Impacts of the Japanese patent system on productivity growth

We investigate empirically how the Japanese patent system has affected post-war growth in Japanese total factor productivity. The system has been criticized for several reasons, including that it encourages numerous filings of narrow claims that build incrementally on fundamental technologies developed by domestic and foreign inventors. Stated in different terms, the system was designed to promote technological catch-up and diffusion through incremental innovation. However, its effectiveness in achieving this purpose has not been studied systematically. We provide econometric evidence that the technology diffused through the Japanese patent system had a significant and positive impact on Japan's technical progress.     

Declining Concentration in UK Manufacturing? A problem of measurement

It has become conventional wisdom that market concentration in the UK has fallen over recent history. However, the typical assumption has been that all imports are competitive so that any increase in import penetration implies a decline in market concentration. In a world of transnationally organized production and trade this would seem an inappropriate working assumption. Our analysis of the UK market for cars, vans, trucks and buses, where the necessary detailed firm data is available, supports this contention: an accurate assessment of who controls imports is crucial in the measurement of market concentration.     

The Impact of Enterprise Zones on Job Creation in Mississippi

The designation of enterprise zones has been touted as an effective tool in efforts to reduce poverty, but scant evidence exists to support this. In 1983, Mississippi passed legislation authorizing the creation of enterprise zones in the most distressed counties of the state as a way of directing new jobs toward those areas. This study examines the effect of enterprise zone designation on the creation of jobs in new or expanding manufacturing establishments. Using a model estimated from panel data, the study found that qualifying as an enterprise zone had a positive effect on a county's rate of job creation. (JEL O180 , H710 )     

The long-run determination of the real exchange rate. Evidence from an intertemporal modelling framework using the dollar-pound exchange rate.

This paper develops a model of optimal choice over an array of different assets, including domestic and foreign bonds, domestic and foreign equities and domestic and foreign real money balances to examine the determination of the real exchange rate in the long-run. The model is tested empirically using data from the UK and the USA. The results show that all the coefficients of the model are right signed and significant and consequently financial assets may play a significant role in the determination of the real exchange rate.     

How remote is the offshoring threat?

Advances in communication technology make it possible for workers in India to supply business services to head offices located anywhere. This has the potential to put high-wage workers in direct competition with much lower paid Indian workers. Service trade, however, like goods trade, is subject to strong distance effects, implying that the remote supply of services remains limited. We investigate this proposition by deriving a gravity-like equation for service trade and estimating it for a large sample of countries and different categories of service trade. We find that distance costs are high but are declining over time. Our estimates suggest that delivery costs create a significant advantage for local workers relative to competing workers in distant countries.     

Length of stay and hospitalization costs for patients undergoing lung surgery with Progel pleural air leak sealant

Aim: Progel Pleural Air Leak Sealant (Progel) is currently the only sealant approved by the FDA for the treatment of air leaks during lung surgery. This study was performed to determine whether Progel use improves hospital length of stay (LOS) and hospitalization costs compared with other synthetic/fibrin sealants in patients undergoing lung surgery.

Methods: The US Premier hospital database was used to identify lung surgery discharges from January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2015. Eligible discharges were categorized as “Progel Sealant” or “other sealants” using hospital billing data. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to control for hospital and patient differences between study groups. Primary outcomes were hospital LOS and all-cause hospitalization costs. Clinical outcomes, hospital re-admissions, and sealant product use were also described.

Results: After PSM, a total of 2,670 discharges were included in each study group; baseline characteristics were balanced between groups. The hospital LOS (mean days?±?standard deviation, median) was significantly shorter for the Progel group (9.9?±?9.6, 7.0) compared with the other sealants group (11.3?±?12.8, 8.0; p?<?.001). Patients receiving Progel incurred significantly lower all-cause hospitalization costs ($31,954?±?$29,696, $23,904) compared with patients receiving other sealants ($36,147?±?$42,888, $24,702; p?<?.001).

Limitations: It is not possible to say that sealant type alone was responsible for the findings of this study, and analysis was restricted to the data available in the Premier database.

Conclusions: Among hospital discharges for lung surgery, Progel use was associated with significantly shorter hospital LOS and lower hospitalization costs compared with other synthetic/fibrin sealants, without compromising clinical outcomes.     

A Quarter Century of Workplace Employment Relations Surveys

The 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004) is the fifth in a series that spans almost a quarter of a century. This paper reflects on the history of this series, examines some of its key limitations and speculates on what future directions it might take.     

Exposure to foreign media and changes in cultural traits: Evidence from naming patterns in France

Free trade in audio-visual services has faced opposition on the grounds that foreign media undermine domestic culture, and ultimately, global diversity. Using a long panel of French birth registries, we assess the media–culture link using name frequencies as a measure of tastes. Controlling for the number of people who currently have a name and unobserved name effects, our regressions show that media influences choices via selective imitation. Parents are much more likely to adopt media names that they associate with youth. Using estimated parameters, we simulate our model of name choice to reveal that, absent foreign media, fewer than 5% of French babies would have been named differently. Our simulations also suggest a positive effect of foreign media on the welfare of parents.     

Enterprise Education: The Role of Head Teachers

In the UK there have been recent policy developments in enterprise education, following the Davies Report (2002). In Scotland there has been the launch of a comprehensive enterprise education programme, the Determined to Succeed Strategy (Scottish Executive, 2003) for all schools in Scotland. This Strategy represented the Executive’s response to a working party review of education and enterprise. The review, Determined to Succeed, 2002 represented a comprehensive overview of requirements in order to provide enterprise education in all schools in Scotland. The aim stated is to “take an innovative and experimental approach in developing key themes in the initiative around the professional development of teachers, the engagement of disengaged school students and the promotion of a focused and resource-intensive approach to Enterprise in Education” (Scottish Executive, 2004). This paper reviews developments in enterprise education and the role of Head Teachers and Deputy Head Teachers (school principals and vice-principals). It reports the findings from research conducted with a Leadership Academy, delivered by the Columba 1400 organisation, with Head and Deputy Head Teachers for the Scottish Executive and assesses their critical role in enterprise education.     

Manufacture for donation: driving bottom‐line performance through contributions to run strategy optimisation

Manufacturers have idle/open capacity as an inherent part of the manfacturing process. The focus of the paper is to analyse if, as capacity becomes available, it is more financially advantageous to use this capacity to make product for donation, or other nonprofit discount markets, than to leave the production line idle. The conclusion will highlight the opportunity for raising corporate efficiency through incorporating manufacture for donation as a component in run strategy optimisation. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications