Moore's Law and the Semiconductor Industry: A Vintage Model*

In this paper we develop a vintage model to gain a better understanding of the semiconductor industry and its role in recent U.S. productivity gains. Unlike previous work, in our model the observed price declines of individual chips are driven by the introduction of better vintages rather than by learning economies. Dominated chips, nonetheless, continue to be produced, for a time, due to sunk investments in chip‐specific production equipment. The model lends partial support to Jorgenson's hypothesis that an exogenous increase in Moore's Law could have generated the more rapid price declines, and faster productivity growth, seen after 1995.     

The Impact of Mexico's Retraining Program on Employment and Wages

This article analyzes the impact and effectiveness of the Mexicanlabor retraining program for unemployed and displaced workers—Programade Becas de Capacitación para Trabajadores (PROBECAT).The strategy followed is to compare the post-training labormarket experiences of trainees with those of a comparison group—amatched sample of unemployed individuals who were eligible for,but did not participate in, PROBECAT. The results of this exercisesuggest that participation in PROBECAT reduced the mean durationof unemployment for both men and women trainees and increasedthe monthly earnings of men, but not of women. The results alsoindicate that the post-training earnings effect varied systematicallyby level of education attained, with the largest earnings increases(of about 28 to 37 percent) found for men with six to twelveyears of education.     

Bank Productivity Change and Off-Balance-Sheet Activities Across Different Levels of Economic Development

This study analyses the impact of OBS on banking productivity growth using a sample of 712 banks from 84 countries between 1999 and 2006. Our international setting allows us to analyse differences on the performance on banking institutions among various groups of countries with different economic and financial innovations development. We estimate cost and profit productivity growth using a parametric approach that decomposes the change in risk-adjusted cost and profit performance into two main components: changes in business conditions and changes in productivity. The latter one is decomposed further into the change in best practice and change in (in)efficiency.     

Influence of perceived risk on entrepreneurial desirability and feasibility: multidimensional approach for nascent entrepreneurs

This study examines the influence of perceived risk on entrepreneurial desirability and feasibility as determining factors in the intention to start a self-owned business. Specifically, a multidimensional approach is taken to examine the different types of risks associated with entrepreneurship: economic, social, time, health and personal risks. The results obtained from a sample of 376 new entrepreneurs in Mexico confirm the fact that the perceived desirability and feasibility have a significant and positive effect on the intentions to start their own company. On one hand, the empirical evidence obtained shows a heterogenic effect of the risk dimensions associated with entrepreneurship on the perceived desirability and feasibility in their behaviour. Therefore, it was found that the economic risk associated with entrepreneurship has a negative effect on the feasibility to start a business, but does not significantly influence the desirability of that behaviour. On the other hand, a significant effect from the risk related to health is not seen on desirability and feasibility, but the negative influence of personal risk is empirically supported for both variables. Finally, the results obtained related to social and time risk are contradictory. Social risk negatively influences entrepreneurship desirability, but a positive effect is observed on the feasibility to create a business. For its part, the empirical evidence obtained does not support any effect of the time risk on the perceived feasibility of starting a business, but there is a positive on entrepreneurship desirability. These results, which are contrary to the traditional concept of risk as a barrier to entrepreneurship, are justified by the vocational nature of this behaviour and by the social sacrifices that are sometimes necessary to be able to make a business work.     

Firm heterogeneity and immigrant wage assimilation

This article investigates the role of job mobility in immigrant wage assimilation. I use longitudinal linked employer–employee data for Portugal to estimate the immigrant wage catch-up in log wage regressions with both individual and firm fixed effects. I show that moving to firms with higher wage premiums accounts for approximately 30% of the immigrant wage catch-up in the first years.     

Information and Investor Behavior Surrounding Earnings Announcements

The goal of this paper is to analyze the impact of annual earnings announcements on the market through the order flow data in addition to the usual transaction data. In this respect, examining order flow data can potentially reveal valuable information that is not available from transaction data. In fact, the data allow us to test hypotheses about asymmetric information and investor behavior and to test if the behavior varies with investor sophistication. In addition, the paper tries to identify the determinants of the impact on a firm's value using assumptions about investor behavior.     

Are the BRIC countries overtaking intermediate countries in the race for international R&D? The case of Spain

The emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as international locations for foreign direct investment in R&D is a sign that multinationals are relocating their technological activities to new territories. This trend may weaken the supremacy of the developed countries until now considered leaders in innovation, and may mean the loss of the competitive advantages enjoyed by the countries considered intermediate innovators. This paper examines the situation of Spain as a typical intermediate economy and compares it to its main competitors among the BRICs. Based on eight case studies of subsidiaries with R&D centres in Spain, we conclude that the policies adopted by certain emerging economies to develop their national innovation systems are proving effective and that these countries now pose a threat to intermediate economies. However, the BRICs still lag behind in terms of the security of their institutional framework; this situation leaves intermediate countries in an advantageous position.     

Design principles of hybrid approaches in new product development: a systematic literature review

Setting the right approach for new product development (NPD) in the presence of uncertainty remains an ongoing debate in innovation management. Stage-gate systems (SGS) and agile methodology (AM) are the dominant approaches. Recently, hybrid approaches (combining SGS and AM) have been proposed. Although these hybrid approaches represent a significant development in NPD, combining them without considering their design principles might lead to contradictory and competing conceptual formulations, thus increasing the difficulty of comparison among studies. Moreover, scholars and practitioners may struggle to understand when, why and how a certain configuration of the NPD process provides the right response to different manifestations of uncertainty. The current literature faces problems regarding the clarity of design principles (e.g. flexibility and adaptability), and this has led to research gaps concerning the uncertainty contingency and outcomes of hybrid approaches. This study combines bibliometric and content analyses to identify four design parameters and principles of NPD hybrid approaches: flexibility, adaptability, velocity and integration. Our findings might help advance the development and comparison of different hybrid approaches.     

Real effects of financial reporting and disclosure on innovation

This paper reviews the literature on the real effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate innovation, highlighting both the possible channels of influence and the potential challenges that researchers face when attributing causal effects. We discuss the concept of innovation, emphasising the specific characteristics that make investments in innovation difficult to report. We then provide a review of the nascent work relating disclosure to innovation, which we organise around three channels: financing, compensation and learning. Finally, we discuss recent efforts aimed at increasing the quality of corporate disclosures, including disclosures of firms’ innovative activities. Throughout the paper, we highlight the trade-offs of disclosure (reduced information asymmetry and increased proprietary costs), which are particularly exacerbated in the context of corporate innovation.     

Credit risk,owner liability,and bank loan maturities during the global financial crisis

We relate credit risk and owners’ personal guarantees to bank loan maturities during the global financial crisis. The findings, which remain robust to reverse causality, show that firms rated as low risk, with a strong relationship with the bank, whose owners provided personal guarantees and with large loan sizes obtained longer maturities. Banks with larger nonperforming loans provided loans with shorter maturities. Firms with low‐ and high‐risk ratings that provided owners’ personal guarantees obtained longer maturities. These findings shed additional light on the relationship between risk and loan maturities and the role of personal guarantees in reducing information asymmetries.