Do stronger intellectual property rights induce more agricultural trade?: a dynamic panel data model applied to seed trade

Do stronger intellectual property rights (IPRs) induce more agricultural trade? Based on panel data for 60 countries during 1990–2000 and using a dynamic panel data model, this article assesses whether and how national differences in IPRs affect the trade flow of planting seeds imports from the United States. The empirical results show that whether or not a country adheres to IPRs agreements has no discernible impact on planting seeds that are imported from the United States, implying that the strengthening of IPRs seems not to induce more agricultural trade. This result sheds some light on the debate in the theoretical literature on the importance of IPRs and trade.     

Agglomeration and productivity: Firm-level evidence from China's textile industry

Is the spatial concentration of manufacturing activity able to enhance firm-level productivity? This question is particularly relevant to production in China, which has a huge territory and population, but a skewed distribution in terms of urban–rural development. This paper aims to examine the dynamics of industrial agglomeration and the impact of agglomeration on firm-level productivity in China's textile industry by using a firm-level panel dataset from 2000 to 2005. First, the average value of the Ellison–Glaeser (EG) index (city level) is found to be approximately 0.00019. Moreover, the calculated city EG index of spatial concentration for each year exhibits a decreasing trend of spatial agglomeration for garments and other fiber products, but an increasing trend for the textile industries' agglomeration in China. The above findings are similar to the findings of Lu and Tao (2009). Secondly and importantly, this study finds an inverted U-shape relationship between agglomeration and productivity. It suggests that while industrial agglomeration enhances firms' productivity, agglomeration diseconomies may appear if the degree of agglomeration is too high.     

What factors inspire the high entry flow in Taiwan's manufacturing industries–A count entry model approach

Why is the entry flow of the manufacturing sector extremely high in Taiwan, and does it contribute to the prevailing entrepreneurship? This article aims to explore what factors inspire potential entrants to go into an industry. Based on a theoretical formulation of the Poisson probability entry model, a count data model is employed to investigate the determinants of entry flows. The empirical results reveal that traditional entry barriers indeed lower the entry flow. The entry incentives, including price cost margin and industry growth, play a lesser role at attracting new firms, while alternatively the market size acts as a better proxy of an entry incentive in explaining entry flows. Incumbents’ responses to entry, R&;D and advertising intensity are found to be associated with a significant negative impact on entry flows. This article also finds that there is a higher bound of covariate of entry, about 10%, that can be attributed to the immeasurable personality of entrepreneurs–entrepreneurship.

Rather be the chicken's beak than be the cow's behind. 1 ¹?This proverb explains in terms the concept of choosing jobs as how one would like to be a leader of a small firm rather than an employee in a large enterprise.

The trade that might cause life hazard will be dealt, while the trade that might cause a loss will not be dealt.

Two traditional Chinese proverbs     

E-commerce,R&D,and productivity: Firm-level evidence from Taiwan

This study investigates the impact of e-commerce and R&D on productivity, using a unique panel dataset obtained from Taiwanese manufacturing firms for the period from 1999 to 2002. We specifically consider the network externalities of e-commerce and employ the system generalized method of moment (GMM) technique to deal with the endogenous problem of e-commerce adoption. The empirical results show that both e-commerce and R&D capital have a positive influence on productivity, while R&D exhibits a larger productivity-enhancing effect. We also find a complementary relationship between e-commerce and R&D on enhancing productivity. Crucially, the inter-industry network externality of e-commerce significantly contributes to productivity.     

Exports and innovation: the role of heterogeneity in exports

This paper examines whether and how heterogeneity in exports affects firms’ innovations in China. Using comprehensive transaction-level trade data from China Customs to construct various dimensional measures exports, empirical results obtained from a matched firm-transaction panel data find that exports overall have a positive impact on promoting innovations in terms of R&D and new product sales. The innovation-enhancing effect of exports depends on the heterogeneity in exports. Firms with greater varieties of exports, more market diversification, and higher export quality are associated with a higher R&D propensity and more new product sales, while process exports are found a negative association with innovations.     

Bank Reforms,Competition and Efficiency in China＇s Banking System： Are Small City Bank Entrants More Efficient？

This paper analyzes technical efficiency in China＇s banking system by large banks and small city banks as well as the pre-WTO and post-WTO accession periods＇. Using an unbalanced panel dataset for 63 banks over 1997-2006 and employing the stochastic frontier function approach, the empirical results reveal that the new entrants, small city banks, experienced a slightly higher efficiency score than incumbent large banks, on average. Compared with the pre- WTO accession period, the efficiency score is found to have improved significantly after entry into the WTO as a result of the competition effect. This competition effect is particularly relevant for small city banks. Finally, determinants of X-inefficiency are examined     

R&D,productivity, and exports: Plant-level evidence from Indonesia

This study examines the relation between productivity and exports in Indonesian manufacturing firms by taking account the endogenous choice of R&D. We first examine the determinants of R&D activity and find that exporting activity contributes positively to plants' R&D activity, while multinational corporate do not have a higher R&D propensity. The simultaneous estimates on the interrelation of R&D, productivity, and export show that R&D has a positive impact on both productivity and exports, suggesting the importance of R&D to Indonesian economic growth. It suggests also a two-way causality between productivity and exports, implying the coexistence of self-selection and learning-by-exporting effects in Indonesian manufacturing sector.     

Innovation and Market Value in Newly-Industrialized Countries: The Case of Taiwanese Electronics Firms

The relationship between patents, research and development (R&D), and market value in newly industrialized countries is examined for a panel data of Taiwanese electronics firms. Empirical results show that the market value of electronics firms is strongly related to patent count and R&D expenditure in Taiwan. Controlling potential heterogeneity of patents and allowing the value of Tobin's q to vary across firms, the estimated results are quite consistent, which is encouraging for Taiwan's government as it has implemented many policies encouraging firms to commit to R&D. In addition, the significant and positive impact of the sales growth rate might refiect the expectation feature of the stock market.     

Technology and Export Decision

Taiwan has played an important role in international trade in the world and its manufacturing industries are dominantly composed of SMEs, yet little is known about the export decision of Taiwanese SMEs, especially the role of technology. This paper aims to explore the role of technology on the export decision of Taiwanese SMEs. In addition, whether there are differences in the determinants of the export decision for different groups of SMEs classified by size is also discussed. The empirical results show that the technological capability embodied in firms, measured by R&D, technology import, and training investment, do increase the probability of exporting. There does exist some variations in the determinants of exports between SMEs of different sizes. The impact of R&D is significantly positive on export propensity in all SMEs, while the role of technology imports and training investment are evidenced for only small firms, implying that external technological sources and other R&D-related activities are particularly important on the formation of technological capability for small firms.     

Does world heritage list really induce more tourists? Evidence from Macau

It is commonly believed that being listed on the World Heritage List (WHL) results in attracting more tourists. However, this assumption has not been generally subject to rigorous econometric approach in the existing literature. To fill this gap, we assess the impact of the accreditation World Heritage status on the “Historic Centre of Macau” in 2005 on visitor numbers to the territory to identify the real effect of WHL on fostering tourism. In doing so, because of the policy restrictions on the mainland Chinese tourists, such tourists have been excluded from the analysis. The empirical results indicate that there is no significant effect of WHL on promoting tourism other than possibly a short-run tourism-enhancing impact. Notably, this effect is particularly relevant to Asian tourists. This paper discusses these results in the wider context of econometric analyses of tourism.