Erkan Erdil

The Granger-causality between health care expenditure and output: a panel data approach

This study investigates the Granger-causality relationship between real per capita GDP and real per capita health care expenditure by employing a large macro panel data set with a VAR representation. The findings verify that the dominant type of Granger-causality is bidirectional. In instances that we found one-way causality, the pattern is not homogenous: Our analyses show that one-way causality generally runs from income to health in low- and middle-income countries whereas the reverse holds for high-income countries. Accordingly, care must be paid in defining the dependent and independent variables when specifying the determinants of health care expenditure.

A comparative analysis of inter-industry wage differentials: industrialized versus developing countries

This study aims to compare the available evidence on inter-industry wage structure for industrialized and developing countries and to find whether the industry wage differentials are consistent and stable independent of time and space. Moreover, it tries to clarify some of the determinants of industry wage differentials. International evidence supports the wage differential regularity across countries, and the factors underlying inter-industry wage differentials are found to be more or less the same for both industrialized and developing countries.

Demand systems for agricultural products in OECD countries

This study concerned with the estimation of demand systems for agricultural products in OECD countries. Three representatives demand systems with their extensions, namely the Rotterdam Model, An Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), and CBS model are used. These models are estimated by Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) method. The procedures to estimate demand systems suggest significant empirical regularities for agricultural products in OECD countries. The study also applies a procedure for model selection. This procedure implies the superiority of AIDS and CBS models over the Rotterdam model. The main contribution of this study is to model demand for agricultural products over a wide array of items and across large number of countries.

Innovation Ecosystems and Universities

During the last decades the number of universities extending their initial education and teaching missions towards the triple helix and knowledge triangle paradigms, e.g. knowledge and technology transfer and innovation has increased substantially. In line with this evolution the term ‘entrepreneurial university’ became increasingly popular however until recently there is hardly a common understanding of ‘entrepreneurial universities’. The main perception of ‘entrepreneurial universities’ rests with a visible and measurable contribution of universities to innovation and entrepreneurship in a broader sense. Although this perception is plausible and convincing it raises many open questions which mainly point to university governance models. The innovation and entrepreneurial university paradigm requires a holistic view on university governance approaches which include the full set of universities missions and respective management routines. In this respect it’s of utmost importance that universities keep a “healthy balance” between their missions. This statement is frequently used in many instances yet thus far there is no clear indication what a “healthy balance” implies. The chapter provides first indications about entrepreneurial university governance and respective management approaches.

Future-Oriented Positioning of Knowledge Intensive Local Networks in Global Value Chains: The Case of Turkey

This study focuses on how Turkey’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can participate in global markets. In fact, developing countries provide a means for accelerating the development of enterprises and countries, providing openings that developing country enterprises can exploit to upgrade their capabilities. For such enterprises, or local clusters of enterprises, the task is to insert themselves into the wider networks. This may be regarded as the main achievement for sustaining competitiveness, in similarities with the re-structuring of regional networks in developing countries that often compete by participating in extensive inter-firm networks. As another dimension in our study, we will investigate and argue whether if it is possible to increase and improve the participation of Turkish’s SMEs in the global economy, which is explicitly the baseline hypothesis of this study. The literature on regional networks and global value chain (GVC) will provide us some new insights to show the international linkages of Turkish SMEs, which often lack the capabilities to participate effectively in global markets.

Effect of technology on gender wage differential: a panel analysis

There is a vast amount of literature focusing on the relationship between wage and technology. A panel of 13 countries from 1980 to 1998 period is used in attempt to find an answer whether technology has any effect on gender wage differential in manufacturing industry. The results indicate that as technological change accelerates approximated by the number of patents, wage difference between man and woman will diminish.

Targeting on Innovation: Potentials and Limits of Entrepreneurial Universities

Innovation has become a frequently quoted and lived central missions of universities. This book demonstrates however that the mission is not constant. New challenges and opportunities emerge at different moments in history and there are currently a number of important strategic orientations that universities need to consider and balance. Universities face the challenge to balance their different activities and missions in order to ensure sustainable impact on innovation ecosystems at different levels. The authors argue that entrepreneurial universities as we know them today will change their thinking and activities from being purely demonstrable impact driven towards an activity portfolio approach. The latter considers ongoing institutional and governance change paired with a selected number of activities which provide demonstrable and visible impact but also continuing to invest into the free mind blue sky driven work typical for such institutions. Even beyond this the entrepreneurial university features risk taking by means of a research and innovation friendly internal climate and organization which is driven by rigor but not administration and performance indicators.

Catching-up and the Role of University-Industry Collaboration in Emerging Economies: Case of Turkey

In the last century, universities have played a significant role in stimulating technological change and innovation. The recent decades have witnessed a change in the mission of the universities, namely their social mission in disseminating knowledge and interacting more broadly with the surrounding society, in addition to conduct education and research. This dissemination and interaction is often realized in the form of successful university-industry collaborations (UICs) in the developing countries. Nevertheless, this sort of realization still lacks comprehensive view. Besides, such comprehensive view is also required to address gaps and types of barriers to economic development and some possible mechanisms which could lead to catching up on the basis of UICs. Academic studies deviate such possibility of catching up is due to the balance between barriers and resource usage among institutional actors. In order to address this gap, first, we implemented a review on literature on UICs. The review provided an overarching process framework, which are distilled from the analysis. However, as current research on this issue points to, different types of university-industry interaction with government intervention and with a strong emphasis on education programs that may have high pay-offs for developing countries. In this context, we administered the concept of UICs in the case of Turkey as a developing country by which we provide a substantial contribution by creating an integrated analysis of literature and further mitigations for research topics distilled from our analysis.

Cohesion and Competition of Europe: Innovation Policy from the Perspective of Networks and Entropy

This study analyzes the innovative potential of the European Union in the context of the European Research Area (ERA). Literature related to the Systems of Innovation, network studies, Framework Programs and the European Research Area will be used to establish a theoretical framework for policy analysis. It forms a database from three different resources to establish a European Research and Innovation Network, which appears as a result of policy and program implementation at the European level. The evaluation of the European Union’s innovative potential is discussed for developing policy recommendations, which are derived from theoretical arguments as well as analytical studies, based on network analysis and the notion of entropy. The implementation of a relatively simple rule by the European Commission, in addition to policies focusing on the development of countries’ diversity and absorptive capacity, which are structural breakdowns, may make an important contribution to improving cohesion and competition within the European Research Area, as well innovation in the European Union.