training, can enhance plants' productivity. To this end, we use plant‐level panel data for Irish manufacturing. Our results importantly indicate that productivity enhancing effects of these factors are found only for domestic firms, but not for foreign multinationals located in Ireland. We postulate a number of potential reasons inherent to multinational activity possibly driving this result.     

Is R&D always growth-enhancing? Empirical evidence from the EU countries

This study provides empirical evidence regarding the effects of R&D on economic growth in a panel of 28 European Union (EU) countries over the period 1997–2014. In particular, we investigate whether the impact of business and government R&D stocks on economic growth depends on the country’s distance to the world technology frontier. The main findings are that in the EU (i) there is positive, statistically significant business R&D stock–economic growth nexus in countries that are relatively close to the frontier and (ii) no statistically significant relationship was found to exist between government R&D stock and economic growth. From the policy perspective, the results suggest that designing proper national policies that allow switching from investment-based to innovation-based strategies at appropriate moments may be far more important than a simple call for increase in R&D expenditures and setting common numerical targets for all EU-member states.     

Governance structures in R&D networks: An analysis in the European context

This paper analyses governance structures used to organize partnerships in R&D networks using two approaches: transaction costs theory and social capital theory. We argue that these theories are complementary; this explains forms of governance through the degrees of administrative (structural and safeguard mechanism) and social factors (cohesion and openness) they embody. Data was obtained from European R&D networks created through Framework Programmes which include a great number of universities, non profit institutions and firms. Findings show the variables that characterize and explain the governance forms based on the applicability of R&D networks. This study not only provides a theoretical model for analysing governance structures of these networks, but is also useful for both improving the management of networks and for fostering collaboration at an international level.     

New evidence on the firm-university linkages in Europe. The role of meritocratic management practices

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the determinants of university-industry links in five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK), using internationally comparable firm-level data for the period 2007–2009. Besides the usual firm-specific variables, it examines the role of meritocratic management practices in firms’ decisions to collaborate in R&D. Firm innovative efforts, the export status and the R&D government support are positively related to business-university links in almost all countries, human capital and firms’ size in two out of five countries under scrutiny, while belonging to science-based sectors does not seem to play a significant role in all countries but Italy. Importantly, we find that meritocratic managerial practices positively affect the firm-university nexus in Germany, France and the UK, while meritocracy does not appear to enhance businesses’ R&D collaboration in Italy and in Spain.     

基于社会经济网络的长三角区域经济发展

社会经济网络是一个经济、社会、文化俱乐部,将区域空间内企业的知识传递、创新活动、企业采购和销售等外部问题内部化,其存在减少了企业之间的交易成本,是一种介于市场和组织之外的第三种资源配置方式,是一种科斯制度的形式.这一理论对我国长三角地区的经济一体化和可持续发展有着重要指导意义.     

浙江中部地区旅游开发布局研究

本文将浙江中部地区旅游业开发布局拟为：立足金华、联络四方、优化结构、筑成特色、面向市场、全方位开拓．并加以论述。     

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY: TRACING THE FLOW OF BASIC RESEARCH THROUGH MANUFACTURING AND TRADE

This paper describes flows of basic research through the US economy during the late 20th century. In addition, the paper studies the effect of the flows on scientific papers in industries and fields. This article differs from others in its use of measures of science rather than technology. Together, its results present a picture of the structure of basic research flows in a modern, science-intensive economy. Basic research flows are large within petrochemicals and drugs, and within software and communications. Flows of chemistry, physics, and engineering are common throughout all industries – biology and medicine are almost confined to petrochemicals and drugs; and computer science is nearly as restricted to software and communications. In general, basic research flows are more concentrated within scientific fields than within industries. Our findings concerning the production of scientific papers indicate that the effect of a 1% change in academic R&D spillovers significantly exceeds that of industrial spillovers. In addition, within-field effects exceed effects between-fields, while within- and between-industry effects are roughly equal. It follows that scientific fields limit basic research flows more than industries do, perhaps because large firms implicitly span a range of industries.     

Research technology organisations as leaders of R&D collaboration with SMEs: role,barriers and facilitators

Research technology organisations or RTOs have attracted academic interest in the last decade due to their role as technology transfer agents and R&D collaborative leaders for firms and especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Although their role within the diversity of specialised structures in generating R&D for industry in National Innovation Systems is recognised, there are scarce publications in relation to their strategies, performance or characteristic, as leaders of R&D collaboration with SMEs. The aim of this work is to identify the role, barriers and facilitators for RTOs performance as well as to develop a contingency relationship between industry environment, strategy, organisational structure and other factors for successful technology transfer from technology organisations to SMEs. This research is based on a field study conducted on 14 technology organisations based in the Valencia region, working with various industry sectors.     

芬兰科技创新之路及对我国西部大开发的启示

在全球信息科技革命浪潮中,芬兰通过重视发展教育和对科技人才的培养、加大研发投入对科技自主创新的支持,迅速地从上世纪初落后的农业国而快速发展成为1960年代经济、科技高度发达的高福利制国家,同时在2003年之后又超过美国成为世界最具竞争力的经济体,被誉为"芬兰奇迹".当前,我国西部地区与芬兰经济腾飞前有许多相似之处.文章主要分析了芬兰走科技创新之路的前提,阐述了其高科技发展战略及相应举措,重点探讨了主要科技创新领域的发展现状,最后,结合我国当前的西部大开发提出了一些启示.     

区域工业旅游产品营销策略——以郴州市工业旅游为例

以郴州市为例,论证了区域工业旅游产品营销应具备的三个条件:主体条件、客体条件、媒介条件;分析了当前我国区域工业旅游产品营销特点;在此基础上提出了战略对策:充分发挥政府在工业旅游产品营销中的主导作用、明确工业旅游产品营销市场的战略定位、实施产品组合营销策略、以“装”引人,推出特色产品、营造令人愉悦的旅游氛围,加大宣传推销力度、确定合理价格水平、重视工业旅游经济效益增长点———工业旅游商品的营销。     

基于GIS的山地人居环境自然要素综合评价——以浙江省仙居县为例

人居环境既是人类生存活动密切相关的地理空间,也是人类赖以生存的物质基础。山地人居环境是人居环境类型之一,它在各个自然因素基础上综合形成的,自然因素包括山地地形地貌、气候、水文地质、植被、土地资源,构成有别于其它不同类型的人居环境。文章利用GIS(地理信息系统)的空间分析能力和叠置技术,以浙江省仙居县为例,通过五大山地自然要素进行定量分析与综合分析,以达到科学评价山地人居环境。