Generalizations of the KPSS-test for stationarity

We propose automatic generalizations of the KPSS-test for the null hypothesis of stationarity of a univariate time series. We can use these tests for the null hypotheses of trend stationarity, level stationarity and zero mean stationarity. We introduce the asymptotic null distributions and we determine consistency against relevant nonstationary alternatives. We compare the properties of the tests with those of other proposed tests for stationarity. Monte Carlo simulations support the relevance of the tests when an autoregressive process with large positive autocorrelations is likely under the null hypothesis.     

How Applicable is the Dominant Firm Model of Price Leadership?

In this paper, we examine the usefulness of the dominant firm model of price leadership to serve as a benchmark for organizing behavior in laboratory markets. This well established model, whose origins can be traced back over a hundred years, has been recently applied to such landmark antitrust cases as Standard Oil and Alcoa and more recently to the analysis of deregulated markets for electric power. Our results indicate that in posted offer markets the dominant firm quite often produces more than the model's benchmark and sometimes at much greater prices. With sealed offer auction rules and a low elasticity of fringe supply, the dominant firm produces the theoretical output at a price greater than the prediction. However, with a high elasticity of fringe supply, the dominant firm produces more output over a wide range of prices that includes the predicted price.     

An experiment on protecting intellectual property

We conduct a laboratory experiment to explore whether the protection of intellectual property (IP) incentivizes people to create non-rivalrous knowledge goods, foregoing the production of other rivalrous goods. In the contrasting treatment with no IP protection, participants are free to resell and remake non-rivalrous knowledge goods originally created by others. We find that creators reap substantial profits when IP is protected and that rampant pirating is common when there is no IP protection, but IP protection in and of itself is neither necessary nor sufficient for generating wealth from the discovery of knowledge goods. Rather, individual entrepreneurship is the key.     

R&D spillovers and productivity: Evidence from U.S. manufacturing microdata

This paper deals with the estimation of the impact of technology spillovers on productivity at the firm level. Panel data for American manufacturing firms on sales, physical capital inputs, employment and R&D investments are linked to R&D data by industry. The latter data are used to construct four different sets of `indirect' R&D stocks, representing technology obtained through spillovers. The differences between two distinct kinds of spillovers are stressed. Cointegration analysis is introduced into production function estimation. Spillovers are found to have significant positive effects on productivity, although their magnitudes differ between high-tech, medium-tech and low-tech firms. First version received: April 1997/final version received: April 1999     

«Flexiseguridad» en Bélgica. Una propuesta de reforma basada en principios económicos

El régimen de seguro de desempleo y la legislación protectora del empleo de Bélgica se establecieron con el telón de fondo de una relación clásica, de carácter estable y duradero, entre trabajadores y empresas. Sin embargo, la globalización de la economía y la rápida evolución de las tecnologías y los sistemas de organización exigen hoy en día más flexibilidad tanto a unos como a otras. De ahí que las instituciones del mercado laboral hayan de reformarse de manera urgente para conciliar esta mayor flexibilidad con una seguridad suficiente para los trabajadores. Aunque la idea de la «flexiseguridad» no es nueva, hay opiniones distintas sobre cuál es el modelo institucional que debe traer consigo. Los autores proponen una reforma guiada expresamente por los principios económicos.     

The economic value of patent portfolios

Patent holders may choose to protect innovations with single patents or to develop portfolios of multiple, related patents. We propose a decision‐making model in which patent holders allocate resources to either expanding the number of related patents or investing in higher value of patents in the portfolio. We estimate the derived value equation using portfolio value data from an inventor survey at the level of individual inventions rather than the firm as a whole. We find that investments in individual inventions exhibit diminishing returns, and that a good part of the value of a portfolio depends on adding new patented inventions. Also, while diminishing returns to individual inventions are stable across subsamples, the returns to portfolio size vary between complex and discrete industries, and between inventions that are science‐based or driven by customer information. When firms seek to strengthen appropriability, the returns to an increase of portfolio size are not different from the sample average. Thus, a higher number of inventions in a portfolio may reflect both stronger appropriability via patents and genuine creation of value.     

A flexible adaptation of the WIOD database in a virtual laboratory

ABSTRACT

The World Input-Output Database provides a time series of world input–output tables (WIOTs) that have been used for example to understand the manifold effects of the increased integration of markets through international trade. In order to enhance the flexibility of research on global trade issues using WIOD, we implement the WIOT workflow in a collaborative, cloud-based virtual laboratory environment. We demonstrate that a lab-based adaptation of WIOD is able (a) to continuously create and update versions of the WIOTs in a timely, consistent, and cost-effective way, (b) to enhance original information with accompanying information on standard deviations, and (c) to enable flexible re-casting of the entire WIOT time series into user-specific geographical and sectoral classifications.     

Neighbourhood Spatial Order,the Local Economy and Firm Mobility in Urban Areas of the Netherlands

Urban residential neighbourhoods in the Netherlands increasingly function as incubation zones for small‐scale businesses. Despite this development, little is known about whether and how the local production environment in these neighbourhoods shapes firm mobility behaviour. This article studies how two aspects of the local production environment — the built neighbourhood environment and zoning regulations — affect firm mobility of small‐scale businesses in urban residential neighbourhoods. To achieve this aim, we contrast two sets of urban neighbourhoods, pre‐ and post‐second world war neighbourhoods with a comparable low socio‐economic profile, but with distinct built environments and zoning regulations. We combine quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse available trade register data from the Dutch regional Chambers of Commerce, study neighbourhood zoning regulations, and conduct focus‐group and individual interviews with neighbourhood experts and entrepreneurs. The local built environment and its regulations appear to have a small but significant effect on the firm mobility behaviour of entrepreneurs in the neighbourhoods studied. Relocation intentions are higher among entrepreneurs in post‐war than in pre‐war neighbourhoods, which may (in part) be attributed to less favourable local institutional settings for businesses, but actual firm mobility does not differ between these neighbourhoods.     

ICT,BUSINESS SERVICES AND LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH

This paper focuses on the diffusion of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in relation to information and communication technology-based innovations and their effect on productivity growth. Intermediate purchases of KIBS by any other industry determine the extent of KIBS diffusion. This diffusion is seen as part of the broader process of organisational innovations. We find a significant positive relation between this measure of KIBS diffusion and the intensity of information technology (IT). Not only do use of IT and KIBS both contribute positively to labour productivity growth, we also find that the combination of these two inputs adds further to productivity growth for the aggregate economy.