Whose Job Goes Abroad? International Outsourcing and Individual Job Separations

This paper focuses on the adjustment costs of globalisation by studying the effects of international outsourcing on individual transitions out of jobs in the Danish manufacturing sector for the period 1990–2003. A competing risks duration model that distinguishes between job‐to‐job and job‐to‐unemployment transitions is estimated. Outsourcing is found to increase the unemployment risk of low‐skilled workers, but the quantitative impact is modest. Outsourcing is also found to reduce the job change hazard rate for all education groups. Thus, the paper provides evidence for small adjustment costs of globalisation.     

On the Transition from Long-period to Short-period Equilibria

The paper examines the contributions of Myrdal, Lindahl, Hicks and Hayek that initiated the transition from the traditional long-period method to the methods of 'intertemporal' and 'temporary equilibria' in neoclassical general equilibrium analyses. It is shown that in the early contributions the idea of a tendency towards a long-period position was not completely abandoned, and that the new 'dynamic' equilibrium concepts were conceived by some of their originators as useful analytical devices for studying transitions between long-period equilibria only.     

The effect of minimum wage on poverty

To the best of my knowledge, the minimum wage's influence on poverty in Russia has never been investigated. Russian data provide a unique opportunity for studying the effects of the minimum wage on poverty, given significant increases in the minimum wage in recent years, almost complete coverage, and a high representation of full-time workers in poor households. This article examines the effect of the minimum wage on the incidence of poverty and the transitions into and out of poverty in Russia using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) from 2006 to 2011. The results indicate that the minimum wage in Russia had moderate poverty-reducing effects.     

Pathways from discovery to commercialisation: using web sources to track small and medium-sized enterprise strategies in emerging nanotechnologies

This paper presents results from a pilot study of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based on a web-scraping and content analysis of current and archived nanotechnology enterprise websites. We use this approach to explore nanotechnology SMEs transitions from discovery to commercialisation and understand how transitions vary by SME characteristics, technology and market sectors. Our findings suggest that although the idealised linear innovation model is present, important instances of divergence exist. Cluster analysis uncovered sectoral differences but even more distinctions based on the age, funding source, and research intensity.     

Responsible innovators: open networks on the way to sustainability transitions

This paper elucidates ways in which small high-technology companies through using open knowledge networks may contribute to sustainability transitions. The analysis focuses on young university spin-off companies as an important channel for bringing responsible innovations from university to market while it connects the micro-level with the meso-level of networks supporting socio-technical system changes. A conceptual reflection on responsible innovation, openness in knowledge networks and socio-technical systems’ transitions, is followed by an empirical research. Based on a hundred companies and four case studies, the results indicate that responsible innovation is one of the drivers of openness in knowledge networks. However, partner diversity in openness tends to have a negative effect on growth of the companies. Our preliminary evidence indicates that focus (product–market) and selectivity in the choice of partners connected to professional (venture) capital, market access, credibility and complementary assets are highly relevant when it comes to influencing change in socio-technical systems. A discussion of the implications of this study and suggestions for future research close the paper.     

发展经济学结构转型分析方法的演进与评价

结构主义发展经济学家在探讨发展中国家的结构转型问题时,所使用的结构分析方法,被认为是持这一思路的发展经济学家对发展经济学做出的最重要的贡献之一。在结构分析方法的演进过程中,传统的统计方法和投入—产出法,由于存在无法刻画产业间关联或因假设产业间关联呈刚性等缺陷,而逐渐被可计算一般均衡模型所取代。鉴于可计算一般均衡模型拥有更加适合于分析那些实行市场导向改革的发展中国家等优势,因而该模型具有更为广泛的应用前景。     

Specifying “regime” — A framework for defining and describing regimes in transition research

It is more and more agreed by research and policy that a long-term sustainability of industrialized societies cannot be achieved without fundamental changes at the level of different societal subsystems, such as the agricultural, transportation or water management systems. This view has lead to an increase in the amount of research carried out about the so-called “transitions”. Transitions comprise long-term, fundamental change in societal subsystems and are seen as encompassing co-evolutionary and mutually reinforcing processes in the economic, technological, institutional and socio-cultural domains. Transition research aims at understanding transitions and at finding methods that facilitate change directed towards societal goals (so-called “transition management”).This paper adds to the growing body of concepts of this young research strand. It suggests a framework for defining and describing “regimes”, the systems resulting from the broad and interdisciplinary view taken by transition research. The concept “regime” is of central importance for transition research, since it defines the level of societal systems on which transitions are mainly analysed. What actually is “the regime” to be researched and possibly managed is however usually not given through clear system boundaries but is a matter of framing and deliberation. In order to guide processes of regime identification, the paper develops five defining characteristics of regimes and gives a definition based on them. Further a method useful to structure and graphically represent knowledge about a regime is introduced. Such a structuring of knowledge is an important first step to understand how a regime “works”.     

Developing transition pathways for a low carbon electricity system in the UK

This paper describes the approach to developing transition pathways for a low carbon electricity system in the UK, being pursued in a major new inter-disciplinary research project. The project aims (a) to learn from past transitions to help explore future transitions and what might enable or avoid them; (b) to design and evaluate transition pathways towards alternative socio-technical energy systems and infrastructures for a low carbon future; and (c) to understand and, where appropriate, model the changing roles, influences and opportunities of large and small ‘actors’ in the dynamics of transitions. The paper describes the approach, which builds on the work of Dutch researchers on transitions and transition management using a multi-level framework of niches, socio-technical regime and landscape, as well as on other parts of the innovation systems literature. It also describes its application to several outline transition pathways to a low carbon energy system in the UK. The pathways embrace both the evolution of the physical and institutional infrastructure changes and the roles of both large actors, e.g. multinational energy supply and distribution companies, national governments, major investors, and small actors, e.g. households, innovators and entrepreneurs.     

The PSM approach to transitions: Bridging the gap between abstract frameworks and tangible entities

Transition research investigates processes of fundamental change in societal subsystems, such as a transition to a low-emission mobility system. Much of transition research uses abstract frameworks to structure narratives. An understanding of the underlying mechanisms generating transitions is however required for purposefully influencing transitions (to sustainability). Such mechanisms comprise constellations of actors, technologies, institutions and their interactions leading to a specific type of phenomenon and refer to more confined social phenomena than transitions. This paper introduces the PSM (Phenomenon of interest, Specification and operationalization, Mechanism) approach to embed mechanisms describing particular dynamics of interest within the broader picture of an overall transition. The PSM approach uses three steps to bridge abstraction levels: 1) identify a phenomenon of interest in a specific phase of a transition and on or across levels of the multi-level perspective, 2) specify and operationalize the phenomenon of interest, and 3) identify mechanisms which are (partial) explanations of the phenomenon of interest. The PSM approach is considered useful to bridge levels of abstractions between which policy development must navigate, to empirically ground discussions around abstract frameworks and to transfer insights on relevant mechanisms between cases. An illustrative example from the mobility field is given.     

Innovation intermediary challenging the energy incumbent: enactment of local socio-technical transition pathways by destabilisation of regime rules

ABSTRACT

The energy sector needs to transform towards sustainability. The multi-level perspective on sociotechnical transitions is embracing an enactment perspective, which focuses on the agency of various actors in shifting transitions pathways but has yet to study local urban experiments from such an enactment perspective. Our empirical research examines an innovation intermediary’s work in destabilising the regime rules in relation to the local energy incumbent company in Helsinki, Finland. Our paper seeks answers to the questions: How does the collaboration of the intermediary and the local energy company unfold? What are the impacts of the intermediary work on the local energy company in terms of enactment of transition pathways and what are the mechanisms causing the impact? Our research shows that the intermediary contributes to the transition by disturbing existing rules, structures, practices and networks by convening innovation champions from different constituencies, renegotiating regime rules and disrupting existing R&D alliances.     

Empirics of hills,plateaus, mountains and plains: A Markov-switching approach to growth

Most economic growth research has been aimed at explaining cross-country differences in average growth rates. However, it is well known that growth experiences differ over time within a country almost as much as they differ among countries. This paper builds on Pritchett's (2000) [Pritchett, Lant, Understanding patterns of economic growth: searching for hills among plateaus, mountains, and plains, World Bank Economic Review, May 2000, 14 (2), 221–250.] observation that the growth process can be thought of as transitions between different growth regimes and proposes a framework for systematic analysis of such regimes and the dynamics of the transitions. I estimate a Markov-switching regression to characterize four distinct growth regimes and transitions between them. The results show that countries switch among regimes of stable growth, “miracle” catch-up, stagnation and crisis with the transition probabilities determined by the quality of institutions. Better institutions appear to improve long-run growth by making episodes of fast growth more persistent. Low average growth rates in countries with weak institutions are a result of these countries spending more time in stagnation regimes rather then being incapable of fast growth at all. Weak institutions do not rule out growth takeoffs but limit their sustainability. The approach directs attention to shifts in growth performance and highlights the fact that identical average growth rates can mask very distinct growth paths.     

Welfare rules,business cycles,and employment dynamics among lone parents in Norway

How lone parents combine work and welfare in earning a living has long inspired discussion. Yet little is known of their actual labor market attachment, either over calendar time or during individual lifetimes. In this article we address both issues, first by studying Norwegian Labor Force Surveys to illuminate the labor force participation of lone parents during the last two decades and by comparing the trends revealed with similar developments among married and cohabiting parents. Next, we analyze individual labor market transitions, using longitudinal data from administrative registers. The analyses demonstrate large differences in the labor market behaviors of single and nonsingle parents in Norway, even when controlling for differences in human capital and care responsibilities. Shifting labor demand and welfare reforms that prioritize paid work have both affected the employment of lone parents, but favorable economic conditions seem to have played a larger role than stringent social policies in increasing their employment activity.     

宏观经济学中的政治经济学——以新政治经济学的研究方法为视角

新政治经济学以使用经济学现代方法对政治与经济相互作用的研究为核心,成为政治经济学的一个新发展。宏观经济学中的政治经济学作为新政治经济学的一个重要分支,其研究对象是政治对宏观经济运行和政策的影响。宏观经济学中的政治经济学的出现对当代宏观经济理论的影响,则表现在研究形式和研究方法所做的创新。     

Inequality of firm sizes in different economic systems

Conclusions Our empirical results seem to indicate that the lognormal model may have a more general application than it has been possible to establish before⁶. We have indicated some reasons why the assumptions of the model are valid in socialist as well as non-socialist countries. With regard to the first assumption, the law of proportionate effect, we have argued that planning agencies in socialist countries act as a check on the size of operations, as do cost curves in nonsocialist countries. Furthermore, we have argued that the population of enterprises is more likely to remain constant in a socialist economy than in a non-socialist economy. Although the arguments for the lognormal model differ a little between the two economic systems, our results seem to be consistent with those obtained by Granick (1960). In studying Soviet management he concluded that the similarities between the two systems were astonishingly great.The findings herein discussed point to two interesting subjects for future research. First, there is a need for studies of changes in size distributions in socialist countries over a period of time. Such studies could usefully include an analysis of changes in concentration as well as of transitions between different size classes (cf. Adelman, 1958; Archer & McGuire, 1965; and Hart & Prais, 1956).Second, comparisons between socialist and non-socialist countries with respect to industrial structure would be of great interest, even if there would be some difficulties in comparing the economic units of the two systems.The two studies suggested could generate further information on the main conclusion of this paper, i. e. that size distributions of firms in socialist countries seem to be skewed in a way similar to that of size distributions in capitalistic countries.This research has been carried out at GSIA, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa. It has been made possible by grants from among others The Swedish-American Foundation and The Research Foundation of Swedish Savings Banks. I am indebted to Professor Herbert A. Simon for valuable comments.     

Economic Models of Sin and Remorse: Some Simple Analytics

Economists have recently shown a renewed interest in studying immoral behavior and the feelings of guilt or remorse that such acts engender. Yet the research in this nascent literature has generally lacked mathematical rigor and precision, and the disparate models have not been reconciled with one another. The present paper reviews and formalizes several such efforts in an attempt to form a more unified starting point for future research in this area.     

经济地理学中的企业网络研究

根据对国际经济地理学的文献分析和作者的研究体会，提出企业网络研究在经济地理学新近出现的研究方向中占重要地位。中国特殊的国情，形成了中国特殊的企业网络，为经济地理学家提供了得天独厚的条件。深入进行相关研究，有希望推出创新成果，提高中国经济地理学的国际地位。     

Studying scenario planning: Theory, research suggestions, and hypotheses

The scenario planning literature reveals a gap regarding its research and theory development. This article addresses these gaps by beginning the development of a theory of scenario planning and by providing suggestions for research. To do so, this research uses Dubin's (R. Dubin, Theory Building, revised ed., Free Press/MacMillan, New York, 1978) technique for theory building in applied disciplines and then provides suggestions for verifying each aspect of the proposed theory. While this research is preliminary in nature, its intent is to work toward a theoretical understanding and validation of scenario planning practices through sound research. Thus, the core purpose of this article is to provide an approach to studying scenario planning that is based on research, theory, and practice.     

路径依赖视角下先进制造业数字化转型组态路径研究

基于演化经济地理学领域的路径依赖理论、路径突破理论和区域产业演化路径模型,构建先进制造业发展路径模型,结合TOE理论框架,从组态视角构建先进制造业数字化转型驱动因素模型,运用模糊集定性比较分析法对收集汇总的27份先进制造企业数据进行分析,应用先进制造业发展路径模型,从路径依赖视角探讨组态路径检验结果。研究表明,各维度任意单一前因条件均不能单独促成先进制造企业数字化转型;技术关联度和环境适应度在先进制造企业数字化转型过程中起重要作用;与其它类型路径相比,突破型组态路径更有可能实现先进制造企业数字化转型,依赖型组态路径并不能促进先进制造企业数字化转型的实现。     

供应链风险管理研究综述——信息风险管理

对信息共享中信息管理方式、牛鞭效应、供应链逆向选择和道德风险产生的供应链信息风险的研究成果进行综述,提出了供应链信息风险管理研究的新方向、新问题。     

我国校企知识转移研究定位分析

在介绍我国目前校企知识转移活动与相关学术研究现状的基础上,指出当前我国校企知识转移处于活动频繁而相关学术研究不足的失衡状态,提出基于提高企业自主创新能力的校企知识转移研究定位,并分析了3个主要问题,即：高校知识转移效率分析、利用校企知识转移提高企业自主创新能力、以及校企知识转移对构建区域创新体系的作用。