Richard I. D. Harris

Innovations and R & D in Northern Ireland Manufacturing: A Schumpeterian Approach

HARRIS R. and TRAINOR M. (1995) Innovations and R & D in Northern Ireland manufacturing: a Schumpeterian approach, Reg. Studies 29, 593–604. Given the importance of R & D and innovative outputs, and the change in regional policy in the 1980s to encourage an enterprise culture based inter alia on a high rate of innovations, this paper attempts to explain the determinants of inventive activities in one of the most disadvantaged regions of the United Kingdom. A model incorporating the impact of market structure is estimated and it is found that, in Northern Ireland, higher R & D spending leads to a higher probability of innovating, while R & D itself is positively affected by higher post-innovation price-cost margins. Thus, R & D spending and innovation outputs are beneficial to profitability and thus presumably the long-term growth of firms. However, while market structure is important, the direct effects of monopoly power are, if anything, negative. Thus, the results presented by GEROSKI, 1990, are support...

Small sample testing for cointegration using the bootstrap approach

Recently, a number of authors have proposed using the bootstrap procedure for small sample testing procedure for unit roots and cointegration, based on bootstrapping the augmented (multivariate) Dickey–Fuller test. The present paper considers bootstrapping the Johansen test for an (unknown) number of cointegration relationships. This in effect amounts to undertaking the same type of Monte Carlo work that generated the Johansen tables of critical values, but for the purposes of calculating critical values relevant to a particular data set (based on unknown d.g.p.s). However, our results suggest that the bootstrap test statistic has poor size properties.

Downsizing and productivity: The case of UK motor vehicle manufacturing 1974–1994

An empirical investigation of the downsizing-productivity relationship has emerged from the USA. This paper presents further evidence drawn from another countrys experience. Detailed commentary on key trends in the UK motor vehicle industry informs an analysis applying the Baily et al. lBaily, Bartelsman and Haltiwanger (1994) Downsizing and productivity growth: myth or reality? National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 4741; (1996a) Downsizing and productivity growth: myth or reality? In Sources of Productivity Growth (edited by D.G. Mayes), New York: Cambridge University Press; (1996b) Downsizing and productivity growth: myth or reality? Small Business Economics, 8 , 259-278r taxonomic model, yielding insights into the varieties of downsizing-productivity linkages therein. Evidence presented shows productivity growth was indeed higher in those plants that successfully downsized, but that those plants that were unsuccessful at downsizing tended to have among the worst productivity growth rates. Unsuccessful downsizers accounted for a significant part of the overall decline in productivity after 1989. Copyright

Productivity Growth in the UK Regions, 1968-91

This paper provides estimates of total factor productivity growth for the regions of the United Kingdom. It shows that the peripheral regions generally performed better than the national average in the 1980s. A model to explain total factor productivity growth found that much of this increase can be attributed to a general upskilling of a more flexible workforce, falling plant sizes, and a catch-up effect in the unionized sector. Copyright 1997 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

UK Regional Plant and Machinery Capital Stocks and Premature Scrapping

HARRIS R. I. D. (1997) UK regional plant and machinery capital stocks and premature scrapping, Reg. Studies 31, 737-750. Historically, a lack of capital stock data has severely limited the ability to carry out supply side analyses of the British regional economy. Hence, the present paper extends an earlier study to produce UK regional plant and machinery capital stocks for the 1968-91 period. In doing so, it is necessary to take account of premature scrapping, especially during the period after 1977. This was achieved using industry by region data on plant closures which provides a reasonable approximation that is much more reliable than when using figures obtained from interpolating the trend output-capital ratio. This paper also considers the importance of differing industrial structures on the composition and growth of regional manufacturing capital stock, together with why it is important to adjust capital stocks for utilization when estimating supply side relationships based on UK regional data. HARR...

Manufacturing Industries in the UK: Was There Convergence during the 1968-1992 Period?

This paper uses detailed industry level time-series data for the UK regions which suggests that convergence (at least in terms of output-per-employee) was not occurring during the period 1968-92. Based on testing for unit roots, it is found that in a majority of industries and regions growth was divergent, and consequently there is little empirical support for the neoclassical long-run catch up model. Copyright 1999 by Scottish Economic Society.

The long‐run determinants of wages in the New Zealand labour market, 1965–1991

Using the Johansen multivariate approach to modelling the long‐run model, a single stable cointegration vector was obtained covering the period 1965–1991. This is interpreted as the long‐run relationship determining wages, whereby increases in the capital‐to‐labour ratio and upward movement in the replacement ratio both increased the real product wage. Unemployment was found to be an important variable determining the long‐run wage, but since it enters the model in a log‐linear fashion it has a variable elasticity, such that for long periods when unemployment was low it had a relatively small impact in terms of reducing real wages. These results therefore suggest that real wage growth is determined by product market conditions through productivity and unemployment, although “supply‐side” disincentives are also important determinants of “wage‐push”. By extending the long‐run model to include short‐run dynamics, it is possible to estimate that when there are changes to the underlying equilibrium between rea...

Manual Wage Differentials, Collective Bargaining and Multi-locational Firms: An Analysis Using Northern Ireland NES Data

HARRIS R. (1994) Manual wage differentials, collective bargaining and multilocational firms: an analysis using Northern Ireland NES data, Reg. Studies 28, 483–493. A number of studies have appeared in the literature which consider the impact on the wage distribution of, for example: gender and ethnic differences; of union membership (or coverage by collective agreements); of firm size; of belonging to the private vis-a-vis public sector; of being self-employed as opposed to an employee). Another potentially important determinant of wages is whether the firm employing an individual is locally owned or whether it is part of a multiregional (or multinational) organization which operates branches in various locations. This paper sets out to investigate the size of this locational wage differential across all sectors for a region of the UK using a bivariate sample selectivity model where the choice of firm type (i.e. locally owned or externally owned) and union coverage are endogenous. The results confirm that...

Rates of Return on Plant and Machinery in the Regions of the UK, 1968‐1991

This paper provides an update of an earlier study undertaken by one of the authors and extends the analysis by modelling the determinants of rates of return, using an appropriate cointegration based approach. A second major extension was to test formally whether rates of return have been converging over time. The results from testing for convergence show that there is little evidence of catch-up, either because long-run convergence already existed during this period, or because there was divergence (away from the East Anglia/South East region). With regard to what determines rates of return, the peripheral regions were generally more responsive to changes in total factor productivity than were the southern regions. Similarly, capital deepening resulted in larger responses in the peripheral regions. In contrast, the impact of a change in labours share in value-added on rates of return had no obvious spatial pattern. Our results also indicated that the largest source of interregional differences in rates of return was regional differences in the underlying determinants, rather than differences in model elasticities per se. Of the changes in the underlying determinants, increases in capital deepening over the period were predominant. Copyright 2000 by Scottish Economic Society.