Localised appropriability: pecuniary externalities in knowledge exploitation

Pecuniary externalities are crucial in shaping the strategies for the valorisation of the distinctive competences and the economic success of innovative firms. The analysis of conditions for localised knowledge appropriation and exploitation makes it possible to identify idiosyncratic production factors. The introduction of directed technological change biased towards their intensive usage provides the opportunity for the exploitation of technological knowledge.     

Asset pricing with endogenous aspirations

We develop the classical asset pricing analysis assuming that the representative agent is characterized by endogenous aspirations. The agent's aspirations at time t are given by a linear combination of the standard of living (habit) at time t (the "forward" part) and of the conditional expectation at t of the habit at the end of the agent's life (the "backward" part). With this process we capture the fact that the agent's preferences are affected by what he plans to do in the future. Under certain conditions, the risk premium turns out to be higher than that obtained with an additive expected utility when both the forward and the backward parts affect the utility negatively.     

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE,SKILL FORMATION,HUMAN CAPITAL MEASUREMENT: EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Abstract This paper emphasizes the role of labour demand as a determinant of human capital formation. After a section in which the alternative conceptions on the functioning of labour markets are presented and different ways of measuring human capital are compared, an applied analysis is carried out in which we provide a labour‐demand‐oriented measure of human capital, as defined by the amount of specific skills firms generate through work‐based training (WBT) activities. By merging three rich firm‐level datasets, we estimate the impact of a set of variables supposed to affect both the propensity to invest in WBT and the intensity of training within the Italian manufacturing industry over the period 2001–2005. Special attention is devoted to the variables characterizing within‐firm organization of knowledge, organizational change and the formation of competence pipelines: among them, innovation, internationalization commitment, out‐sourcing and new hirings. The estimates show that the effect of innovation on WBT is higher when the introduction of new technologies is supported by organizational innovations. When looking at the nature of WBT, we investigate the different determinants of the firms' propensity to provide both in‐house and outside training. We measure training intensity in terms, respectively, of the number of provided training activities, private and total training costs and share of trainees.     

The diffusion of new information technologies and productivity growth

This paper investigates the effects of the rates of diffusion of the cluster of new information technologies on the growth of output and total factor productivity in the main OCED and industrializing countries in the late eighties. This diffusion approach contrasts the technology production function framework. It predicts that the rates of generation of new technologies are much less effective than the rates of diffusion and the investment efforts in determining the growth of labor productivity especially when capital-intensive technologies which command high levels of investments are considered. The results make it possible to elaborate and assess empirically the notion of key-technologies that provide positive externalities to the rest of the system.A preliminary version of this paper has been presented at the European Conference of the International Telecommunications Society held at the Stenungsbaden Yacht Club.     

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.     

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.     

The derived demand for knowledge*

ABSTRACT

This paper calls attention on the effects of the economic properties of knowledge on its derived demand, an issue that has not received enough attention in the literature. The results of the analysis suggests that, because of the idiosyncratic – Arrovian – properties of knowledge, a chain of effects takes place: (i) in downstream markets the price of goods that have been produced using knowledge as an intermediate good, falls, (ii) consequently the derived demand in upstream knowledge markets – both within corporations and by them to knowledge-intensive business services – has a lower position, and (iii) the price of knowledge is lower than it should be were knowledge a standard good traded in competitive markets, (iv) with negative consequences in terms of adverse selection of large scale high quality research projects, but (v) possible compensating effects stemming from the use of knowledge spillovers to generate cheaper knowledge. Such results have important implications for economic policy discussions and decisions.     

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.