Wealth effects, the Taylor rule and the liquidity trap

This paper analyzes the dynamic properties of the Taylor rule with the zero lower bound on the nominal interest rate in an optimizing monetary model with overlapping generations à la Yaari–Blanchard–Weil. The main result is that the presence of wealth effects is not sufficient to rule out the possibility of infinite equilibrium paths with decelerating inflation. In particular, in the presence of wealth effects, the occurrence of liquidity traps is not avoided when the central bank implements a Taylor-type interest-rate feedback rule.     

Which factors are perceived as obstacles for the growth of Italian academic spin-offs?

During the last decades, academic spin-offs have received increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners, mainly due to their ability to advance industrial application of scientific knowledge. In the past, scholars believed that these organisations were subjected to fast growth after their establishment. Only in the last decade, scholars realise that the fast-growing perspective hypothesised was an oversimplification, as the majority of high-tech academic spin-offs growth slowly or remain small in size for long time. The aim of our study is to investigate the reasons that inhibit the growth of established academic spin-offs, focusing on the Italian context. Through the implementation of the Delphi technique and of the fuzzy logic we derive new and relevant results, for scholars, spin-offs’ managers and policy-makers.     

The role of human and social capital in growth: extending our understanding

Human capital, institutions and social capital are now all recognisedas significant factors of growth. They have largely been studiedseparately, and although they present sufficient common characteristicsto be conceptualised as one main category distinct from physicalcapital, it may still be more important to focus on the linksbetween their specific sub-categories. Direct links with incomemay be spurious, as there appears to be a ‘web of associations’between the sub-categories, which would benefit from furtherempirical investigation. This paper reviews the literature onhuman capital, institutions and social capital, extracting threesub-categories of human capital (human skills capital, stock-of-knowledgeand entrepreneurship) and two of social capital (low- and high-rationalisation).Specific areas are then suggested for further empirical study.     

Nea presidential address: Economics programs at historically black colleges and universities

Conclusion If we wish to increase the number of students taking economics courses, the number of students majoring in economics and the number of students who want to learn more economics after they finish the required courses we must offer courses that students can understand, courses that answer questions that students either already know to be important or can be convinced are important.     

Vertical Networks and US Auto Parts Exports: Is Japan Different?

In a model where upstream network insiders conduct relationship-specific investment, downstream firms have an incentive to transact within networks. Evidence from US auto parts exports to 26 auto-producing countries supports key predictions of the model. Greater production scale for assemblers lowers imported parts per car. Vertical networks matter in two ways. First, although Japan's average import levels are not unusually low, non-Japanese suppliers have relatively low market penetration for parts categories where vertical keiretsu are prominent in Japan. Second, US-owned assembly abroad and foreign-owned parts production in the US both stimulate parts exports.     

Innovation Dynamics in OECD Countries: Challenges for German Enterprises

This paper considers the innovation dynamics in OECD countries since the beginning of the 1990s. Special attention is given to German firms that had the exceptional opportunity and burden to develop an innovative regime in the former GDR. The economic slump in the new decade had everywhere a negative impact on the propensity of companies to invest in new innovative products and processes. Among the OECD countries leading in innovation, Europe is loosing strength, although R&D has doubtlessly become more important in the innovation process of the manufacturing sector, but in particular in the service sector. The EU and some member countries have recognized this and formulated an ambitious objective: R&D expenditure is to be increased to 3% of GDP by 2010. Despite this joint target, countries differ in many respects. Export-oriented countries in high technology products suffer less from a weak economic momentum in their domestic markets. A further distinction needs to be made between the industry and the service sector. Industrial innovators focus more on the world market. After the trade diversion of West German high technology from international markets to the absorbing East German markets was over, in the second half of the 1990s, Germany has managed to get slightly ahead of Japan as an exporter of R&D-intensive goods and in international patent activities. However, the foreign trade success that the German technology sector enjoyed is mainly based on the automobile sector. Increasing problems in the long term are the decline in the number of qualified manpower entering the labour market. It will exacerbate the shortage of qualified staff in innovating companies.This is an updated and completely revised version of an earlier contribution to the Symposium on Entrepreneurship – Innovation – Marketing, Benchmarking the Technological Competitiveness of German Enterprises in Times of low Growth, Karlsruhe, October 2003.     

An alcohol fuels programme: Will it solve surplus grain production?

Long-run responses in the US agricultural sector to large alcohol programmes are examined. Potential domestic and export markets for grain by-products from alcohol production are calculated. The analyses consider the grain by-products from both wet and dry milling processing technologies. Results of these analyses indicate much smaller price responses and very different policy implications than previous studies. These different results are critical in the consideration of utilizing alcohol programmes to boost grain prices, as well as in the consideration of the economics of alcohol programmes to provide an alternative fuel.