Creative industries, new business formation, and regional economic growth

In this article we explore the impact of a series of factors, including creativity, intellectual property rights activities, new business formation, and the provision of amenities, on economic growth for 103 Italian provinces over the period spanning 2001 to 2006. Provincial growth rates are measured in terms of employment growth and value-added growth. The findings reveal that an increase in the number of firms active in the creative industries and net entry have a positive effect on regional employment growth. The share of legal immigrants is also found to positively impact employment growth. A high number of university faculties is found to lead to less employment growth, whereas trademarks, patents, cultural amenities, and industrial districts have no significant effect. Value-added growth is for a large part determined by employment growth, but no additional productivity-enhancing effects of the factors discussed are found.     

Local protectionism and regional specialization: evidence from China's industries

This paper uses a dynamic panel estimation method to investigate the determinants of regional specialization in China's industries, paying particular attention to local protectionism. Less geographic concentration is found in industries where the past tax-plus-profit margins and the shares of state ownership are high, reflecting stronger local government protection of these industries. The evidence also supports the scale-economies theory of regional specialization. Finally, the overall time trend of regional specialization of China's industries is found to have reversed an early drop in the mid-1980s, and registered a significant increase in the later years.     

Distributive trade and regional productivity growth

The paper aims to investigate the relationship between distributive trade (wholesale and retail trade) and productivity growth across Italian provinces. In most studies, the potential determinants of productivity in the distributive trade have been investigated, while the impact of these activities on economic growth of the whole system has received less attention. By using panel data during the time period 2000–2013, the paper tests if the increase in the share of employees in distributive trade over the given period has promoted the productivity growth. This study applies both a random-effects model and, among the dynamic panel data estimators, a generalized method of moments estimator (GMM). In order to control both the issue of endogeneity, due to the presence of some potentially endogenous variables among the explanatory variables, and the problem of instrument proliferation, the GMM estimator is implemented together with a statistical method, which reduces the number of instruments when the set of endogenous variables is wide. The findings show that the distributive trade has a strong positive impact on the productivity growth. Moreover, this link is reinforced when we control the potential endogeneity. The results also support the idea that distributive trade can promote provincial convergence.     

Trade policy, trade volumes and plant-level productivity in Colombian manufacturing industries

This paper explores a period of substantial variation in trade policy across industries in Colombia (1977-1991) to examine whether increased exposure to foreign competition generates productivity gains for manufacturing plants. Using an estimation methodology that addresses the shortcomings of previous studies, we find a strong positive impact of tariff liberalization on plant productivity, even after controlling for plant and industry heterogeneity, real exchange rates, and cyclical effects. The impact of liberalization is stronger for larger plants and plants in less competitive industries. Our findings are not driven by the endogeneity of protection. Similar results are obtained when using effective rates of protection and import penetration ratios as measures of protection. Productivity gains under trade liberalization are linked to increases in intermediate inputs' imports, skill intensity, and machinery investments, and to output reallocations from less to more productive plants.     

Determinants of ownership preference of international joint ventures: new evidence from Chinese manufacturing industries

Given the large size and rapid growth of foreign direct investment in China, the subject of ownership preference is of great interest to academics as well as to firms intending to invest in China. This study focuses on two sets of variables: industry-specific factors and venture-specific factors. Statistical tests based on information of 818 international joint ventures (IJVs) in China show that duration and scale of IJVs are positively associated with the level of foreign ownership. Industry-specific factors such as skill intensity, market concentration, market potentials, and foreign business agglomerations also positively influence the ownership preference of foreign firms, while local industry R and D intensity and productivity are found to be significant but negatively associated with the ownership preference.     

Creative service business and regional performance: evidence for the European regions

The study shows the important impact that the creative service business exerts on the wealth of European regions. The study disentangles the differences between creative service business and other non-creative service business, and explores how much each type of service business contributes to the wealth of the European regions. Most importantly, the study provides robust evidence about the fact that creative service business industries present the highest impact on the wealth of the European regions. The study has important implications for scholars and policymakers, focusing specifically on the type of service business that should be promoted by regional governments.     

Foreign direct investment and productivity spillovers in Irish manufacturing industry: evidence from plant level panel data

It is often argued that foreign firms may enhance the productivity of indigenous firms in an economy, through forward or backward linkages. Such externality effects typically are called “productivity spillovers”. In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), Ireland is one of the most globalized economies in the world, having pursued a strategy of promoting investment by foreign companies for over 40 years. This article examines possible productivity spillovers from foreign‐owned firms to indigenous firms in the Irish manufacturing sector, using plant‐level data on all manufacturing firms for the period 1991–1998. Despite Irish policy commitment to building linkages between foreign and domestic firms, we find only weak evidence of spillovers and this evidence is sensitive to the definition and measurement of foreign presence.     

Employment change in the small business sector: Evidence from five manufacturing industries

This paper examines the scale and nature of employment flows into and out of the small business sector (SBS) in five United Kingdom manufacturing industries over the period 1979–85. It first provides a taxonomic framework for analysing these flows. It then draws on specially prepared analyses from the Annual Census of Production (ACOP) for the UK to show that the SBS in each industry has experienced very substantial turbulence: although the SBS (across all five industries) lost only four per cent of 1979 employment over the period, movement in and out each represented about half of 1979 employment. Most gains and losses were in the very small size bands. The paper also briefly explores the relationship between births and deaths and industrial characteristics across the five industries. The study raises questions about the causes and costs of high turbulence in the SBS. It also demonstrates the potential value of the ACOP data base for longitudinal studies of business in the UK.

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Exporting and productivity in business services: Evidence from the United States

Does exporting make firms more productive, or do more productive firms choose to become exporters? This paper considers the link between exporting and productivity for a sample of firms in US business services. We find that larger, more productive firms are more likely to become exporters, but that these factors do not necessarily influence the extent of exporting. This conforms with previous literature that there is a self-selection effect into exporting. We then test for the effect of exporting on productivity levels after allowing for this selection effect. We model both the relationship between exporting and productivity, and a simultaneous relationship between export intensity and productivity after allowing for selection bias. In both cases we find an association, indicating that productivity is positively linked both to exporting and to increased exposure to international markets.     

Productivity growth,Smith effects and Ricardo effects in Euro Area's manufacturing industries

We analyse the determinants of labour productivity across (a sample of) EA member states. We focus on the divergent dynamics before and after the financial crisis, and of core countries relative to peripheral countries. We ground our empirical analysis in Paolo Sylos-Labini's productivity equations. We test different models, including a Panel 2S-LS model and a Panel vector autoregression model. Our preliminary findings confirm and strengthen Sylos-Labini's main insights. Labour productivity in manufacturing industries is strongly and positively correlated with the market size (Smith effect), the relative cost of labour (Ricardo effect), the absolute cost of labour (organization effect) and past investment, whereas it is negatively correlated with current investment. Furthermore, we find evidence that the crisis has affected the size of these effects. Focusing on the core periphery dichotomy, the signs of the effects are the same for both groups of countries, although the Smith, Ricardo and long-run investment effects are usually stronger for core countries compared to peripheral countries. The opposite holds for the organization effect, while investment effects are less clear.     

New business formation and employment growth: some evidence for the Spanish manufacturing industry

This paper explores the effects of new business formation on employment growth in Spanish manufacturing industries. New firms are believed to make an important contribution to economic growth but the extent of this contribution is unclear. We consider time lags of new firm formation as explanatory variables of employment change and identify how long the effect of new firm entries on employment lasts. Our main results show that the effects of new business formation are positive in the short term, negative in the medium term and positive in the long term, thus confirming the existence of indirect supply-side effects found in similar studies for other countries.

Business services,the new engine of French regional growth

This article analyses the evolution of employment in the French regions, putting the accent on business service firms. A ‘shift and share’ type of analysis shows that a primary decentralisation in tertiary activities seems to emerge in the 1990s, essentially pertaining to ancillary producer services. An explanatory analysis backs up the general validity of the regional economic base theory: the basic activities, to which business services can quite legitimately be attached, certainly play a leading long-term role on global employment dynamics. Finally it shows that over the past 20 years, the regional offer of services to businesses has been the major discriminating variable between regions, greatly influencing the evolution of basic employment and thus confirming the vital driving force of this sector in regional dynamics.     

Trade shocks,product mix adjustment and productivity growth in Italian manufacturing

In this paper, we use firm-level data on the universe of Italian manufacturing multi-product exporters to test whether demand shocks in export markets lead multi-product exporters to increase their productivity. The main mechanism behind the documented productivity gains is the reallocation of resources across products within firms (American Economic Review, 104, 2014 and 495; National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series No. 22433, 2016). Intuitively, the increased demand stemming from foreign markets will induce firms to adjust their product mix by moving inputs from low to high productive/profitable uses. We find that these productivity gains are significant and can explain between 1/10 and 1/2 of aggregate productivity growth in the manufacturing sector.     

Trade associations and corporate social responsibility: evidence from the UK water and film industries

In highly structured organisational fields individual efforts to deal rationally with uncertainty and constraints tend to lead, in the aggregate, to greater homogeneity in structure, culture and output. Drawing on institutional theory, this paper develops research propositions regarding the nature and scope of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement at trade/industry association level. The cases of the water and sewerage and film industries are used in order to test these propositions. The findings suggest that (a) trade associations in more homogeneous industries are more likely to engage with CSR‐related issues; (b) trade associations in industries that face greater external scrutiny and threats to legitimacy are more likely to engage with CSR‐related issues; and (c) trade associations are more likely to engage with those substantive CSR issues that are of greater concern to the industry's most salient stakeholders. The findings also suggest that trade associations may have a greater tendency to engage in symbolic legitimation efforts through CSR if faced with the task of repairing industry legitimacy.     

Labour productivity and profitability in the Dutch flower trade

This paper makes an attempt to illustrate the use of econometric models as frame of reference for diagnosing small firm performance. For this purpose, two models are developed explaining differences in labour productivity and profitability among Dutch flower exporters. In addition, we show how these models can be used for inter-firm performance comparisons.     

流通企业渠道权力对地区生产率和经济增长的影响研究

随着中国经济步入后工业化时期,流通业不仅从相对规模上,更从渠道结构上在国民经济中占据着越来越重要的地位。本文通过运用扩展的索罗模型和中国省级层面产业数据,实证探讨了流通企业渠道权力对于地区生产率和经济增长的影响。研究结果显示,在地区经济增长具有收敛性的条件下,地区经济增长与流通企业渠道权力呈现正U型关系。这是由于,在流通企业渠道权力增强过程中,它会同时扮演着利润攫取者和渠道控制者两种角色。在其渠道权力增强初期,利润攫取者角色占据主导地位,而在其渠道权力增强后期,渠道控制者角色占据主导地位。     

International spillovers of knowledge and sectoral productivity growth: some evidence for Canada and the United States

This paper develops and tests a two-country model of a monopolistically competitive industry in which the production function shifts endogenously via national and international spillovers of knowledge. The basic version of this model implies that, in the long run, the growth rate of sectoral productivity is the same in each country. In support of this version, for a number of matched Canadian and US manufacturing industries, the paper finds that these two countries' rates of sectoral productivity growth tend to converge despite marked international differences in R and D.     

Creative industries and Britpop: the marketisation of culture,politics and national identity

Do contemporary governments adapt to rising social movements or do they actually cause them? This paper endeavours to argue that although it is often difficult to determine the origins of social transformations, there are reasons to believe that there exists not only a co-option but also a conscious shaping of social changes by political projects or governments for their own benefit. Building on other contributions that state that popular culture and youth consumerism are used in favour of nation branding, the present study moves beyond this to analyse the active role that governments play in the marketisation and consumption of culture, thus artificially multiplying the effective impact of some cultural waves that ultimately serve political purposes. In particular, I examine the so-called “Cool Britannia” phenomenon that, founded on the flourishing of new creative industries, with Britpop in the lead, had a significant historic impact in Britain.     

Alcohol abuse among adolescents: regional evidence from Spain

The aim of this paper is to offer regional evidence from Spain on alcohol abuse among adolescents. Specifically, we identify the determinants of the decision to abuse alcohol with respect to the five most important regions of Spain, as well as for the country as a whole. To this end, we estimate Probit specifications using data drawn from the Spanish Surveys on Drug Use in the School Population corresponding to 1994, 1996 and 1998. The results first reveal patterns that are qualitatively similar, but quantitatively different. Similarly, it would appear that economic policies aimed at reducing the access of adolescents to alcohol may have a positive effect on reducing abuse. Finally, the results suggest that encouragement be given to healthy habits among young people, as well as to the fight against education failure and the launching of information campaigns that accurately portray the current lifestyle of adolescents.