Regional entrepreneurship capital and firm production

Certain theories suggest that the capacity of a region to generate new firms, called entrepreneurship capital, has positive spillover effects on the production of the firms in that region. Evidence generated with aggregated data at the regional level supports this prediction. This paper argues that, using aggregated data at the regional level, entrepreneurship capital could be correlated with regional production even if entrepreneurship capital has no spillover effects on firm production. This will not be the case when data at the firm level are used. This paper provides evidence from a sample of 11,276 Spanish firms during the 2004–2012 period. Positive spillovers are estimated in between effects models, but such spillovers are only found in technological firms when within effects models have been estimated. Thus, the regional entrepreneurship capital spillovers are unclear when data at the firm level are used. Plausible interpretations and implications are discussed.     

Private Pension Funds in Oligopolistic Financial Markets: Some qualifications to conventional theory of financial development

The paper inquires into the efficiency of financial development policies in economies where the financial sector is based on oligopolistic commercial banking. In this case, interest rates on deposits may be set below the level required to achieve balance of payments equilibrium, so that banks are able to exact a risk free financial margin in their holdings of government bonds. Under such circumstances, banks lack incentives to place indirect debt in domestic security markets, as a means of providing long-term finance; and private capital market deepening is hindered. Pension fund privatisation, in this institutional environment, does not relieve public finances, because the government must act as issuer of last resort in order to stabilise the currency. This point is illustrated with Mexican data, and some policy measures to deal with this situation in developing economies are proposed.     

Asymmetric access pricing in the Internet backbone market

For an arbitrary number of networks, I study the impact of asymmetric interconnection charges on competition for consumers and websites in the Internet backbone market. I show that the configuration of interconnection charges has important implications for the market structure.     

Industrial Policy in the New Member Countries of the European Union: A Survey of Patterns and Initiatives Since 1990

The transitional recession in the new Central and East European members of the EU called for completely novel approaches to industrial policy in the nineties. A strong rejection of industrial policy could be observed only in some countries and during the first years of the transition process. Subsequently however, deteriorating competitiveness, soaring unemployment and the dramatic condition of key export sectors made the re-appearance of supply-side economic policy thinking inevitable in most Central East European Countries (CEECs), except for such small and open economies as Slovenia and Estonia. A wide variety of industrial policies implemented in the CEECs are compared in the study, with special emphasis on tools used in order to promote incoming foreign direct investment, technological development and the small and medium-sized enterprise sector. These elements of the industrial policy toolkit will keep their key role in most CEECs, albeit their industrial policies will gradually align themselves to the European mainstream.     

University spin-offs vs. other NTBFs: Total factor productivity differences at outset and evolution

Previous empirical research suggests that university spin-offs under-perform in economic terms compared to other new technology-based firms (NTBFs) in their early years. The usual explanations suggest a lower capabilities endowment of university spin-offs compared to other NTBFs. Using a longitudinal Spanish dataset we compare the evolution of firms′ total factor productivity (capabilities endowment) in both kinds of firm. Productivity grew faster in university spin-offs and their initial underperformance disappeared after 2 or 3 years of operation. The evidence therefore suggests that university spin-offs have lower initial substantive capabilities but greater dynamic capabilities than independent NTBFs. Possible explanations are discussed.     

What determines the holding of association meetings in a global context?

This article aims to understand the determinants influencing the number of association meetings held in countries worldwide and which may be controlled by their economic agents and policymakers. For this purpose, we use a dynamic panel model with data provided by the Data World Bank, the World Travel & Tourism Council, and the International Congress and Convention Association, in a time series of 8 years. The results reveal the importance of the experiences obtained by the tourists in previous meetings, as well as the countries’ need to implement measures to stimulate the dynamism of economic activity and political stability.