Collective knowledge production costs and the dynamics of technological systems

Technological knowledge can be understood as a collective good only when its production requires the absorption and integration of external knowledge. Such external knowledge is the outcome of R&D investments that cannot be fully appropriated by firms and generate spillovers. The exploitation of such knowledge spillovers requires specific investments in knowledge communication and absorption, which brings about specific costs. These costs are affected by the structural and dynamic characteristics of technological systems in terms of the knowledge base, the variety of actors and the communication infrastructures and processes. This paper analyzes the costs of collective knowledge production and their implications for the way in which the firm chooses the mix of internal and external knowledge. This choice in turn shapes the evolution of technological systems.     

Book review

The paper develops a general equilibrium model of international production and trade. Technology is carried across borders by multinational producers and the set of technologies being used in a particular country is endogenous. Production locations are chosen based on the costs of production and getting the product to market. A producer may manufacture its product in its home country, target market country, or a third country. Estimated model parameters describe the states of technology in different countries, barriers to international investment, and trade costs. It is found that the barriers to international trade and investment are highly correlated. The model is used to measure the extent of technology diffusion across countries, study the relationship between international production and trade, investigate the effects of free-trade agreements (FTAs) on offshoring, and to quantify the welfare effects of international production and trade.     

基于PLS和LOGISTIC回归模型的中小企业融资的信用风险度量

为了有效地度量中小企业融资的信用风险,选取代表中小企业的经营与发展能力、利润构成与盈利能力、资产与负债和现金流量等4个方面13个指标作为解释变量。由于解释变量之间存在较高的多重共线性和样本量偏小等情况,应用偏最小二乘法提取PLS成分,排除系统中的噪声干扰,构建一个度量信用风险的二分类因变量的Logistic模型。实际数据预测结果表明,该模型不仅具有良好的平稳性和准确性,而且具有较强的解释过程变化的能力。     

产业集群的知识扩散效应——文献综述

本文通过对相关文献的梳理,分析了目前国内学者对基于知识扩散的产业集群形成与发展的研究现状,并对现有的研究进行分析和整理,指出后续研究的方向。     

The Markov-switching jump diffusion LIBOR market model

In this paper, we introduce an extension to the LIBOR Market Model (LMM) that is suitable to incorporate both sudden market shocks as well as changes in the overall economic climate into the interest rate dynamics. This is achieved by substituting the simple diffusion process of the original LMM by a regime-switching jump diffusion. We demonstrate that the new Markov-switching jump diffusion (MSJD) LMM can be embedded into a generalized regime-switching Heath–Jarrow–Morton model and prove that the considered market is arbitrage-free. We derive pricing formulas for caps, floors and swaptions using Fourier pricing techniques and show how the model can be calibrated to real market data.     

Interaction patterns of systemic problems in distributed energy technology diffusion: a case study of photovoltaics in the Western Cape province of South Africa

ABSTRACT

Compared to large-scale renewable energy systems, distributed systems have diffused relatively slowly in recent years, particularly in developing countries. In this study, we analysed the barriers to the diffusion of distributed photovoltaics in South Africa by applying the technological innovation system framework. More specifically, we carried out an interview-based structural-functional analysis to identify underlying systemic problems, reveal their patterns of interaction, and analyse the implications of these patterns for the relationship among the key processes within the innovation system, the so-called system functions. We identified a variety of interlinked problems, shed light on the specific roles of different, mal-performing, system functions, and revealed constellations where specific functions blocked each other and, thereby, created lock-in situations. Although the findings reveal the complexity of the problems that are associated with the implementation of distributed energy technologies, they also indicate that these problems may be addressed successfully.     

Sectoral differences in the use of information technology and matching efficiency in the US labour market

The present study examines how the heterogeneity of use of information technology in production affects the probability that an unemployed worker will be matched with a vacancy. Using US time series from 1967 to 2007, I construct measures of dispersion of the stocks of software and hardware per worker across 13 industries. The measures exhibit three waves whose timing roughly corresponds to the diffusion of mainframe computers in the 1960s and 1970s, personal computers in the 1980s and the Internet in the late 1990s. After controlling for other influences, I find that the probability of transitioning from unemployment to employment responds negatively to an increase in either measure. The results imply that by enhancing technical heterogeneity, the diffusion of a new technology may suppress the job finding rate.     

基于跳跃扩散过程的保险资金最优投资模型研究

保险公司的盈余为跳跃扩散过程,保险人投资于债券和股票,且股票的价格服从跳跃扩散过程的最优投资组合。在均值-方差准则下通过随机最优控制方法,建立并求解保险资金投资模型的HJB方程,获得了保险资金最优投资模型和有效边界的闭式解,并进行了数值模拟。结果显示,投资于风险证券的资金量与初始资本金并不是简单的正比例关系。     

Money and the dispersion of relative prices revisited

This study investigates the diffusion of two early Information technologies across 1348 institutions of higher education: (1) the adoption of Because It's Time Network (BITNET), a precursor to the Internet as we know it today and (2) the adoption of the Domain Name System (DNS) with its registration of domain names, an essential feature of the modern Internet. We find that the time paths of adoption for both generally exhibit the typical S shape found for other innovations. We identify factors likely responsible for the patterns observed and in the process extend the scope of the diffusion literature by incorporating insights from the optimization behaviour of nonprofits. Using a proportional hazards framework, we find that faster adoption occurred among institutions focused on research and doctoral education as well as among select liberal arts colleges relative to nonselect colleges. Faster adoption also occurred for larger institutions, suggesting that they benefited from economies of scale. Adoption was slower for institutions having a larger percent of female faculty members. Also, there is some evidence to suggest that public institutions were faster to innovate than private institutions, while institutions in the South tended to innovate more slowly than institutions located in other regions of the country.     

Emerging Spatial Dependencies within U.S. Organic Supply Chains

Organic production and processing, in particular the regional distribution of market actors, is analyzed to determine if regional clustering is emerging. Trends in the spatial concentration of certified organic production are assessed using Gini coefficients and a multiplicative model that compares the number of certified producers and the complexity of a state's organic market. Results suggest that the distribution of organic producers is increasingly non-uniform over time. Further, the interaction of market access and intermediate input factors is strongly correlated to the distribution of organic adopters implying increasing spatial concentration of U.S. organic supply chains. Implications for consumers, particularly those relating organic with local and for firms in organic supply chains are advanced.