What drives the localization of Spanish multinationals in developing and transition countries?

In this paper, we investigate the location determinants of Spanish multinational firms in developing and transition economies. We pay particular attention to the role played by market potential and agglomeration economies as decisive factors in location. We also analyze whether, beyond the observed attributes, there are any significant differences across regions in terms of attracting foreign affiliates. With this aim, we estimate a mixed logit model, which allows us to endogenously consider the existence of complex substitution patterns among different destinations. Our results confirm that Spanish investment in developing and transition countries depends on market potential and agglomeration externalities. The intensity of these externalities, however, depends on the nationality of competitors, greater rivalry being observed among Spanish‐owned affiliates. Furthermore, our findings show that the location of multinational firms responds both to factors related to the local business environment, including the cost and quality of labor and infrastructures, and to the existence of specific regional effects.     

What drives trade in services? Lessons from the Nordics

This article makes an empirical assessment of the relative importance of non-actionable institutional and cultural factors and actionable policy measures for services market integration, using the Nordic countries as a case study. The Nordics are an ideal case as they are perceived to be a cluster of similar countries, but they have chosen different relations to the European Union (EU) and the rest of the world. First, comparing actionable and non-actionable determinants of services trade, I find that policy-determined free trade agreements (FTAs) boost services trade by 75% and a single market by an additional 45%, while the accumulated effect of all standard non-actionable shared geographical, institutional and cultural features (sharing a land border, language, colonial past and legal origin) almost triples services trade. Having controlled for all these determinants, intra-Nordic trade in services is more than three times the predicted value. An unexplained Nordic bias of this magnitude indicates that full integration of services markets may rely on deeper institutional and cultural factors.     

Does partner type matter in R&D collaboration for product innovation?

Most firms tend to utilise various types of R&D collaboration partners simultaneously and partnerships between different types of partners show different properties. Thus, the effect of R&D collaboration may vary depending on partner types. This study considers four partner types: competitors, customers, suppliers and universities. It empirically examines the effect of R&D collaboration with each type of partner on product innovation, employing the Korean Innovation Survey data. Results show that R&D collaborations with customers and universities have a positive effect on product innovation, whereas R&D collaborations with suppliers and competitors have an inverted-U shape relationship with product innovation. This result can provide an explanation to the chaotic results of previous research and assist managers in selecting appropriate R&D partner.     

What drives the perception of health and safety risks in the workplace? Evidence from European labour markets

Worker perceptions of job-related health risk are a little-studied dimension of heterogeneity in the labour market. According to information from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), one out of three European workers considers that her health and safety is at risk because of work. Not surprisingly, risk perceptions are influenced by objective risk factors such as hazardous working conditions, onerous job characteristics and by the probability to be affected by occupational accidents and illnesses. This paper explores also the role played by personal characteristics and household structure for the explanation of risk perceptions. After controlling for job characteristics, workplace hazards, job satisfaction and health outcomes, I find that risk perceptions are strongly correlated with gender, age, and household structure. Lone parents as well as older and more experienced workers have a higher propensity than other categories to consider their health at risk because of work. The same seems to hold true for better educated workers, especially for those who have completed tertiary education. Further results suggest that the relationship between household structure and risk perception is stable across gender.     

What drives the reversal of the gender education gap? Evidence from Germany

We study the mechanisms that are associated with the gender education gap and its reversal in Germany. We focus on three outcomes, graduation from upper secondary school, any tertiary education and tertiary degree. Neither individual and family background nor labour market characteristics appear to be strongly associated with the gender education gap. There is some evidence that the gender gap in upper secondary education reflects the rising share of single parent households which impacts boys’ attainment more than girls’. The gender education gap in tertiary education is correlated with the development of class sizes and social norms.     

What drives the short-run costs of fiscal consolidation? Evidence from OECD countries

We investigate how the short-term effects of fiscal consolidation on output and employment vary with the state of the business cycle, monetary policy, public debt, the current account, and private credit. By examining the response of a large number of variables, we are also able to shed light on the transmission channels of fiscal policy. Our main finding is that short-term output multipliers are below unity, even in states in which multipliers are expected to be larger (eg when the output gap is negative or monetary policy tight). Key offsetting factors that reduce the size of multipliers and explain differences across states are the extent to which the external sector improves and monetary policy eases.     

What drives inequality and poverty in the EU? Exploring the impact of macroeconomic and institutional factors

Employing panel data techniques, we investigate the macroeconomic and institutional determinants of inequality and poverty in the EU over the period 1994–2008. We pay particular attention to the effects of macroeconomic environment, social protection and labour market institutions. The empirical analysis shows that the social transfers in cash, and principally the transfers that do not include pensions, exert a prominent impact on inequality and poverty. Also significant is the effect of the GDP per capita. The impact of employment on inequality and poverty is not empirically sound. The same holds for the labour market institutions; an exception is the union density, which appears conducive to a less dispersed personal income distribution. Importantly, the results support the view that the social protection system acts as a catalyst in determining the effectiveness of social spending and the distributive role of economic growth and employment.     

What are the consequences of ignoring attributes in choice experiments? Implications for ecosystem service valuation

This paper investigates the sensitivity of choice experiment values 3AL for ecosystem services to ‘attribute non-attendance’. We consider three cases of attendance, namely that people may always, sometimes, or never pay attention to a given attribute in making their choices. This allows a series of models to be estimated which addresses the following questions: To what extent do respondents ignore attributes in choice experiments? What is the impact of alternative strategies for dealing with attribute non-attendance? Can respondents reliably self-report non-attendance? Do respondents partially attend to attributes, and what are the implications of this? Our results show that allowing for the instance of ‘sometimes attending’ to attributes in making choices offers advantages over methods employed thus far in the literature.     

What hinders innovation performance of services and manufacturing firms in Mexico?

Barriers to innovation are heterogeneous, of financial and non-financial nature. The importance of barriers to innovation and their actual influence on innovation depend on firms’ characteristics such as sectoral affiliation, technological behavior and their response to perceived obstacles to innovation. Firms either continue to engage in innovation, or they avoid the activity altogether. This paper explored the nature and perceived importance of the obstacles to innovation that firms confront, in a developing-country context; we build on survey data about firms in Mexico. Our findings suggest that two kinds of policy interventions should help offset a firm’s perception of barriers to innovation. On the one hand, policies should enhance the innovation capacity of firms interested in innovation; on the other hand, policies need to tackle factors that reduce the interest of firms in innovation. Policies that boost demand for locally generated innovations would assist in achieving both these goals.     

What drives the high moments of hedge fund returns?

We study the high-moment distribution of hedge fund returns and identify factors that drive high-moment risk. Using hedge fund monthly returns, we find a strong correlation between the first four moments of returns (i.e. mean, standard deviation (SD), skewness, and kurtosis) and different characteristics of the funds such as leverage, liquidity, incentives, and strategy-related factors. We find that after controlling for other factors, incentives-related factors and a hedge fund’s specific strategy have the greatest impact on the distribution of fund returns. Our evidence also suggests investors allocate across hedge fund characteristics while placing greater emphasis on fund strategies and incentive factors.     

What explains indirect exports of goods and services in Eastern Europe and Central Asia?

This paper investigates the determinants of indirect exporting, using firm-level data for 27 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Indirect exporting depends on a combination of fixed and variable trade cost factors. We first hypothesize that firms that perceive customs, transportation, crime and legal systems as severe obstacles anticipate higher fixed costs and are more likely to export indirectly. The second hypothesis is that indirect exporting tends to be a temporary strategy. Econometric models are used to test the first hypothesis and transition matrices to test the second. In particular, probit, Heckman-probit and fractional response models are estimated to analyse the determinants of the export mode and the share of indirect exports. The results indicate that the factors that account for the fixed cost of exporting, mainly affect the decision to export indirectly (extensive margin), but some of them also affect, to a lesser extent, the amount exported indirectly (intensive margin). More specifically, factors such as customs and trade restrictions and transportation obstacles affect the extensive margin only, whereas crime affects both margins. Secondly, trade agreement membership mainly affects trade in manufactured goods, while exchange rate volatility affects positively the extensive and intensive margin of indirect exports of services. The results also indicate that firms are more likely to change their status as an indirect exporter than they are to change their status as a direct exporter or a non-exporter, which provides support to the second hypothesis.     

Politics of scale and strategic selectivity in the liberalisation of public services – the role of trade in services

One of the most contentious issues of the neoliberal agenda has been the privatisation of public services. The WTO GATS negotiations over the liberalisation of trade in services, which commenced in the year 2000, led to a strongly contested debate over whether the international level would provide an additional channel for the privatisation of public services. In particular, the position of the European Union was criticised for promoting this agenda. More recently, this question has regained its significance with the start of negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Thus, this article seeks to analyse the politics of scale in the field of trade in services and its specific impact upon the liberalisation of public services. By applying a Neo-Poulantzian IPE approach, we propose a typology of (i) scalar forms in trade policy and (ii) of particular liberalisation strategies. Our results suggest that the multilateral level is but one element in a strategic politics of scale, with the former primarily fulfilling the role of locking-in liberalisation gains achieved at other levels, while other scalar forms, in particular bi- and plurilateralism, are primarily used to progressively advance the liberalisation agenda.     

Offshoring Brains? Evidence on the Complementarity between Manufacturing and R&D in Danish Firms*

By employing a firm-level linked employer–employee dataset for Danish manufacturing firms, this paper investigates whether offshoring is complementary to, or a substitute for, research and development (R&D) activities. Offshoring is instrumented with world export supply to circumvent the inherent endogenous nature of the firm's decision to offshore. Results suggest that firms with increased offshoring do in fact tend to engage in further R&D activities at home. Moreover, they also tend to reallocate R&D resources toward product R&D, possibly at the expense of process R&D.     

Do the Spanish regions converge? A unit root analysis for the HDI of the Spanish regions

This article studies the possible stochastic convergence between the Spanish regions in 1980–2010. The application of unit root techniques to the new Human Development Index recently calculated in Herrero et al. (2013) allows us to show that the evolution of the Spanish economy can be better understood as the sum of divergent forces rather than as a group of convergent regions. Similar conclusions can be drawn when the per capita GDP is used, although these two variables exhibit different patterns of behaviour at the end of the sample. Finally, we also observe that the distance between northern and southern regions has increased since 2000.     

What are good R&D investment strategies for leaders and followers?

Research and development (R&D) investment affects the growth of firms in the same industry differently according to their technological positions. This study empirically investigates differences in how R&D investment influences firm growth between technological leaders and followers. Additionally, this study investigates the moderating effects of complementary assets and market competition on the relationship between R&D investment and firm growth. Using a sample of 2322 observations from 492 firms in the U.S. chemical and allied products industry for the period 2000–2009, we show that an increase in R&D investment leads to greater firm growth for technological followers than for technological leaders. We also find that the moderating effects of complementary assets and market competition vary depending on whether a firm is a technological leader or follower.     

What drives investment in the telecommunications sector? Some lessons from the OECD countries

Regulation of telecommunications sector plays a crucial role in the political and economic agenda for both industrial and developing countries. The regulatory efforts of more developing countries in order to attract investments and enhance the level of effective competition in the industry are hindered by the absence of a sound legal framework, the weak level of regulation and the extended state interventionism. The main aim of this study is to examine the regulatory process in the telecommunications industry within the OECD countries and determine the extent to which it has affected the level of investment and economic growth. For this purpose, we use an updated data set for thirty OECD countries covering the period 1988–2010 and panel data econometric techniques. Our analysis reveals that there is a strong and positive relationship between effective regulation and investment.     

Are choice experiments reliable? Evidence from the lab

This study investigates whether a popular stated preference method, the choice experiment (CE), reliably measures individuals’ values for a good. We address this question using an induced value experiment. Our results indicate that CEs fail to elicit payoff maximizing choices. We find little evidence that increasing the salience of the choices or adding monetary incentives increase the proportion of payoff maximizing choices. This questions the increasing use of CE to value non-market goods for policy making.     

Trade in goods and services: Two sides of the same coin?

This study analyzes the interrelationship between goods and services in production and trade using the most recent input–output tables for all OECD countries. It first describes the role of services in production and trade in goods. Next, it proposes two models for analyzing the impact of services trade liberalization on industrial structure. The first captures the role of trade in tasks when countries have different technology i) in production of services; and ii) in organizing production. The latter has to the author's knowledge not been analyzed in the trade literature before. Countries with superior organizational technology (e.g. Japan) will strengthen their comparative advantage in manufacturing following trade liberalization in services. The second model explores the interrelationship between intermediate goods and services i) when they are substitutes; and ii) when they are complements. In both models the gains from trade liberalization is non-linear in trade costs. Going the last mile of liberalization has a much larger impact than taking the first steps.     

What is the right profile for getting a job? A stated choice experiment of the recruitment process

We study the recruitment behaviour of Swedish employers using data from a stated choice experiment. In the experiment, the employers are first asked to describe an employee who recently and voluntarily left the firm and then to choose between two hypothetical applicants to invite to a job interview or to hire as a replacement for their previous employee. The two applicants differ with respect to characteristics such as gender, age, education, work experience, ethnicity, religious beliefs, family situation, weight, and health, but otherwise have similar characteristics as the previous employee. Our results show that employers prefer not to recruit applicants who are old, non-European, Muslim, Jewish, obese, have several children, or have a history of sickness absence. We also calculate the reduction in wage costs needed to make employers indifferent between applicants with and without these characteristics, and find that wage costs would have to be reduced by up to 50 % for applicants with some characteristics.     

Contracts in the payments for ecosystem services： the case of bioprospecting

We examine the economics of royalties in bioprospecting contracts between a pharmaceutical and genetic resource supplier （local）, with an eve to understanding the relative advantages of indexing royalty, payments to gross revenue or net revenue. We show a risk-averse firm facing only production or only cost risks will index royalties to net revenue. When facing both types of risk the choice of royalty type depends on the relative magnitudes of the production and cost risk. In each case, the risk-averse firm chooses the royalty-type that shifts as much risk as possible to the local. Wheat the local is risk neutral the pharmaceutical＇s and local＇s preferences are compatible.If the local is risk averse and there is only one type of risk, it will prefer a gross revenue royalty, and shift as much risk as possible to the firm： here the local and firm preferences are compatible only ifthe firm is risk-neutral. Lastly we show if the firm sets the terms of the contract and both agents are risk averse, the.firm will not likely volunteer to implement the socially optimal royalty arrangement as it prefers to shift as much risk to the loeal, who now also prefers a more certain return, This last outcome is at the heart of the benefit sharing discussionand suggests if risk sharing and equity are a concern in benefit sharing, then the choice of rcyalty type can be an important part of negotiations between pharmaceuticals and locals for the phytochemical from nature for new drug discovery.