Growth accounting with investment-specific technological progress: A discussion of two approaches

Two approaches taken to the embodiment question are compared and discussed: quantitative theory and traditional growth accounting. The two approaches give very different estimates for the contribution of investment-specific technological advance to economic growth. Therefore, the approach taken matters. It is argued that the measures used in traditional growth accounting to gauge the importance of investment-specific technological progress have little economic content, unlike the measure obtained from quantitative theory.     

Research and Technology Outsourcing

The paper discusses the process of externalization and the contracting out of R&D and technical activity. The focus of the analysis is on the outsourcing of R&D and technical activity undertaken by firms and now outsourced to companies and organizations which supply the Contract Research and Technology (CRT) market. The analysis highlights that not only is it important to understand the factors in the demand for such services but also in changing dynamics of the nature of the research and technical services supplied and the way they are supplied. The paper then investigates the implications of these dynamic trends for the conduct of the R&D function, particularly towards research externalization and outsourcing, via the use of firms and organizations involved in contract research and technology.     

Testing the Influence of Substitute Sites in Nature Valuation by Using Spatial Discounting Factors

This paper investigates the effect of nearby nature substitute sites on preferences for nature restoration. Contrary to prior studies, we use a respondent-centric approach to control for substitute sites. We assess each respondent-specific spatial context by computing densities of nature substitute sites within various ranges from each respondent’s home. This approach considers the use and non-use values of nature together. Data from three similar discrete choice experiments carried out in Flanders (Belgium) are compared. Different spatial discounting factors are tested to explore how the substitution effect behaves with regard to distance. Latent class analyses are performed to account for preference heterogeneity among respondents. We observe divergent behaviours across groups of respondents. The “distance-to-substitutes” affects how respondents gauge substitute sites. We find a significant influence of the squared average buffer distance but this effect varies in sign across case studies and classes of respondents. Our results demonstrate that individual-specific GIS data can significantly improve the representation of the spatial context and the transferability of value functions. However, the roles played by preference heterogeneity and nature perception on respondents’ capacity to value nature still deserves further attention in future research.     

Measuring the economic benefit from R&D: results from the mass, length and flow programmes of the UK national measurement system

This study sought to measure the economic consequences of reduced expenditure on specific sections of the UK National Measurement System (NMS), part of the state-funded technological infrastructure. A method was developed which can be adapted to any publicly or privately financed R&D of which the benefits and cost-effectiveness are unclear or contested.
The recent interactions between the NMS and industry were investigated empirically. Five mechanisms were found to account for the majority of instances of successful value creation. Several case studies of each mechanism were collected, illustrating their existence beyond reasonable doubt.
Each of the cut projects would have been expected to have encouraged growth and profitability in identified sectors of the economy through one or more of these five mechanisms. The effects of the cuts were modelled over 30 years. Compared to the costs of the cut projects projected over the same period, the benefits to the economy were predicted to exceed the costs.     

Trade Union Membership Concentration, 1892-1987: Development and Causation

Existing studies of British trade union membership concentration have used the variance of logs and concentration ratio measures to show a tendency towards increasing concentration. This paper proposes the Herfindahl index as a more appropriate measure. The annual variation in concentration is analysed by means of the Herfindahl index and shows some fluctuation, particularly prior to 1947. Divergent trends are also shown for manual and white-collar membership concentration. An explanation of the aggregate trend and of these different occupational trends is advanced in terms of bargaining structure and the development of general unionism.     

The productivity–wage relationship in South Africa: an empirical investigation

This article investigates the relationship between labour productivity, average real wages and the unemployment rate in South Africa at the macroeconomic level, using time‐series econometric techniques. There is strong evidence of a structural break in 1990, after which time all three variables rose rapidly. The break appears to have negatively affected the level of employment in the first instance, and subsequently fed through into per worker wages and productivity. A long‐term equilibrium (cointegrating) relationship was found between real wages and productivity, but unemployment was apparently unconnected to the system, which lends support to the insider–outsider theory. A long‐term wage–productivity elasticity of 0,58 indicates that productivity has grown more rapidly than wages, which is consistent with the finding that labour's share of gross output has been shrinking over the past decade. These trends may be explained plausibly by the adoption of job‐shedding technology and capital intensification.     

Bad News Travels Slowly: Size, Analyst Coverage, and the Profitability of Momentum Strategies

Various theories have been proposed to explain momentum in stock returns. We test the gradual-information-diffusion model of Hong and Stein (1999) and establish three key results. First, once one moves past the very smallest stocks, the profitability of momentum strategies declines sharply with firm size. Second, holding size fixed, momentum strategies work better among stocks with low analyst coverage. Finally, the effect of analyst coverage is greater for stocks that are past losers than for past winners. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that firm-specific information, especially negative information, diffuses only gradually across the investing public.