Risk-sharing and Growth: The Role of Precautionary Savings in the "Education" Model

While the "risk amelioration" literature suggests that risk-sharing channels savings into risky but productive technologies and hence favours growth, models focused on precautionary savings reverse this conclusion. We solve, by means of numerical techniques, a model based on human capital accumulation through education, and find that the increase in precautionary savings makes labour more productive in the goods sector and draws resources from education, which is the "growth leading" activity. Hence, we establish a result favourable to financial integration, even in a model where precautionary savings play an important role.     

Schumpeter's circular flow,learning by doing and cyclical growth

A two-sector growth model with endogenous technical change is presented. Concerning technical change, we assume that it is reflected by increases in the stock of human capital which are acquired through learning by doing. As a result, it turns out that transitory or, using the Hopf bifurcation theorem, persistent oscillations of the economic variables may be the outcome. Thus we are able to show that learning mechanisms alone may be sufficient to destroy the circular flow as described by Schumpeter.     

Is newest always best? Firm-level evidence to challenge a focus on high-capability technological (product or process) innovation

This paper sets out to address a gap in the empirical literature on the importance of ‘low-capability’ innovation for firms. The study is framed around discussion of the conceptual bias that remains in policy and academic literature towards a narrow subset of technological (product or process) innovation labelled ‘high-capability’ innovation in this paper. The paper argues that this bias influences the public and business community's understanding of the term ‘innovation’ and has implications for innovation measurement, research, policy and strategy. The study uses data from an economy-wide, regional innovation survey based on the Oslo manual, and includes 648 innovative firms covering all industry sectors. The paper combines elements of both subject and object approaches to innovation measurement, using data from an open-ended survey question to explore the alignment between what firms report as their ‘most important innovation’ (MII) and firm capabilities for introducing ‘high-capability’ technological innovation. Results show that a substantial share of firms report an MII that is a ‘low-capability’ innovation, including those firms with high R&D intensity, those with novel technological innovation, and firms in more innovative sectors of manufacturing and knowledge intensive business services. The paper discusses the implications of this result for future innovation measurement and research.     

Technological change, human capital update and growth policies

This paper presents a model of growth driven simultaneously by innovation and human capital accumulation. Two different long-run equilibria are possible, according to whether or not workers skills are completely updated over time as knowledge expands. Skill gaps could arise as a consequence of poor education infrastructures, even in the efficient solution; in such circumstances, we find that whilst education policies are able to encourage growth, R&D policies are not. Otherwise, subsidizing education becomes ineffective for enhancing growth, although it could be necessary to avoid possible skill gaps originated by the R&D growth-enhancing policy.JEL Classification: O41, O33The authors wish to thank the financial support received for the project SEC 2001-2469 (Ministry of Science and Technology, Spain, and FEDER), as well as the comments of the co-editor and the referees.     

Terrorism and its impact on economic growth and technological innovation

Recent terrorist acts, in particular the 9-11 attacks in 2001, have created disruptions in the global economy. The short-term impact had been felt in the global tourism, airline industries, as well as the financial markets. While the global economy has recovered and is adjusting to the new global realities, the longer-term impact of heightened security risk across the world can be felt in the form of higher risk premiums in asset markets, as well as a shift of resources towards dealing with terrorism. Just as World War II had accelerated the development of nuclear energy as well as a major contributing factor in the genesis of Silicon Valley, the current war against terrorism will affect both the pace and trajectory of technology trends, as efforts are focused on developing technologies to combat terrorism. In this paper, we review the effects of the current war on terrorism in terms of its impact on the economy, the allocation of resources to R&D, and the trajectory of future R&D.     

Money and growth in a cash-in-advance economy with costly credit

This paper develops a stochastic growth model with a cash-in-advance constraint, costly credit, and intermediary services. We study how the behavior of financial intermediaries affects the relationship between economic growth and the monetary system. We show that the payment that intermediaries charge for providing financial services influences the money–growth relationship. When the intermediation cost increases proportionally with credit purchases, we do not observe any influence of growth on the monetary system. When the intermediation cost is not proportional to credit purchases, growth is responsible for a transformation of the monetary system, i.e. money is relatively driven out of the economy as the economy grows.     

区域创新投入与产出绩效结构性关联研究——基于长三角区域的实证分析

随着区域竞争的不断加剧,经济发展必须转变到跨越式并以知识及技术资本增长为主的路径上来.分析研究区域创新投入与绩效的关联影响,有利于区域经济的发展与创新,有利于培养内生性创新竞争力及共生网络的构建.     

基于演化经济学的国家创新系统层级研究

国家创新系统是一个复杂的大系统,多层次性是其主要特征。本文从演化经济学的视角出发,用动态的观点探析国家创新系统的层级结构、功能及层次之间的作用机理。认为国家创新系统不仅是一个自上而下的过程,还应当是一个自下而上的过程,并将这一过程描述为小生境中创新的产生、社会技术体制对创新的选择和社会技术地景对创新的选择三个阶段。而后分别从企业、区域与国家三个层级进一步考察新技术的产生、发展、改进和扩散的演化过程,指出层级间个人或集体行为有机联系并相互作用,使国家创新系统有效运行。最后,在分析的基础上提出国家应根据不同层次影响创新因素的特征进行有效政策定位,并给出相关的政策建议。