International competitiveness, technical change and the state: The machine tool industry in Taiwan and Japan

It is widely accepted that the growth performance of Japan and the Asian newly industrialized countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) is partly the result of the international competitiveness they have achieved in a number of export industries. It remains, however, to explain how this competitiveness was achieved. In the first part of the paper an attempt at such an explanation, based on the theory of comparative advantage, is critically examined. It is argued that while this explanation does have some explanatory power, it does not deal adequately with (a) the role of technical and productivity change; (b) the causal mechanisms underlying economic growth; and (c) the role of the state. The rest of the paper examines the case of machine tools in Taiwan and Japan showing the importance of these three factors as well as a number of others as determinants of international competitiveness. The paper ends with a discussion of policy dilemmas relating to international competitiveness in the Taiwanese machine toot industry.     

Learning and the capital goods sector under free trade: The case of Hongkong

Attention is focused on technological change and attendant learning processes in the more industrialized Third World countries. The importance of relatively simple learning processes is stressed and the conditions necessary for facilitating more complex forms of learning - particularly protection and promotion - are examined. Here it is shown that the capital goods sector is of central importance. The case-study material deals with the machine- producing sector in Hong Kong, chosen as the representative case of free trade and minimal government intervention, and comparison is made with learning processes in a number of other more industrialized Third World Countries including India, Argentina and Taiwan. In the final section the implications of the discussion of learning for theories and techniques of investment allocation - including social cost-benefit analysis, the effective rate of protection and the related domestic cost of foreign exchange - are examined.     

Analysing The Evolution Of Industry: The Relevance Of The Telecommunications Industry

This paper analyses the fundamental forces involved in the evolution of the telecommunications industry. It is suggested that there are five major forces that together drive the evolution of this industry: specialisation, competition, financial markets. endogenous consumer demand and permeable industry boundaries. An important research task is to further elaborate on the boundaries of not only the industry but of the industrial system taken as a whole.     

DISAGGREGATING FIRMS IN ANALYSING THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF THE UNIVERSITY–INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIP: BASED ON AN ANALYTICAL AND EMPIRICAL STUDY FROM SCOTLAND

It has been acknowledged that universities are key institutions in national and regional systems of innovation. This recognition has led to a rich stream of literature analysing the university–industry relationship. However, relatively little attention has been devoted to disaggregating the ‘industry’ side of this relationship and examining the costs and benefits to the disaggregated parties involved. In the present article, which draws on an analytical and empirical study from Scotland, it is suggested that it makes sense to distinguish between three kinds of firms in analysing the university–industry relationship: large national and international R&D-intensive firms, university spin-out firms, and established small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have had little interaction with universities. The different costs and benefits facing these firms in their interactions with universities are analysed. It is concluded that the established SMEs confront relatively high costs in relating to universities. Finally, the policy implications are explored.     

Different Folks, Different Strokes -How IBM, AT&T and NEC Segment to Compete

How are large diversified firms like IBM, AT&T, and NEC coping with competition from more narrowly concentrated companies like Intel, Microsoft, Compaq, MCI, and Ericsson? The answer is by increasing the segmentation of their activities in smaller, more autonomous, business units in the hope that this will produce better focus, flexibility, speed of response, and efficiency. But increased segmentation contradicts one of their major potential advantages – their ability to reap benefits from the interdependence – or synergies – of their activities. How are they coping with this contradiction? Will they succeed?     

Multidimensional poverty in South Africa in 2001–16

This study uses the Census 2001 and 2011 as well as Community Survey 2007 and 2016 data to derive a multidimensional poverty index in South Africa for each year, before assessing the changes in non-money-metric, multidimensional poverty over time. Both the incidence and intensity of multidimensional poverty decreased continuously, and these declines were more rapid than that of money-metric poverty. The decrease in multidimensional poverty between 2001 and 2016 was most rapid for female Africans residing in rural areas in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu–Natal provinces. Multidimensional poverty was most serious in numerous district councils in these two provinces, despite the fact that poverty decline was also most rapid in these district councils. The results of the multidimensional poverty index decomposition indicated that Africans contributed more than 95% to multidimensional poverty, while unemployment, years of schooling and disability were the three indicators contributing most to poverty.     

Underemployment in South Africa

With the introduction of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey since 2008, a newly derived variable, namely underemployed, has become available. It is derived according to the ‘time-related’ approach (i.e. those who are employed, but would like to work longer hours and are available to work longer hours in the near future). However, underemployment could also be derived according to the ‘inadequate employment situations’ approach (e.g. under-utilisation of skills, over-qualification). Because underemployment is a seriously under-researched topic in South Africa, this article investigates the extent of underemployment according to these two definitions, before examining whether the characteristics of the two groups of underemployed are significantly different.