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152. The Shape of Metropolitan Growth: How Policy Tools Affect Growth Patterns in Seattle and Orlando
- Author:
- William Fulton, Linda E. Hollis, Chris Williamson, and Erik Kancler
- Publication Date:
- 04-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Land use, infrastructure, and open space policy play an important role in shaping metropolitan growth, and whether or not they are coordinated on the policy level, they do interact with each other in shaping those patterns. However, the exact interplay of these policies is not well understood. This paper uses two metropolitan areas—Orlando and Seattle—with differing growth management regimes to explore the effects of conscious growth policy on metropolitan form.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
153. Katrina Index: Tracking Variables of Post-Katrina Reconstruction
- Author:
- Bruce Katz, Matt Fellowes, and Mia Mabanta
- Publication Date:
- 04-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Over the past thirty days, the number of new building perm its filed in the metro area more than quadrupled, and the first of thousands of homes destroyed by Katrina finally started being demolished in Orleans Parish. Meanwhile, the most recent population statistics released by the city of New Orleans in March showed that over 180,000 people now live in New Orleans. But, little or no progress was made in rebuilding many key components of the area's infrastructure and hospitality industry.
- Topic:
- Development, Environment, Government, and Industrial Policy
154. Firm Sizes: Facts, Formulae and Fantasies
- Author:
- Robert L. Axtell
- Publication Date:
- 02-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Recently discovered facts concerning the size distribution of U.S. firms are recapitulated—in short, these sizes are closely approximated by the Zipf distribution, a Pareto (power law) distribution with exponent of unity. Interesting consequences of this result are then developed, having primarily to do with formulae for the distribution's moments, and difficulties of reasonably characterizing a 'typical' firm. Then, a leading candidate explanation for these data—the Kesten random growth process—is assessed in terms of its realism vis-á-vis actual firm growth. Insofar as it has fluctuations that are quite different in character from actual firm size variability, the Kesten and related stochastic growth processes qualify more as fables of firm growth than as credible explanations. Finally, new explanations of the facts are proposed by considering firms to be partitions of the set of all workers. Assuming all partitions to be equally likely, the observed distribution of firm sizes is hypothesized to be the distribution of block sizes in the most likely partitions. An alternative derivation of this distribution as a constrained optimization problem is also described. Given that these calculations involve unimaginably vast magnitudes, it seems just short of fantastic to consider them relevant empirically.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States
155. Regional Inequality, Industry Agglomeration and Foreign Trade: The Case of China
- Author:
- Yin Ge
- Publication Date:
- 09-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- How do foreign trade and foreign direct investment affect regional inequality? Foreign trade and investment may affect internal economic geography, and the resulting industry agglomeration may contribute to regional inequality. This paper provides empirical evidence supporting this linkage. The results indicate that the increasing regional inequality in China has been accompanied by an increase in the degree of regional specialization and industry agglomeration. Foreign trade and foreign investment are closely related to industry agglomeration in China. Industries dependent on foreign trade and FDI are more likely to locate in regions with easy access to foreign markets, and exporting industries have a higher degree of agglomeration.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
156. Rethinking Import-substituting Industrialization: Development Strategies and Institutions in Taiwan and China
- Author:
- Tianbiao Zhu
- Publication Date:
- 07-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Conventional explanations of Taiwan and China's economic success point to the shift from an import-substituting industrialization (ISI) strategy to an export-oriented industrialization (EOI) strategy. This paper argues that the development strategies in Taiwan and China have always been a combination of ISI and EOI strategies during their entire miracle-creating period; far from the shift from ISI to EOI strategies, export promotion was used in both cases to sustain ISI, which has always been the central focus of development. Behind this strategy there is a set of institutions in both Taiwan and China, which has played a key role in supporting ISI, in particular, the government, the bank sector, public enterprises, and their relationship.
- Topic:
- Development and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- China, Israel, Taiwan, East Asia, and Asia
157. Manufacturing, Services and Premature Deindustrialization in Developing Countries: A Kaldorian Analysis
- Author:
- Ajit Singh and Sukti Dasgupta
- Publication Date:
- 05-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper uses a Kaldorian framework to examine the evidence of deindustrialization in developing countries at low levels of income, the jobless growth in these economies and the fast expansion of the informal sector. The questions are specifically examined for the Indian economy, using state level data but the analysis has a wider application for economic policy in developing countries.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, and Third World
- Political Geography:
- India
158. Innovations, High-Tech Trade and Industrial Development: Theory, Evidence and Policy
- Author:
- Lakhwinder Singh
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Innovations spur science-based trade and industrial development in a fast changing pace of globalization. Knowledge accumulation and diffusion have been increasingly recognised as fundamental factors that play an important role in long-run economic growth. This paper focuses on the long-term innovation strategy of industrial and technological development in developing countries. Growth theory, empirical evidence and several indicators of innovation have been pressed into service to draw important lessons from historical experience of the developed and newly industrializing countries for the industrial development of the developing economies. Technology development and public technology policy experience of the East Asian countries have been examined to reinvent the role of public technology policy that can be adopted to develop national innovation system to nurture and build innovative capabilities in the developing economies in the dynamic global economy.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- East Asia
159. Re-conceptualising the Military-Industrial Complex: A General Systems Theory Approach
- Author:
- Adrian Kuah
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the prevailing model by which the interplay between defence establishments and defence industries–the military-industrial complex–has been understood, focusing primarily on the defence industrial base. It argues that give global change drivers such as the end of the Cold War and the concomitant reduction in the geostrategic threat level, as well as defence globalization, post-industrialism and the revolution in military affairs (RMA), the old model has ceased to have utility for both researchers and policymakers. Instead, this paper suggests an approach that goes beyond conventional economic analyses and draws on organization theory to develop a dynamic model that better reflects the current realities in defence industrial sector. This paper articulates what a general systems conception of the defence industrial system might consist in, and highlight its potential in informing the defence industrial policy process as well as agenda for future research.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Defense Policy, Development, and Industrial Policy
160. Firm Structure, Multinationals, and Manufacturing Plant Deaths
- Author:
- J. Bradford Jensen and Andrew B. Bernard
- Publication Date:
- 09-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- Plant shutdowns shape industry productivity, the dynamics of employment, and industrial restructuring. Plant closures account for more than half of gross job destruction in US manufacturing. This paper examines the effects of firm structure on US manufacturing plant closures. Plants belonging to multi-plant firms and those owned by US multinationals are less likely to exit. However, the superior survival chances are due to the characteristics of the plants rather than the nature of the firms. Controlling for plant and industry attributes, we find that plants owned by multi-unit firms and US multinationals are much more likely to close.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Welfare, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States
161. Why do some countries produce so much more output per worker than others?
- Author:
- Camelia Minoiu and Emmanuel Pikoulakis
- Publication Date:
- 10-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
- Abstract:
- To explain differences in output per worker across countries, we test for the workings of a learning-by-doing hypothesis and the hypo thesis that the effectiveness of human capital depends on the laws and institutions that promote workplace practices that allow skills to develop. The quality of laws and institutions in the workplace is measured by an index of economic security (ESI). We find that ESI is a good proxy for human capital whilst educational attainment is not. We also find that countries with high ESI use more effectively the skills of the workforce and are better at exploiting profitable opportunities in capital markets.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Political Economy
162. The Development of the Informal Small-Enterprise Sector in Eastern and Southern Africa: From Import Substitution to Structural Adjustment
- Author:
- Poul Ove Pedersen
- Publication Date:
- 04-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- In spite of its growing importance in the African economies, the informal, small-enterprise sector still plays a dubious and little understood role in development. Due to lack of data it is often treated as if it was unrelated to the rest of the economy. However, a number og large surveys carried out in a number of African countries indicate that structure and development of the small-enterprise sector vary greatly both from country to country and over time, depending in a complex way on the national differences in socio-economic structures and policies.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Africa
163. Government and the Economy: The World Wars
- Author:
- Robert Higgs
- Publication Date:
- 04-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- U.S participation in the world wars gave rise to massive increases in the extent of government involvement in economic life and brought about many important, enduring changes in the government\'s relations with private economic actors. In both wars, the federal government expanded enormously the amount of its expenditure, taxation, and regulation as well as its direct participation in productive activities, creating what contemporaries described during World War I as "war socialism." Each of these great experiences left a multitude of legacies—fiscal, institutional, and ideological—many of which continue to shape the country\'s political economy. As William Graham Sumner wisely observed, "it is not possible to experiment with a society and just drop the experiment whenever we choose. The experiment enters into the life of the society and never can be got out again" (Sumner 1934, II, 473). The world wars certainly are among the greatest "experiments" that American society ever endured.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States
164. Is Cybersecurity a Public Good? Evidence from the Financial Services Industry
- Author:
- Benjamin Powell
- Publication Date:
- 03-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States heightened concerns about vulnerabilities to future attacks. One new area of concern is cyberterrorism: the possibility of terrorists using computers to attack our critical infrastructure electronically. The government has made efforts to better secure its own computer networks to prevent terrorists from hacking into computer systems in the Pentagon, FBI, and other government agencies. Increasingly, however, the government has been concerned that the private sector is vulnerable to cyberterrorism. The private sector owns approximately 85 percent of the critical infrastructure in the U.S. (Deloitte 2004 p. 15). There are concerns that a cyber attack on dams, trains, electrical grids, pipeline pumps, communications networks, or the financial services industry could cause significant physical or economic damage to the U.S. The policy question being asked is whether private businesses, when left to their own devices, provide enough cybersecurity or if some form of government involvement is justified.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States and United Nations
165. Quantity Discounts from Risk Averse Sellers
- Author:
- Patrick J. DeGraba
- Publication Date:
- 05-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- It is widely believed that larger customers in a market can secure lower prices than smaller customers. This paper presents conditions under which risk averse sellers, who can distinguish larger customers from smaller customers, but who cannot observe customers' valuations, have an incentive to offer lower prices to larger customers. The intuition is that a single customer that demands a specific quantity represents a riskier profit source than multiple customers with independent valuations whose demands sum to that same quantity. Sellers respond to the riskier profit source by offering a lower price to reduce some of the risk.
- Topic:
- Economics, Emerging Markets, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
166. A Flexible Finite-Horizon Identification of Technology Shocks
- Author:
- Neville Francis, Michael T. Owyang, and Jennifer T. Roush
- Publication Date:
- 04-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Recent empirical studies using infinite horizon long-run restrictions question the validity of the technology-driven real business cycle hypothesis. These results have met with their own controversy, stemming from their sensitivity to changes in model specification and the general poor performance of long run restrictions in Monte Carlo experiments. We propose a alternative identification that maximizes the contribution of technology shocks to the forecast error variance of labor productivity at a long, but finite horizon. In small samples, our identification outperforms its infinite horizon counterpart by producing less biased impulse responses and technology shocks that are more highly correlated with the technology shocks from the underlying model. For U.S. data, we show that the negative hours response is not robust to allowing a greater role for non-technology shocks in the forecast error variance share at a ten year horizon.
- Topic:
- Development, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
167. Exchange Rate Pass-through to U.S. Import Prices: Some New Evidence
- Author:
- Jaime Marquez, Mario Marazzi, Nathan Sheets, Joseph Gagnon, Robert J. Vigfusson, Jon Faust, Robert F. Martin, Trevor Reeve, and John Rogers
- Publication Date:
- 04-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- This paper documents a sustained decline in exchange rate pass-through to U.S. import prices, from above 0.5 during the 1980s to somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.2 during the last decade. This decline in the pass-through coefficient is robust to the measure of foreign prices that is included in the regression (i.e., CPI versus PPI), whether the estimation is done in levels or differences, and whether U.S. prices are included as an explanatory variable. Notably, the largest estimates of pass-through are obtained when commodity prices are excluded from the regression. In this case, the pass-through coefficient captures both the direct effect of the exchange rate on import prices and an indirect effect operating through changes in commodity prices. Our work indicates that an increasing share of exchange rate pass-through has occurred through this commodity-price channel in recent years. While the source of the decline in passthrough is difficult to pin down with certainty, our work points to several factors, including the reduced share of (commodity-intensive) industrial supplies in U.S. imports and the increased presence of Chinese exporters in U.S. markets. We detect a particular step down in the passthrough coefficient around the time of the Asian financial crisis and document a shift in the export pricing behavior of emerging Asian firms around that time.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States and China
168. A Variance Screen for Collusion
- Author:
- Rosa M. Abrantes-Metz, Luke M. Froeb, John F. Geweke, and Charles T. Taylor
- Publication Date:
- 03-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- In this paper, we examine price movements over time around the collapse of a bid-rigging conspiracy. While the mean decreased by sixteen percent, the standard deviation increased by over two hundred percent. We hypothesize that conspiracies in other industries would exhibit similar characteristics and search for "pockets" of low price variation as indicators of collusion in the retail gasoline industry in Louisville. We observe no such areas around Louisville in 1996-2002.
- Topic:
- Economics, Emerging Markets, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
169. Optimal Inflation Persistence: Ramsey Taxation with Capital and Habits
- Author:
- Sanjay Chugh
- Publication Date:
- 03-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Ramsey models of fiscal and monetary policy with perfectly-competitive product markets and a fixed supply of capital predict highly volatile inflation with no serial correlation. In this paper, we show that an otherwise-standard Ramsey model that incorporates capital accumulation and habit persistence predicts highly persistent inflation. The result depends on increases in either the ability to smooth consumption or the preference for doing so. The effect operates through the Fisher relationship: a smoother profile of consumption implies a more persistent real interest rate, which in turn implies persistent optimal inflation. Our work complements a recent strand of the Ramsey literature based on models with nominal rigidities. In these models, inflation volatility is lower but continues to exhibit very little persistence. We quantify the effects of habit and capital on inflation persistence and also relate our findings to recent work on optimal fiscal policy with incomplete markets.
- Topic:
- Economics, Emerging Markets, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
170. Financial Market Developments and Economic Activity during Current Account Adjustments in Industrial Economies
- Author:
- Steven B. Kamin, Sylvain Leduc, and Hilary Croke
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Much has been written about prospects for U.S. current account adjustment, including the possibility of what is sometimes referred to as a “disorderly correction”: a sharp fall in the exchange rate that boosts interest rates, depresses stock prices, and weakens economic activity. This paper assesses some of the empirical evidence bearing on the likelihood of the disorderly correction scenario, drawing on the experience of previous current account adjustments in industrial economies. We examined the paths of key economic performance indicators before, during, and after the onset of adjustment, building on the analysis of Freund (2000).
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States
171. The German ICT industry: Spatial Employment and Innovation Patterns
- Author:
- Björn Frank and Per Botolf Maurseth
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This paper documents recent developments in German ICT industries. In particular we report results on spatial patterns in innovation and employment in these industries. The paper is motivated by previous studies that have found that ICT industries seem to cluster geographically and having spatially clustered growth rates. In this study, we discriminate between production of ICT devices and production of ICT services. In Germany, production of ICT devices is concentrated in clusters of innovating regions (in terms of patents). ICT service production, on the other hand, is concentrated in larger urban areas. Growth rates in ICT-related employment show different spatial patterns. The data show that negative spatial effects are present for several sectors, which might give support for the so-called backwash effect described by Gunnar Myrdal (1957). For other sectors, positive spatial spillover effects may be present. For overall economic development (in terms of gross regional product per habitant) we find weak positive growth effects ICT, but these growth effects stem more from innovation than from production or use of ICT.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Welfare, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
172. The National Gasification Strategy: Gasification of Coal and Biomass as a Domestic Supply Option
- Author:
- William G. Rosenberg, Dwight C. Alpern, and Michael R. Walker
- Publication Date:
- 01-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Natural gas provides 24 percent of the energy used by U.S. homes and businesses and is a vital feedstock for chemical, fertilizer, and other industries. Since 1999, natural gas prices in the U.S. have more than doubled, adding about $70 billion annually to U.S. natural gas customers and causing widespread adverse economic impacts, including high home heating bills, escalating commercial energy costs (affecting hospitals, schools, office buildings, and shopping centers ), substantial job losses in chemicals, fertilizer, and manufacturing industries, and financial distress in the electric power sector.
- Topic:
- Economics, Energy Policy, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- North America
173. Vladimir Putin and Russia's Oil Policy
- Author:
- Martha Brill Olcott
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- The honeymoon between the Western oil industry and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended in mid-2003 when the Russian procurator's office began arresting Yukos executives. The Kremlin's seemingly sudden attack on private industry surprised the international business community that was expecting investment-friendly behavior from the Russian leadership. After assuming power in late 1999, Putin quickly signaled interest in developing a strong energy partnership with the United States, including increased opportunities for Western firms to invest in Russia's oil and gas industry.
- Topic:
- Development, Energy Policy, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia
174. CATO Institute: Who Killed Telecom? Why the Official Story Is Wrong
- Author:
- Lawrence Gasman
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the mid-1990s as it seemed that lawmakers were about to abandon much of the regulatory apparatus that had hampered the telecommunications industry since the 1930s, the telecom equipment industry began to boom, helped in part by the rise of the Internet. The deregulatory trend led ultimately to the 1996 Telecom Act, and soon the architects and implementers of that act were congratulating themselves on a job well done. We were supposedly building a new telecom infrastructure fit for the information age.
- Topic:
- Development, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
175. Strategic Unionism in Eastern Europe: The Case of Romania
- Author:
- Aurora Trif and Karl Koch
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- The shift from centrally planned economies to market-oriented economic models presented trade unions in Eastern European countries with crucial choices in relation to their roles as industrial relations actors. This paper investigates whether (and why) unions have chosen adversarial and/or co-operative relationships with the employers, based on a strategic choice conceptual framework. It focuses on trade union relations with employers at national, sectoral and company levels in Romania. It is argued that adversarial and co-operative relations between unions and employers developed simultaneously after 1989, but co-operation was the prevalent approach. Evidence suggests that ideological legacies, former institutions and the initial decision to participate in the macroeconomic transformation played a key role in shaping unions' choices towards co-operation with employers. Although this paper confirms the widespread view that labour is rather weak in Eastern Europe, it indicates that unions can be proactive and shape their own future if they have the capacity to mobilise their members and union leaders have the skills and willingness to use both conflict and co-operation in their relationships with employers. The comparison of evidence from Romania with other Eastern European countries reflects on the stage of Romanian transformation and also illustrates a wider possible applicability of the theoretical framework employed for the study.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Romania
176. Economic Reform and the Political Economy of the German Welfare State
- Author:
- Wolfgang Streeck and Christine Trampusch
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- The key to economic reform in Germany is a significant reduction in the high costs of labour.The main factor driving up German labour costs is the funding of the extensive German welfare state through social insurance contributions that in effect operate like payroll taxes on employment. The paper discusses the political causes of the rise in non-wage labour costs since the 1970s. It then proceeds to show how a variety of opportunities for political blockade in the German political economy dim the prospect for effective reform in the foreseeable future.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
177. Origins and Growth of the Software Industry in India
- Author:
- Rafiq Dossani
- Publication Date:
- 09-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
- Abstract:
- The paper explains the evolution of India's software industry. Domestic entrepreneurship emerges as the key factor for origination, survival and innovation in a hostile industrial policy environment. The maturing of the industry required a shift to a supportive government policy; maturation was also critically enabled by the modularization of the programming function through new technologies. These changes favored domestic firms that provided programming services. Later policy and technological changes induced transnational entry and led to higher value-added output. The paper shows that technologically sophisticated industries can develop even when many conditions typically present elsewhere are missing. We provide conditions under which this may happen and show their effect on subsequent developments.
- Topic:
- Industrial Policy and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
178. Opening Opportunities, Building Ownership: Fulfilling the Promise of Microenterprise in the United States
- Author:
- Elaine L. Edgcomb and Joyce A. Klein
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Aspen Institute
- Abstract:
- The notion that a person can turn a dream into a small business by applying healthy doses of ingenuity, elbow grease and grit has resonated with Americans from the earliest days of this nation. Indeed, there is something so intrinsically appealing about that scenario that more than 22 million Americans are small business owners today—including some 20 million who operate "micro"—or very small—enterprises.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Environment, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
179. Impact of Public R Financing on Private R Does Financial Constraint Matter?
- Author:
- Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- This study analyses how public R financing impacts companies. Our main goal is to study whether public and private R financing are substitutes or complements, and whether this impact differs between financially constrained and unconstrained companies. Our company-level panel data cover the period from 1996 to 2002. The statistical method employed in the research takes into account the possibility that receiving public support may be an endogenous factor. Our results suggest that public R financing does not crowd out privately financed R Instead, receiving a positive decision to obtain public R funds increases privately financed R Furthermore, our results suggest that this additionality effect is bigger in large firms than in small firms.
- Topic:
- Emerging Markets and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
180. Tradable Services: Understanding the Scope and Impact of Services Offshoring
- Author:
- Lori G. Kletzer and J. Bradford Jensen
- Publication Date:
- 09-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- We develop a new empirical approach to identify tradable service activities. Contrary to conventional views of service activities as nontradable, we find a significant number of service industries and occupations that appear tradable and substantial employment in these tradable activities. Workers employed in tradable service activities differ from those employed in tradable manufacturing and nontradable services. Workers in tradable service activities have higher skill levels and are paid higher wages than manufacturing workers or workers in nontradable service activities. In general, we find little evidence that tradable service activities have lower employment growth than other service activities. However, evidence suggests lower employment growth at the lowest end of the skill distribution. There is also evidence of higher worker displacement rates in tradable services. Workers displaced from tradable service activities are different from displaced manufacturing workers: Displaced tradable service workers have higher skills and higher predisplacement earnings than displaced manufacturing workers.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Welfare, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
181. The Chinese Economy: Prospects and Key Policy Issues
- Author:
- Morris Goldstein
- Publication Date:
- 04-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- No abstract is available.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
182. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Global Co-dependency, Collective Action, and the Challenges of Global Adjustment
- Author:
- Catherine L. Mann
- Publication Date:
- 01-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- Global imbalances have continued, indeed deepened, far longer than both researchers and pundits would have thought. On the US side, the current account deficit at about $630 billion (2004q1-3, AR) and 5.5 percent of GDP (2004q3) falls outside the oft-quoted range of 4-5 percent after which, research on industrial countries suggests, economic forces tend to narrow the imbalance. There is some-what less research on the persistence of global imbalances from the standpoint of the rest of the world, in part because individually most of those imbalances are not so notable. Clearly though, collectively growth in the rest of the world has come to be co-dependent on US demand patterns.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States
183. The Political Economy of Regionalism: Current Theorizing and Preliminary Observations on the G-3 FTA
- Author:
- Antonio Ortiz Mena López Negrete
- Publication Date:
- 12-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
- Abstract:
- This working paper provides and overview of current theorizing on the political economy of regional integration. Specifically, it assesses several theories that attempt to explain the causes behind the resurgence or regionalism in the late 1980's and early 1990's with special emphasis on Milner's demand-driven theory based on demands for regionalism by firms with internal increasing returns to scale. After reviewing the main propositions of the theories in light of the G-3 Free Trade Agreement, it finds that no single theory adequately accounts for the causes behind the establishment of the agreement, that Milner's model is better at specifying preferences than outcomes, and that greater attention should be paid to the institutional forms of regional integration agreements.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, Political Economy, and Regional Cooperation
184. Examining The Defence Industrialization - Economic Growth Relationship:The Case Of Singapore
- Author:
- Adrian Kuah and Bernard Loo
- Publication Date:
- 06-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the process and political economy of defence industrialization in Singapore. It frames the emergence and evolution of Singapore's defence industrial base in the broader context of both the development of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and Singapore's defence and strategic policy since independence. The first half of the paper traces the trajectory of defence industrialization, examining and problematizing the linkages between defence spending and economic development.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Israel and Singapore
185. Unemployment, Macroeconomic Policy and Labor Market Flexibility: Argentina and Mexico in the 1990s
- Author:
- Roberto Frenkel and Jaime Ros
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper compares the divergent unemployment experiences in Argentina and Mexico in the 1990s, examining in detail the remarkable contrasts in the adjustment of the labor market in these two countries that occur despite equally striking similarities in the evolution of a number of macroeconomic variables and external economic shocks. The paper focuses on the role of macroeconomic policies and the type of industrial restructuring in these developments and considers to what extent the divergent unemployment experiences can be explained by differences in the institutional characteristics of the labor market.
- Topic:
- Economics and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Argentina, South America, North America, and Mexico
186. State Development Planning: Did it Create an East Asian Miracle?
- Author:
- Benjamen Powell
- Publication Date:
- 09-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- East Asian countries have recorded large increases in per capita GDP over the last fifty years. Some observers have referred to this growth as an “East Asian Miracle.” One popular explanation attributes the rapid growth to state led industrial development planning. This paper critically assesses the arguments surrounding state development planning and East Asia's growth. Whether the state can acquire the knowledge necessary to calculate which industries it should promote and how state development planning can deal with political incentive problems faced by planners are both examined. When we look at the development record of East Asian countries we find that to the extent development planning did exist, it could not calculate which industries would promote development, so it instead promoted industrialization. We also find that what rapid growth in living standards did occur can be better explained by free markets than state planning because, as measured in economic freedom indexes, these countries were some of the most free market in the world.
- Topic:
- Development, Industrial Policy, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Israel and East Asia
187. Sweatshops and Third World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat?
- Author:
- David Skarbek and Benjamin Powell
- Publication Date:
- 09-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- Many studies have shown that multinational firms pay more than domestic firms in Third World countries. Economists critical of sweatshops have responded that multinational firms' wage data do not address whether sweatshop jobs are above average because many of these jobs are with domestic subcontractors. In this paper we compare apparel industry wages and the wages of individual firms accused of being sweatshops to measures of the standard of living in Third World economies. We find that most sweatshop jobs provide an above average standard of living for their workers.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Welfare, Industrial Policy, and Third World
188. Production Markets Broker Upstream to Downstream, balancing their volume and quality sensitivities to firms through an oriented market profile of signals
- Author:
- Harrison C. White
- Publication Date:
- 04-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Varieties of quality competition across producers are extrapolated out of the two dual forms of perfect competition, oriented upstream and downstream. Only then are general, path-dependent solutions for market derived (which came first in the previous book of 2002). Attention is focused on advanced markets for high ratios of sensitivities between upstream and downstream relations of producers. Parameter identification and estimations identify impacts from substitutability with cross-stream markets as being major only for certain bands of sensitivity ratios, identified within the state space for production market contexts. Illustrative applications are sketched for strategic manipulations and investment decisions and trends in sectors.
- Topic:
- Economics, Emerging Markets, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
189. Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Study: Force Application
- Publication Date:
- 10-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- In February 2003, the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, ODUSD(IP), produced Transforming the Defense Industrial Base: A Roadmap. This report identified the need for systematic evaluation of the ability of the defense industrial base to develop and provide functional, operational effects-based warfighting capabilities. The Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Study (DIBCS) series is a systematic assessment of critical technologies needed in the 21st century defense industrial base to meet warfighter capabilities, as framed by the Joint Staff's functional concepts. In addition, the DIBCS series provides the basis for strengthening the industrial base required for 21st century warfighting needs. This report addresses the third of those functional concepts, Force Application.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
190. The Vertical Lift Industrial Base: Outlook 2004-2014
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- The vertical lift industrial base still is being shaped by government and industry responses to the Nunn-McCurdy cost breaches of 2001 and the unintended consequences of Department-endorsed teaming arrangements that resulted in an interlocked industrial base that restricted Department and industry flexibility. The Department's budget-driven remanufacture strategy in the 1990s produced a series of sole-sourced relationships, leaving few real competitive opportunities among the helicopter prime contractors to force technology refresh cycles. With limited competition, few new platform contracts, and declining government technology investments, industry was left little incentive to invest in independent research.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
191. Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Study: Command Control
- Publication Date:
- 06-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- In February 2003, the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, ODUSD(IP), produced Transforming the Defense Industrial Base: A Roadmap. This report identified the need for systematic evaluation of the ability of the defense industrial base to develop and provide functional, operational effects-based warfighting capabilities. The Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Study (DIBCS) series is a systematic assessment of critical technologies needed in the 21st century defense industrial base to meet warfighter requirements as framed by the Joint Staff's functional concepts. In addition, the DIBCS series provides the basis for strengthening the industrial base that provides solutions to warfighting needs—and from which the Joint Staff develops its Joint Integrating Concepts and Joint Operating Concepts. This report addresses the second of those functional concepts, Joint Command and Control.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
192. Annual Industrial Capabilities Report to Congress, 2004
- Publication Date:
- 03-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Section 2504 of title 10, United States Code, requires that the Secretary of Defense submit an annual report to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives, by March 1st of each year.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, Science and Technology, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States
193. Study on Impact of Foreign Sourcing of Systems
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Recent operations in Iraq raised concerns that foreign nations might restrict or preclude shipments of defense articles for DoD applications during internationally unpopular engagements. Given this possibility, the Department of Defense decided to review the extent to which it depends on foreign suppliers for operationally important defense systems.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Iraq and Middle East
194. Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Study: Battlespace Awareness
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- In February 2003, the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, ODUSD(IP), produced Transforming the Defense Industrial Base: A Roadmap. This report identified the need for systematic evaluation of the ability of the defense industrial base to develop and provide functional, operational effects-based warfighting capabilities. The Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Study (DIBCS) series begins a systematic assessment of critical technologies and industrial capabilities needed in the 21st century defense industrial base to meet warfighter requirements as framed by the Joint Staff's Functional Concepts and Joint Operational Architecture. The DIBCS series ties directly to warfighter needs by linking industrial base capabilities to warfighter capabilities derived from the Functional Concepts. This report addresses the first of those functional concepts, Battlespace Awareness.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
195. Cash Flows and Discount Rates, Industry and Country Effects, and Co-Movement in Stock Returns
- Author:
- John Ammer and Jon Wongswan
- Publication Date:
- 09-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the relative importance of global, country-specific, and industry-specific factors in both the cash flow and discount rate components of equity returns between 1995 and 2003. Our framework draws upon previously separate literatures on country versus industry effects and (forward-looking) cash flow versus discount rate components of equity return innovations. We apply the Campbell (1991) decomposition for industry-by-country, all-country, global industry, and world market index returns so we can produce a richer characterization of same-industry and same-country effects in stock returns. Unlike previous equity return decomposition papers, we exploit information in equity analysts' earnings forecasts when projecting future variables from our reduced-form equation systems. Our findings confirm previous research that finds patterns of correlation that suggest a richer underlying structure than just a single common global factor. Furthermore, our results suggest that global, within-country, and same-industry effects are all important for both of the two key components of stock returns: news about future dividends and news about future discount rates. In particular, within-industry covariation in news about future discount rates appears to be just as important as within-country covariation in news about future discount rates. We also find that the idiosyncratic component of cash flow news is more important than the global component, while the reverse is true for news about future discount rates. Our results are broadly consistent with co-movement in future discount rates arising from perceptions of common elements of risk, rather than national market segmentation.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
196. The Inferior Performance of State Owned Enterprises: Is it due to Ownership or Market Structure?
- Author:
- Leo A. Grünfeld, Eskil Goldeng, and Gabriel R. G. Benito
- Publication Date:
- 03-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- We analyze differences in performance between private companies (PCs) and state owned enterprises (SOEs), with an emphasis on the effects of market structure. We use a panel covering all registered companies during the 1990s in Norway, a country where SOEs play an important role in regular markets. Return on assets as well as costs measures are used as measures of performance in models that investigate markets where SOEs and PCs actually compete with each other. Although market shares and concentration affect performance, ownership identity still explains most of the inferior performance among SOEs.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Norway
197. Demand Policy Instruments for R Procurement, Technical Standards and The Case of Indian Vaccines
- Author:
- Smita Srinivas
- Publication Date:
- 12-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Vaccines represent a nearly $8 billion global industry today , which is projected to grow to $10 billion in 2010 (PhRMA, 2001). In 2001, worldwide spending on R for “biologicals,” of which vaccines are the largest segment, was $1.1 billion (about 4% of total private pharmaceutical R) (PhRMA, 2001). Although vaccines com p rise only 2% of the global pharmaceutical market, it is indispensable for public health immunization the world over. Yet, at the same time, the number of private vaccine suppliers in advanced industrialised countries is shrinking (in the US alone, there were over twenty vaccine suppliers until the 1970s and now approximately five exist); firm s in developing countries must pick up some of this slack, especially for vaccines that are especially important for diseases prevalent in developing countries.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Human Welfare, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
198. CATO Institute: Fannie May, Freddie Mac, and Housing Finance: Why True Privatization is Good Public Policy
- Author:
- Lawrence J. White
- Publication Date:
- 10-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) are the two dominant entities in the secondary residential mortgage markets of the United States. They are an important and prominent part of a larger mosaic of extensive efforts by governments at all levels to encourage the production and consumption of housing.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States
199. Industrialization and Urbanization: Did the Steam Engine Contribute to the Growth of Cities in the United States?
- Author:
- Sukkoo Kim
- Publication Date:
- 09-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
- Abstract:
- Industrialization and urbanization are seen as twin processes of economic development. However, the exact nature of their causal relationship is still open to considerable debate. This paper uses firm-level data from the manuscripts of the decennial censuses between 1850 and 1880 to examine whether the adoption of the steam engine as the primary power source by manufacturers during industrialization contributed to urbanization. While the data indicate that steam-powered firms were more likely to locate in urban areas than water-powered firms, the adoption of the steam engine did not contribute substantially to urbanization.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
200. Fifty Years of Regional Inequality in China: A Journey through Central Planning, Reform, and Openness
- Author:
- Ravi Kanbur and Xiaobo Zhang
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper constructs and analyses a long-run time-series for regional inequality in China from the Communist Revolution to the present. There have been three peaks of inequality in the last fifty years, coinciding with the Great Famine of the late 1950s, the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s, and finally the period of openness and global integration in the late 1990s. Econometric analysis establishes that regional inequality is explained in the different phases by three key policy variables; the ratio of heavy industry to gross output value, the degree of decentralization, and the degree of openness.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia