Bruno Amable

The role of technology in market shares dynamics

The paper presents the estimation of an empirical model of market share dynamics for five industrialized countries and 18 industries. The emphasis is put on the importance of non-price factors of competitiveness, Whereas most traditional explanations rest on the influence of relative prices. Among the former type of factor, the role of variables reflecting technological advantage is privileged. In particular the role of innovations has received considerable attention in the literature on international trade as well as the literature on endogenous growth. In this spirit, the paper introduces patent counts and investment as explanatory variables for the export-market share. The results show that-non-price variables have an important impact on the determinations of long-run competitiveness.

Can Financial Infrastructures Foster Economic Development

In this paper, financial infrastructures increase the efficiency of the banking sector: they decrease the market power (due to horizontal differentiation) of the financial intermediaries, lower the cost of capital, increase the number of depositors and the amount of intermediated savings, factors which in turn increase the growth rate and may help countries to take off from a poverty trap. Taxation finances financial infrastructures and decreases the private productivity of capital. Growth and welfare maximising levels of financial infrastructures are computed.

Catch-up and convergence: a model of cumulative growth

This article builds a model of cumulative growth in order to explain the patterns of convergence and divergence in levels of productivity for a large sample of developed and developing countries. Determinants of productivity growth are endogenized: investment equipment share in GDP, innovative activity and the level of schooling. The catch-up hypothesis states that lagging countries should enjoy a higher rate of productivity increase. In fact, this hypothesis must be qualified, countries that possess a ‘social capability’ can catch up to the technological leaders. The model presented here tries to take account of some important determinants of the social capability. The growth of productivity rests on a cumulative growth mechanism based on investment, innovation and education. The model is estimated for a sample of 59 countries over the period 1960–85. Contrary to most recent studies on the subject, a general pattern of divergence rather than convergence in productivity levels is found.

International specialisation and growth

Abstract Does inter-industry specialisation promote growth, for instance through the exploitation of economies of scale and/or comparative advantage? Is a certain type of specialisation a positive factor for growth? This paper seeks to answer such questions on the relationship between foreign trade and growth. Three indicators of foreign trade are considered, inter-industry specialisation, an index of trade dissimilarity and a comparative advantage in electronics, and are introduced as explanatory variables in growth regressions for 39 countries over 1965–1990. The results show that inter-industry specialisation and comparative advantage in electronics are a positive influence on productivity growth. Furthermore, education seems to act in complementarity with trade specialisation, reinforcing the positive effects of electronics, and interacting with trade dissimilarity for a detrimental effect on growth.

TECHNICAL CHANGE AND INCORPORATED R& D IN THE SERVICE SECTOR

The purpose of this article is to study the pattern of technical change in the service sector using an indicator ot total technology intensity which takes account of the R&D incorporated in purchases of intermediates and equipment. The service sector does not appear as homogeneous and some services are major users of technology. An international comparison over 8 countries does not show a clear pattern of convergence in total technology intensity except for the communication services. A comparison between France and Germany emphasises the differences between the relative importance of domestic and imported incorporated technology.

Strong hysteresis versus zero-root dynamics

Abstract This paper presents the properties of remanence and of dependence on history pertaining to strong hysteresis through a foreign trade model. These properties reveal that it is impossible to assimilate zero-root dynamics to hysteresis.

Competition among techniques in the presence of increasing returns to scale

A model of technology diffusion and growth originally proposed by Batten (1987), taking into account the interaction of the supply of and demand for a new product, is modified so as to admit a production technology with increasing returns to scale and the possibility of a competition between two techniques. On the opposite to the case where the production technology of the new technique exhibits decreasing returns, the presence of increasing returns to scale prevent the splitting of the market between two new techniques, and the monopoly position of one technique must obtain. The winning technique may not be the most efficient in terms of its market expansion potential, the outcome of competition depends on initial conditions on production capacity and diffusion.

Europe in the world technological competition

Abstract This paper compares the relative positions of European countries, Japan and the United States regarding competitiveness and growth, and more particularly the links between technology and the economy. Recent performances in the domains of research (both applied and fundamental), external trade and growth are presented and compared with long term productivity growth and market positions. From the long term perspective, European countries have caught up with the US. In many sectors, European productivity levels are broadly similar to US levels. This long run trend must be compared with the more recent erosion of Europes competitive positions in many markets, particularly those related to information technologies or electronics. Europe witnesses a slow weakening of its competitive positions, lacking dynamism in innovation. This paper argues that Europe has difficulties in adjusting to an important structural change related to the emergence of a new production model. The problems specific to Europe illustrate the end of the so-called ‘linear’ concept of innovation and suggests that new interactions between technology and the economy should be considered.

The bloc bourgeois in France and Italy

In this innovative book, Hideko Magara brings together an expert team to explore both the possibilities and difficulties of transitioning from a neoliberal policy regime to an alternative regime through drastic policy innovations. The authors argue that, for more than two decades, citizens in developed countries have witnessed massive job losses, lowered wages, slow economic growth and widening inequality under a neoliberal policy regime that has placed heavy constraints on policy choices.

How Do Public Investment and Financial Factors Affect Growth in a Debt-Overhang Economy?

In this paper, informational frictions lead to a rationing on the external finance of the firm in proportion to its internal net worth. We study the endogenously generated growth of an economy with heterogeneous firms facing a credit constraint. The productivity of individual firms is affected by the size of public infrastructures subject to congestion which are financed through taxes on profits. Growth will be influenced by the level of the interest rate through interest repayments (a debt-overhang problem) and by the tax rate. It is shown that there exists a growth-maximizing financing rule of public investment.