Anne P. Carter

Knowhow trading as economic exchange

Abstract Knowhow trading is the informal exchange of practical technical knowledge between pairs of engineers and other technicians in different firms. This paper explains the advantages and disadvantages of this particular mode of knowledge sharing from an economic perspective. Under a knowhow trading regime long-term, self-selected partners barter knowledge ex post, i.e., they exchange information already known to one of them. The paper explains why barter is better suited to the exchange of ideas than to the exchange of conventional goods and points out advantages of ex post knowledge sharing between firms whose priorities differ. It is generally cheaper to acquire knowhow through exchanges than to “reinvent the wheel” but sharing knowhow can cut into the firms competitive advantage. Pairwise exchanges limit, although they do not eliminate, the firms loss of competitive advantage when it shares technical knowledge. Because knowhow trading is informal and “off the books” such trading is difficult for the firm to evaluate and to manage. Similarly, since it eludes the traditional measures of economic activity, knowhow trading is difficult to document and integrate into studies of the general economy.

Upstream and Downstream Benefits of Innovation

The backward and forward impact of an innovation is traced under different assumptions about pricing. Incentives to various sectors and other aggregate benefits of innovation are discussed and cooperative behaviors explained.

Leontief's contribution to economics

Abstract It is often difficult to pinpoint an individual economists contribution to his discipline but Leontiefs is clear. While his interests and publications are wide-ranging, he has dedicated most of his extraordinary energy to the development of input-output analysis, involving himself directly at all levels, from fundamental theory to very specific data. He paved the way for systematic large-scale modeling efforts and for a sounder empirical base for all of economics. This review can only touch upon some highlights of the impressive corpus of his pioneering work.

Input–Output Recipes in an Information Economy

Input–Output can contribute most successfully where industries are strongly interdependent, where individual sectors differ significantly in their input structures and where those input structures change slowly. These conditions have been satisfied for the most part in traditional goods-producing industries and particularly in manufacturing where regular and detailed Census information supplied a strong database for constructing tables. Service sectors, which have been growing in relative importance, are less dependent on other sectors and are apparently relatively uniform in input structure. These and high-tech sectors depend heavily on information flows and on highly specialized human capital both of which are harder to map than conventional goods. A sketch of specialization in SIC 7372, ‘Prepackaged Sofware’, illustrates some challenges encountered in attempts to describe the structure of the information economy. Three are singled out: difficulties in valuing and tracing information flows as contrasted...

Aspects of a new world development strategy II: Factors affecting the long-term prospects of developing nations

Abstract This paper explores some quantitative dimensions of the interdependence of rich and poor regions in the context of the United Nations World Model. It extends the original work on that model in three ways: (1) by updating some of the key parameters and exogenous variables in the light of recent data; (2) by developing a “control” solution to be used as a point of reference in policy simulations; and (3) by exploring the sensitivities of each of two groups of regions— developed and developing—to changes in one anothers growth rates. Goals of closing the income gap between developed and developing regions and of increasing income levels in the latter are discussed.

International Effects of Energy Conservation

This paper reports on an energy conservation scenario computed by the United Nations World Model. Energy prices are assumed to rise as they did in the base runs but shifts in fuel mix and energy-saving are assumed to be achieved through increased labor and capital costs. Results suggest that vigorous energy conservation would substantially decrease, but not eliminate, the payments stresses in the reference case. Regional effects vary greatly. Payments-constrained regions could develop somewhat faster despite additional requirements for investment goods. Developed economies would achieve improved trade balances through higher investment and some consumption sacrifice.