Is a European Recovery Possible Without High-Tech Public Corporations?

Intereconomics - Pervasive new technologies associated with information and communication technologies and software are dominated by a restricted oligopoly of US-based corporations. The challengers...     

Trade effects of geographical indication policy: The EU case

Using a new detailed dataset on country-product information on European Union (EU) Geographical Indications (GIs), we study the impact of this food quality policy on trade margins over the 1996–2014 period. We consider the effect of GIs on both intra- and extra-EU trade margins (extensive and intensive), as well as on export (and import) unit values. Our main results show that GIs affect trade flows differently depending on whether GIs are produced by the exporter or importer country. The presence of GIs in the exporter country systematically exerts a positive trade effect on both the extensive and intensive trade margin. When registered only in the importer country, GIs seem to act weakly as a trade-reducing measure, at least at the intensive trade margin. In addition, GIs positively affect export prices, consistent with the idea that GI products are perceived by consumers as higher quality goods. Importantly, extra-EU trade margins react similarly to those on intra-EU trade. These results have clear and interesting implications concerning the EU strategy of promoting the protection of GIs worldwide.     

How do corporate environmental policy and corporate reputation affect risk‐adjusted financial performance?

The current study aims to answer dual, related questions: Does corporate environmental policy affect corporate reputation, and does this link also influence risk‐adjusted profitability and company's risk? With a comprehensive framework involving analyses of each question, among a sample of firms traced by the Reputation Institute, this study reveals several notable results, after correcting for endogeneity biases. First, environmental engagement and green product innovation are both antecedents of corporate reputation. Second, corporate reputation has a positive impact on risk‐adjusted profitability and Z score indicator of financial distress risk. Thus, corporate environmental responsibility and green practices represent cospecialized assets that enhances an intangible asset, namely, corporate reputation. The latter influence constitutes a missing link between sustainable development and the firm's financial performance. Overall, environmental engagement and corporate reputation act as insurance‐like protections of firm competitiveness.     

Innovation and knowledge sharing in crowdfunding: how social dynamics affect project success

The aim of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on innovation and knowledge sharing in crowdfunding, by exploring the importance of internal social capital, and how the previous failure of a campaign may lead to the success of a second one from the same project creator. Thus, the research question of the study is: how do social dynamics affect project success in a crowdfunding context? The paper reports an illustrative case study which has been promoted on the Kickstarter platform. The authors analysed data, documentation and physical artefacts, especially regarding the network size during the funding period. The results show that the self-learning which project creators gain from previous failure supports them in relaunching their crowdfunding campaign. However, various revisions take place during the second campaign (e.g. social capital size, product redesign and knowledge sharing) to achieve success.     

The theoretical and empirical fragilities of the expansionary austerity theory

Criticism to expansionary austerity theory has extensively addressed the methodological problems affecting the econometric techniques that underpin it; however, few efforts have formally analyzed its theoretical strictures. In this article, the authors develop a more general and comprehensive critique, both from a theoretical and from an empirical perspective. They first present a short-run model that formally describes the theoretical background of specific policy measures advocated by expansionary austerity supporters. They show how these measures might only have expansionary outcomes under extreme and unrealistic conditions. The authors then move to the data and provide an econometric analysis of the key variables that leave the results of our theoretical model undetermined; their findings reinforce the validity of our theoretical critique. Since 2007, when an important opportunity to test expansionary austerity presented itself with the recession, the core mechanisms of expansionary austerity theory seem to not have been working, to say the least. In fact, austerity measures delivered perverse results precisely in the countries where they were expected to be most effective.     

Innovation Systems in a Global Economy

There is increasing emphasis being put on the need to be 'internationally competitive'. This imperative is being driven, it is argued, by the globalization of economic and corporate life. This 'globalization' is the subject of a burgeoning academic literature. To achieve and maintain the necessary competitive edge requires companies to be innovative, technologically dynamic, and organizationally efficient - in a dynamic, not just static sense. There is a literature on systems of innovation analyzing such requirements, how they have been met in practice in different contexts up until now, and what the implications are for policy. However, these two literatures - on systems of innovation and globalization - have developed quite independently. The purpose of the current paper is to discuss the implications of each for the other. Far from transcending national systems of innovation, current globalization processes are shown to have a symbiotic relation to such systems.     

The stability of money demand in the long-run: Italy 1861–2011

Money demand stability is a crucial issue for monetary policy efficacy, and it is particularly endangered when substantial changes occur in the monetary system. By implementing the ARDL technique, this study intends to estimate the impact of money demand determinants in Italy over a long period (1861–2011) and to investigate the stability of the estimated relations. We show that instability cannot be excluded when a standard money demand function is estimated, irrespectively of the use of M1 or M2. Then, we argue that the reason for possible instability resides in the omission of relevant variables, as we show that a fully stable demand for narrow money (M1) can be obtained from an augmented money demand function involving real exchange rate and its volatility as additional explanatory variables. These results also allow us to argue that narrower monetary aggregates should be employed in order to obtain a stable estimated relation.     

Understanding gross worker flows across U.S. states

The main cross-sectional and time-series properties of state-level gross and net worker flows, wages, and rents are characterized using micro-data from the U.S. Census. A dynamic general equilibrium model of worker migration is introduced to explain the stylized facts. In the model, a location may experience simultaneous inflows and outflows of workers. Recent migrants choose to migrate more often than incumbent workers. Thus, locations that attract high numbers of migrants also tend to experience high outflow rates. This pattern is a robust feature of the data and cannot be explained by models of net flows only.