Imports and TFP at the firm level: the role of absorptive capacity

This paper estimates the effect of the decision to import intermediate goods and capital equipment on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) at the firm level on a panel of Spanish firms (1991–2002). We use two alternative approaches. In the first, we estimate TFP and apply a diff‐in‐diff estimator with a control group constructed by propensity‐score matching. In the second, direct method, we estimate TFP with imported inputs as a state variable in one stage. Both approaches show that the effect of a firm's decision to source intermediates and capital equipment abroad on its TFP depends critically on its capacity to absorb technology, measured by the proportion of skilled labour.     

The Transformation of Urban Political Leadership in Western Europe

This overview article sets out the broad themes behind the transformation of local political leadership, in particular the forces that have led to the introduction of stronger forms of local executive, such as directly elected mayors. After setting out the role of local political leadership in traditional local government and different traditions and patterns across Western Europe, the article sets out the likely factors driving the changes toward a stronger form of leadership in the more complex pattern of governing described as local governance: complex networks, the ‘new political culture’, Europeanization of public policy and institutional mimetism. The article observes that the articles in this symposium do not fully confirm these hypotheses, showing the complexity of the responses and the different contexts across Western Europe. The concluding sections draw together the implications of the stronger forms of local executive for the current practice and functioning of local politics and policy‐making: the legitimacy crisis that may have emerged from more autonomous political leaders, which combines with the decline in the conventional measures of local political participation; the lack of complementary institutional resources to assist the performance of the enhanced executive function; and the emergence of a new north‐south divide in governing styles. Cet article général expose les grands thèmes qui sous‐tendent la transformation de l'autorité politique locale, notamment les forces qui ont conduit à l'introduction de formes d'exécutif local plus puissantes, comme l'élection des maires au suffrage direct. Après avoir expliqué le rôle d'une autorité politique locale dans un contexte classique et selon plusieurs traditions ou modèles d'Europe occidentale, l'étude s'intéresse aux facteurs susceptibles de tendre vers une forme plus forte d'autorité dans le cadre pluscompliqué d'une gouvernance locale intégrant réseaux complexes, ‘nouvelle culture politique’, européanisation des politiques publiques et mimétisme institutionnel. Les articles proposés pour ce symposium ne confirment pas totalement ces hypothèses, révélant la sophistication des réponses et la multiplicité des contextes européens. La conclusion déduit ce qu'implique le renforcement de l'exécutif local dans la pratique et le fonctionnement actuels de la politique et du processus décisionnel locaux: crise de légitimité, éventuellement née de leaders politiques plus autonomes, combinée au déclin des dispositifs classiques de participation locale; manque de ressources institutionnelles complémentaires qui faciliteraient la mise en ?uvre de la nouvelle fonction exécutive; émergence d'une scission nord‐sud dans les styles de gouvernement.     

Economic status of france: Past,present, and future

Conclusion To conclude, France may be only seventh or eighth in terms of manufacturing GDP per head and ninth or tenth in terms of GDP per head. This is, after all, not bad and certainly it is not bad if one compares France with the developing world. But such measurements are, in any case, only in terms of national accounting figures. I am sure life is much better in France than in the few countries which are ahead of it in those accounting terms. Maybe France is only seventh or eighth because it has to pay for all those other good aspects of life. Other interpretations would be that it is only seventh or eighth because the French people enjoy too much those good aspects, or even because they choose not to be too competitive with respect to the other countries. One of my colleagues used to say that if we French were to work as much as the Japanese do, we would be excessively competitive...and we do not want to harm the other countries. Invited Address at the Thirty-Third International Atlantic Economic Conference, April 4–10, 1992, French Riviera.     

全球复苏能否持续仍是未定之数（上）

【IMF《金融与发展》10月29日】在正常的经济衰退中,无论商业和就业遭受的打击何等严重,形势的好转总是可以预期的。然而,本次全球衰退绝非正常的衰退。     

A re-examination of the “zero is enough” hypothesis in the emergence of financial stylized facts

In recent years, a growing literature has claimed that the market microstructure is sufficient to generate the so-called stylized facts without any reference to the behaviour of market players. Indeed, qualitative stylized-facts can be generated with zero-intelligence traders (ZITs) but we stress that they are without any quantitative predictive power. In this paper we show that in most of the cases, such qualitative stylized facts hide unrealistic price motions at the intraday level and ill-calibrated return processes as well. To generate realistic price motions and return series with adequate quantitative values is out-of-reach using pure ZIT populations. To do so, one must increasingly constrain agents?? choices to a point where it is hard to claim that their behaviour is completely random. In addition we show that even with highly constrained ZIT agents, one cannot reproduce real time series from these. Except in a few cases, first order moments of ZITs never equal real data ones. We therefore claim that stylized facts produced by means of ZIT agents are useless for financial engineering.