International Economies of Scale and the Gains from Trade

In this paper, we present a two-country trade model with external economies of scale that emerge on an international level but are partially localized in each country. First, we show that the larger country exports the good produced in an industry with external economies of scale in the trading equilibrium. Second, we investigate the welfare effects of trade for the following two cases: (I) the case where external economies are completely localized in autarky; (II) the case where external economies are internationally effective in autarky. In case (II), it is shown that trade can be welfare-decreasing for both countries.     

Multinational Companies,Technology Spillovers and Plant Survival*

How does the presence of multinational companies affect plant survival in the host country? We postulate that multinational companies can impact positively on plant survival through technology spillovers. We examine the nature of the effect of multinationals using a Cox proportional hazard model, which we estimate using plant‐level data for Irish manufacturing industries. Our results show that the presence of multinationals has a life‐enhancing effect only on indigenous plants in high‐tech industries, suggesting the presence of technology spillovers. In contrast, multinationals compete with each other in low‐tech sectors in the host country.     

Reviewing Oates' insights in a repeated game setting

This paper analyzes the optimal assignment of public good policies to layers of a federal system in a repeated game setting. Under a centralized regime, public goods are financed jointly across regions, and a federal legislature decides on the regional quantities. Under a decentralized regime, public goods are financed locally, and governments play a non-cooperative provision game. We find that a centralized (decentralized) regime is more likely to provide the efficient public good policies in case spillovers are small (large). Received: September 2003, Accepted: October 2004 JEL Classification: H11, H41 I wish to thank Clemens Fuest, Anke Kessler, Christoph Lülfesmann, and an anonymous referee for valuable comments on this paper. Financial support by the DFG (SPP 1142) is gratefully acknowledged.     

以创新群为基础的自主创新战略研究

创新在时间和经济空间上具有群集特性。它发起于根本性的(自主)创新,并能够产生强烈的创新溢出效应。分析认为,将自主创新战略建立在创新群的基础上,培育以国家战略性技术为核心的自主创新群,能够将创新能力的内生性与外生性较好地结合在一起,有利于我们实现完全的自主创新。     

The Downside of Knowledge Spillovers: An Explanation for the Dispersion of High-tech Industries

Both theoretical work on knowledge spillovers and regional policy initiatives often assume that there exists a general and unanimous advantage for firms to cluster. But opposed to the benefit is the disadvantage of sharing knowledge with other (rival) firms. This paper highlights the “downside” associated with knowledge spillovers and presents a four-stage game of location choice where spillovers result from labour poaching and where the strategic interaction between firms may make them avoid co-location with spillovers. The model provides an explanation for the dispersion of German high-tech industries found in a companion paper.     

中国参与全球生产链的技术溢出效应分析

全球生产链背景下的中国进口和外资表现出两个典型化特征:一是全部进口中中间产品占比非常高;二是在华外资企业对进口依赖程度高并且具有很强的外向型特征。这些特征影响了进口和外资这两大渠道对中国企业的技术溢出效果。本文的实证研究发现,中间产品进口对内资企业没有产生理想的技术溢出,且拉大了外资、内资企业间的技术差距;外资企业对进口依赖度越小,其技术溢出效果越好,且进口依赖度和外资数量的技术溢出效果存在正的交互作用;外资企业出口导向特征越明显,技术溢出效果越差。     

内生创新努力、本土技术溢出与长三角高技术产业创新绩效

基于新增长理论的内生创新努力,分产业维和区域维运用1997—2006年面板数据,本文重点分析了本土技术溢出对长三角高技术产业创新绩效的影响,从中发现:从产业维角度看,长三角产业专业化集聚环境下的本土技术溢出效应呈弱的负外部性;从区域维角度看,作为创新极的上海对江(苏)浙(江)具有正的技术溢出效应,浙江能从上海和江苏的技术溢出中受益,而江苏受益于上海的同时也承受来自浙江的负外部性作用。     

知识溢出与高新技术产业集群的演化——以上海市张江高科园区IC产业集群为例

国内外的一些研究表明,知识溢出与高新技术产业集群的形成和发展有着密切的关系。产业集群总是处于一个动态的变化过程中,知识溢出在各个过程中所起的作用是不一样的。文章结合高新技术产业集群的生命周期理论,探讨了知识溢出对高新技术产业集群演化的影响,最后结合上海张江IC产业集群的案例加以说明。     

Effects of hiring former employees of multinationals in the absorptive capacity of local firms

The attraction of foreign direct investment seeks, among other things, to increase the productivity of local companies through knowledge spillovers. However, the empirical evidence in this regard is contradictory. One influential factor is the absorptive capacity of the local companies. This article analyzes the effect of the presence of former employees of multinational corporations as employees of local companies, on the absorptive capacity of said companies. The study was done in Costa Rica, a country known for its successful strategy in the subject matter. The data come from a survey applied to 1167 companies by the Observatorio Costarricense de las Pymes in 2011. It was found that the hiring of former employees of multinational corporations by local companies has a positive effect on the index of absorptive capacity of companies in all productive sectors. Specifically, this hiring of former employees increases the index of absorptive capacity by nine percentage points, with differences by sector and the size of the company.     

Volatility returns with vengeance: Financial markets vs. commodities

To assess how financial markets and commodities are inter-related, this paper introduces a ‘volatility surprise’ component into the asymmetric DCC with one exogenous variable (ADCCX) framework. We develop an econometric model in which returns and volatility allow to influence pairs of assets, and derive several case studies linking commodities to stocks, bonds and currencies from 1983 to 2013. The innovative feature of our model is that these volatility spillovers are modeled consistently within the correlation dynamics of the ADCCX. We find evidence that return and volatility spillovers do exist between commodity and financial markets and that in turn, their relative impact on each other is very substantial.