Jan Fagerberg

Technological Progress, Structural Change and Productivity Growth: A Comparative Study

The relationship between the economic structure of a country and its productivity growth has received a lot of attention in recent decades. For instance, several theoretical models in this area now suggest that countries that specialize in technologically progressive industries will enjoy high rates of growth compared to other countries. This paper focuses on the impact of specialization and structural changes on productivity growth in manufacturing in recent decades, using a sample of 39 countries and 24 industries between 1973 and 1990. The results show that while structural change on average has not been conducive to productivity growth, countries that have managed to increase their presence in the technologically most progressive industry of this period (electronics), have experienced higher productivity growth than other countries.

Schumpeter and the revival of evolutionary economics: an appraisal of the literature

Abstract. During the last two decades we have seen a revival of interest in the works of Joseph Schumpeter and “evolutionary” ideas in economics more generally. A professional society honouring Schumpeters name has been founded, and linked to it we have had for more than fifteen years now a professional journal devoted to this stream of thought. However, it has been argued that, despite these developments, the link between Schumpeters own work and the more recent contributions to evolutionary economics is in fact rather weak. This paper considers this claim. Based on an analysis of Schumpeters contribution to economics the paper presents an overview and assessment of the more recent literature in this area. It is argued that although there are important differences between Schumpeters work and some of the more recent contributions, there nevertheless remains a strong common core that clearly distinguishes the evolutionary stream from other approaches (such as, for instance, so-called “new growth theory”).

The Impact of EU Regional Support on Growth and Convergence in the European Union

The evidence presented in this article suggests that EU regional support has a significant and positive impact on the growth performance of European regions. Moreover, there are signs of a change in the impact of this support in the 1990s, indicating that the major reform of the structural funds undertaken in 1988 may have succeeded in making EU regional policy more effective. However, the results also indicate that the economic effects of such support are much stronger in more developed environments, emphasizing the importance of accompanying policies that improve the competence of the receiving environments.

Technology-gaps, innovation-diffusion and transformation:an evolutionary interpretation

This paper discusses and outlines a perspective on economic growth based on evolutionary theorizing. Consistent with this perspective, capitalist development is shown to be a process of alternating periods of convergence and divergence, with some signs of a shift towards divergence recently. We also show that the importance of innovation for economic growth has increased lately, while at the same time imitation, (or diffusion) has become more demanding. The manufacturing sector which used to be very important for growth has lost much of its dynamism. We relate these findings to the big technological shifts that have occurred during the last decades.

Technology, Growth and Unemployment across European Regions

FAGERBERG J., VERSPAGEN B. and CANIE¨LS M. (1997) Technology, growth and unemployment across European regions, Reg. Studies 31, 457‐466. The process of convergence in GDP per capita levels across European regions came to a halt in the 1980s, although the differences in GDP per capita remain substantial. Moreover, these differences are related to similarly persistent differences in unemployment rates. This paper argues that a perspective which, in addition to other factors, takes into account differences across regions in innovation and diffusion of technology may explain these findings. A simultaneous equation model with GDP per capita growth, employment growth and migration as endogenous variables is proposed and estimated using data for 64 European regions in the 1980s. The results show that innovation and the diffusion of technology are indeed important factors behind European growth in the 1980s. However, due to a lack of own R&D capabilities, most poor regions fail to take advantage of the more advan...

Innovation and economic development

Innovation is often seen as carried out by highly educated labor in R&D intensive companies with strong ties to leading centers of excellence in the scientific world. Seen from this angle innovation is a typical “first world” activity. There is, however, another way to look at innovation that goes significantly beyond this high-tech picture. In this broader perspective, innovation—the attempt to try out new or improved products, processes, or ways to do things—is an aspect of most if not all economic activities. In this sense, Section 1 puts forward the idea that innovation may be as relevant in the developing part of the world as elsewhere. Section 2 discusses the existing theoretical and empirical literature on the subject. An important conclusion is that to be able to exploit technology to their own advantage, developing countries need to develop the necessary capabilities for doing so. But what are these capabilities and how can they be measured? Section 3 surveys attempts to identify and measure capabilities at the national level. However, the development of such capabilities, it is argued, depends in important ways on what firms do. Section 4, therefore, focuses on recent attempts to survey innovation activity in firms in developing countries and what can be learnt from that. Section 5 discusses the role of domestic versus foreign sources in fostering innovation in the developing part of the world. The final section summarizes the main lessons.

The method of constant market shares analysis reconsidered

Constant market shares (CMS) analyses are frequently used in applied studies of export development. This paper reviews the development of the method and argues that it can be considerably improved. A new version of the method is developed which, in addition to the familiar CMS effects, also allows for the calculation of effects reflecting the ability of each country to adapt its export structure to the changes in the commodity and country composition of world imports. The method is applied to a sample of 20 OECD countries for the period 1961-83.

The evolution of Norway's national innovation system

This paper analyses the co-evolution of science, technology and innovation policy and industrial structure in a small, open, resource-based economy (Norway). The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, it develops an evolutionary and historically oriented approach to the study of the development of these policies that may have wide applicability. Second, it focuses on a particular type of innovation, innovation in resource-based activities, that differs in many respects from the more commonly studied case of innovation in ‘high-tech’ industries. Third, the paper advances our understanding of the roles played by institutions and politics in innovation. Previous work on national systems of innovation has devoted little attention to these matters, possibly because much of this work examines ‘snapshots’ of various innovation systems at a specific point in time and lacks historical depth. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Humoral anti-idiotypic and anti-anti-idiotypic immune response in cancer patients treated with monoclonal antibody 17-1A

Abstract A group of 96 patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma were treated with the mouse (m) or chimeric (c) (mouse variable regions × human IgG1 constant regions) monoclonal antibody (mAb) 17-1A recognizing the tumour-associated antigen GA733-2. Eighty-two of the 83 patients treated with mmAb17-1A and 69% of the patients given cmAb17-1A (n = 13) developed anti-idiotypic antibodies (ab2). Auto-antibodies binding to tumour cells expressing GA733-2 were found in 7% of the patients. In a further 38 patients (40%) antitumour-cell antibodies, i.e. anti-anti-idiotypic antibodies (ab3), were induced by the mAb17-1A therapy. Patients with detectable ab3 after treatment had significantly higher ab2 levels than those not developing ab3. Addition of granulocyte/macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) to mmAb17-1A significantly enhanced the induction of ab2 as well as induction of anti-anti-idiotypic antibodies (ab3), compared to mmAb17-1A alone. Patients with a high increase in antitumour-cell antibodies (ab3) induced by the therapy lived significantly longer than patients with no or a low level of induction of ab3 (P = 0.016). The results indicate that induction of an idiotypic network response might be an important effector mechanism in mAb therapy.

Autoantibodies against the tumour-associated antigen GA733-2 in patients with colorectal carcinoma

Abstract The tumour-associated antigen (TAA) GA733-2 is expressed as a non-secreted surface molecule on the majority of human colorectal carcinoma cells. The antigen has been used as a target for passive and active immunotherapy during the last decade. To determine the incidence of autoantibodies against this antigen, sera from 1068 patients with colorectal carcinoma were analysed for naturally occurring IgG antibodies against the baculovirus-produced GA733-2E protein. A total of 14.5% of the patients had IgG antibodies against the antigen. In 519 patients, sera were collected at the time of diagnosis and 15% of those patients had anti-GA733-2E IgG antibodies. There was a tendency to a higher frequency of patients with antibodies among those in the advanced Dukes stages: 11% in stage A and 32% in stage D respectively (P = 0.06). Antibodies could be detected for up to 10 years after the diagnosis. Patients with Crohns disease or colitis ulcerosa (n = 20) did not elicit anti-GA733-2E antibodies. No healthy control donor (n = 45) had detectable antibodies against the antigen. The specificity of GA733-2E-reactive serum IgG was indicated by significant inhibition of mAb17-1A (originally used to define GA733-2) binding to the GA733-2E antigen. Sera of positive patients bound to the GA733-2-expressing human colorectal carcinoma cell line, SW948. No significant correlation was found between the presence of antibodies and survival in the present patient population. However, the high incidence of autoantibodies against this tumour antigen in colorectal carcinoma patients confirms its antigenicity in humans and supports the use of the GA733-2 antigen as a target for immunotherapy.