Localized Technological Change and Unemployment in the Global Economy: a Schumpeterian approach

This paper develops a Schumpeterian approach to analyse the interaction between unemployment and localized technological change in a global competitive process. The model predicts that the present levels of unemployment are caused by a combination of three factors: (i) the localized character of the wave of information and communication technology generated in the more advanced countries which, because of this, it is characterized by a factor mix appropriate to economic systems where there is an abundance of capital and a relative scarcity of labour; (ii) the strong and rapid dynamic decline of competitive advantages and quasi-rents, based on the introduction of new information and communication technology; (iii) the strong international competitive pressure from countries with lower wage levels and a greater capability to host the affiliates of multinational companies and to imitate the new information and communication technologies developed in the innovative countries. The results of the empirical analysis, for the OECD countries in the years 1990–92, suggest that a country's competitiveness and therefore its share of total world demand and employment is mostly, if not exclusively, determined by its innovative capacity. Wage levels alone cannot, even when they fall, at least in relative terms, re-establish conditions of full employment: efficiency wages are an important complementary factor in building the innovation capacity of a country.     

Percolation Processes, Technological Externalities and the Evolution of Technological Clubs

Technological cooperation has become more widespread in recent years. Percolation processes have been studied in physics as the outcome of four classes of forces termed as density, external pressure, connectivity and receptivity. In this paper the methodology of percolation processes has been adapted to interpret the dynamics of knowledge flows within innovation networks as communication systems and to understand the evolution of technological cooperation among firms both within and among industries.     

New Information Technology and the Knowledge-Based Economy. The Italian Evidence

This work analyses the outcome of the interaction between: 1) the diffusion of new information technologies; 2) their effects on the tradability, divisibility and transportability of information; 3) the growing role of business service industries in the introduction of new technologies; 4) the interaction between receptivity and connectivity of learning agents in the generation of localized technological change based upon both tacit and generic knowledge, and 5) the parallel increase in total factor productivity. The empirical results provide some support, with respect to the Italian economy, to two hypotheses: 1) The co-evolution of usage of business and communication services. Our empirical analysis has shown the strong correlation between the levels and rates of growth in the use of communication and business services. 2) The productivity enhancing effects of the co-evolution in the use of business and communication.     

Technological diffusion and investment behaviour: The case of the textile industry

Zusammenfassung Verbreitung von Technologien und Investitionsverhalten: Der Fall der Textilindustrie. — Die Verbreitung einer neuen Produktionstechnologie h?ngt sowohl von ihren eigenen Eigenschaften wie Gewinnaussichten und technischer Leistungsf?higkeit als auch von den allgemeinen Bedingungen für Investitionen ab. Die Autoren versuchen zu erkl?ren, da\ die Verbreitung neuer Technologien das Ergebnis einer Kombination aus allgemeinem Investitionsverhalten und speziellen Lernprozessen in bezug auf die neue Ausrüstung ist. Sie machen einfache Annahmen darüber, welche Faktoren bei der Wahl neuer Anlagen eine Schlüsselstellung einnehmen, wenn in einer Welt begrenzter Rationalit?t investiert wird. Dieses Modell benutzen sie für Sch?tzungen der Entwicklung in der Textilindustrie von 16 L?ndern. Simulationen ergeben endogen definierte Diffusionskurven und Unterschiede im Modernisierungs-verhalten zwischen den einzelnen L?ndern.

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Résumé La diffusion technologique et le comportement de l’investissement: Le cas de l’industrie textile. — La diffusion de la nouvelle technologie dans le processus de production dépend de ses propres caractères en termes de profit et de la capacité technique et des conditions générales pour l’investissement. Cette étude a l’intention d’expliquer que la diffusion est le résultat combiné du comportement de l’investissement et des fa?ons d’apprendre en ce qui concerne le nouvel équipement. Des simples suppositions concernant les facteurs clé, étant importants pour le choix de l’équipement moderne dans un monde d’une rationalité limitée, mènent aux estimations des relations pour l’industrie textile de 16 pays. Les simulations démontrent des courbes de diffusion endogènes et des différences en modernisation industrielle entre les pays.

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Resumen Difusión tecnológica e inversión: el caso de la industria textil. — Le difusión de tecnologíca nueva en la productión dépende tanto de sus propias características en términes de beneficios y calificaciones téenicas como de las condiciones générales para la inversión. El objetivo de este trabajo es explicar cómo los procesos de difusión constituyen el resultado combinado de la inversión y de procesos de aprendizaje relacionados con el nuevo equipo. Los supuestos simples sobre los factores decisivos para la electión de un equipo nuevo (en el momento de invertir) permiten realizar estimaciones para la industria textil de 16 países en un mundo de racionalidad limitada. Las simulaciones muestran curvas de difusión definidas endógenamente y diferencias entre las pautas de modernizatión de los países.

     

Exchange option pricing under stochastic volatility: a correlation expansion

Efficient valuation of exchange options with random volatilities while challenging at analytical level, has strong practical implications: in this paper we present a new approach to the problem which allows for extensions of previous known results. We undertake a route based on a multi-asset generalization of a methodology developed in Antonelli and Scarlatti (Finan Stoch 13:269–303, 2009) to handle simple European one-asset derivatives with volatility paths described by Ito’s diffusive equations. Our method seems to adapt rather smoothly to the evaluation of Exchange options involving correlations among all the financial quantities that specify the model and it is based on expanding and approximating the theoretical evaluation formula with respect to correlation parameters. It applies to a whole range of models and does not require any particular distributional property. In order to test the quality of our approximation numerical simulations are provided in the last part of the paper.     

Monetary policy and financial stability: What role for the futures market?

This paper examines interactions between monetary policy and financial stability. There is a general view that central banks smooth interest rate changes to enhance the stability of financial markets. But might this induce a moral hazard problem, and induce financial institutions to maintain riskier portfolios, the presence of which would further inhibit active monetary policy? Hedging activities of financial institutions, such as the use of interest rate futures and swap markets to reduce risk, should further protect markets against consequences of unforeseen interest rate changes. Thus, smoothing may be both unnecessary and undesirable. The paper shows by a theoretical argument that smoothing interest rates may lead to indeterminacy of the economy's rational expectations equilibrium. Nevertheless, our empirical analysis supports the view that the Federal Reserve smoothes interest rates and reacts to interest rate futures. We add new evidence on the importance for policy of alternative indicators of financial markets stress.     

A Preliminary Analysis of SASB Reporting: Disclosure Topics,Financial Relevance,and the Financial Intensity of ESG Materiality

At the end of 2018, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) released its corporate reporting standards for material environment, social, and governance (ESG) issues. These SASB standards are analogous to FASB's but deal with ESG activities that help the companies create value over the long term and have been endorsed by large asset management firms such as BlackRock. The authors analyze the quality of ESG reporting by the 91 companies that adopted SASB's framework. While the number of such companies is still small, their results are encouraging, an indication of better things to come. Using three measures of effectiveness, Disclosure Topic Compliance Index (DTCI), Financial Relevance Compliance Index (FRCI), and Financial Intensity Compliance Index (FICI), the authors found that most companies are doing a good to very good job of reporting and companies tend to focus on measures with the highest financial relevance. Scores on these three measures were similar across industry sectors except for a few cases where the DTCI score is low. They presented cases of three SASB standard companies: 1) Sunrun, a residential solar panel company that uses some hazardous materials, 2) Suncor, an integrated oil and gas company, and 3) Target, a retail company in a highly competitive industry needing to keep costs low while also managing an extensive supply chain responsibly. These 91 companies have demonstrated that reporting according to SASB standards can be done well. This success should encourage other companies to follow and the authors offer a seven‐step process to adopt SASB standards.