Eoin O'Leary

Aggregate and Sectoral Convergence among Irish Regions: The Role of Structural Change, 1960-96

This article presents new evidence on the degree of aggregate and sectoral productivity convergence among Irish planning regions between 1960 and 1996. It introduces a modified shift-share technique to measure the effect of structural change on the degree of regional convergence (divergence) observed. Aggregate productivity converged strongly between 1960 and 1979, mainly due to the convergent effect of structural change and to converging service sectors. Between 1979 and 1996, aggregate productivity diverged weakly, mainly due to strong divergence among manufacturing and service sectors. Aggregate divergence would have been stronger only for the continued convergent effect exerted by structural change. Productivity is adjusted for transfer pricing effects and the methodology is applied for alternative definitions of structural change, without substantial alterations to the results.

The role of structural change in European regional productivity growth

O’Leary E. and Webber D. J. The role of structural change in European regional productivity growth, Regional Studies. Recent literature suggests that inter-sectoral structural change has a negligible impact on aggregate productivity growth. Through the application of dynamic shift–share methods, this paper presents a re-examination of this perspective using data for 181 European regions from 1980 to 2007. Results suggest that the effect of the inter-sectoral component is far from negligible and is substantially stronger for those regions towards the higher deciles of the distribution. Moreover, its effects appear to be particularly growth enhancing when the region is either ‘high and improving’ or ‘low and deteriorating’. These results rehabilitate the importance of structural change for growth and convergence.

Irish regional development: A new Agenda

The book present a range of analyses which look at the development of regional policy in the Republic of Ireland in the light of the National Development Plan (2000-2006) and the National Spatial Strategy (2002-2020). The analysis covers transport policy (airports and infrastructure), regional innovation policies (the spin-off benefits of R&D investment, etc.) and the overall policy issues surrounding regional development.

The effects of national and international interaction on innovation: evidence from the Irish CIS: 2004-6

This paper analyses the importance of decisions to interact nationally and internationally for the likelihood of process and product innovation in a sample of Irish firms. The key contribution is to provide an empirical test of the relative importance of geographically proximate versus distant interaction, using a two-step procedure to remove potential endogeneity in interaction decisions. In doing so it finds that only national and only international interaction have the expected positive effects on the probability of innovation, while engaging in both national and international interaction has no effect. The findings support hypotheses on the importance of both geographically proximate and distant interaction for innovation, though the lack of significance for both national and international interaction means there is no evidence to support the proposition that these forms of interaction are complementary.

The Role of External Interaction for Innovation in Irish High-Technology Businesses

There is growing empirical evidence that external interaction is an important source of knowledge for business innovation. This paper contributes to the innovation literature by using new measures of interaction to explore the relative importance of external interaction for innovation in Irish high-technology businesses. Based on survey data, the paper finds that external interaction increases the probability of product and process innovation, but the effect is inconsistent across all external interaction agents. Interaction along the supply chain has a positive effect on innovation, and interaction with competitors has an insignificant effect on innovation output. Notably, the paper finds that interaction with higher education institutions has a negative effect on the probability of product and process innovation.

The Innovation Performance of Irish and Foreign‐owned Firms: The Roles of R&D and Networking

This paper contributes to the growing evidence that Irish and foreign‐owned firms based in Ireland conduct their innovation activities differently from each other. It tests the Cohen and Levinthal hypothesis, separately for Irish and foreign‐owned firms, that undertaking R&D and collaborating with external networks together enhance the probability of product and process innovation. To control for potential endogeneity of the external networking variables, a two‐step procedure is used with predicted probabilities used as instruments in the estimated production functions. Based on data from the Irish Community Innovation Survey 2006 to 2008, the results suggest that Irish‐owned firms which engage in external networks with public knowledge sources, while simultaneously undertaking R&D, are more likely to innovate than firms which perform these two activities individually. Irish‐owned firms which engage in backward networking for product and forward networking for process innovation while also undertaking R&D are less likely to be innovative, perhaps suggesting a substitution effect. These results for Irish‐owned firms provide some support for Cohen and Levinthals hypothesis. However, foreign‐owned firms seem to behave differently, being largely self‐contained and relying exclusively on intramural R&D for innovation as the external networking variables, both individually and when interacted with R&D, have no effect on innovation likelihood.