Valentina Meliciani

The importance of technology-based intersectoral linkages for market share dynamics

The Importance of Technology-Based Intersectoral Linkages for Market Share Dynamics. — The paper introduces technology-based intersectoral linkages (or technological spillovers) in an empirical model of international market share dynamics. The Pavitt taxonomy is applied as a yardstick for interpreting the empirical results. Overall, the results appear to be broadly consistent with the criteria behind the taxonomy, on the relative importance of the different factors of competitiveness in the different sectors. In particular, unit labour costs appear to play the largest role in supplier-dominated industries, ‘own sector’ technological activity plays the largest role in science-based industries, upstream linkages in scale-intensive and downstream linkages in specialized-supplier types of industries.ZusammenfassungDie Bedeutung der technologiebestimmten intersektoralen Verflechtungen für die Dynamik internationaler Marktanteile. — Der Artikel führt technologiebestimmte intersektorale Verflechtungen in ein empirisches Modell zur ErklÄrung der Dynamik von Anteilsverschiebungen auf internationalen MÄrkten ein. Bei der Interpretation von empirischen Ergebnissen wird auf eine von Pavitt aufgestellte Klassifikation der Industriesektoren zurückgegriffen. Grö\tenteils entsprechen die Ergebnisse den Kriterien der Taxonomie, bei denen es um die relative Bedeutung verschiedener Faktoren für die WettbewerbsfÄhigkeit der einzelnen Sektoren geht. Lohnstückkosten sind sehr bedeutsam für Sektoren, in denen meist kleine Firmen von der Lieferung von Anlagen und Zwischenfabrikaten stark abhÄngen; die eigenen technologischen AktivitÄten spielen die grö\te Rolle in Sektoren, die vom wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt abhÄngen; die vorgelagerten Industrien sind bedeutsam für Sektoren mit Massenfertigung; die nachgelagerten Industrien sind wichtig für Sektoren mit kleinen Firmen, die sich auf die Fertigung von Anlagen und Kontrollinstrumenten spezialisiert haben.

The relationship between R&D, investment and patents: a panel data analysis

This paper estimates the effect of research and investment activities on patents across countries, industries and over time, using Poisson and negative binomial distribution models. The first result of the paper is the recognition of the importance of investment activities in contributing to technical change. The positive role of research expenditures is also confirmed but its elasticity is found to be lower than in previous studies. Important differences across sectors emerge: research expenditures are found to be more effective in generating patents in science based industries, while investment is particularly significant in supplier dominated and production intensive industries. Finally, in most sectors, the estimated R&D and investment coefficients lie outside the confidence intervals calculated around the pooled coefficients.

The determinants of investment in information and communication technologies

In this paper, we assess the determinants of information and communication technology (ICT) investment at the macro-level, for a panel of 10 advanced countries, in the period 1992–2005. We investigate the idea that, since ICTs are general purpose technologies, the decision to invest in these technologies is strongly affected by the general business environment in which the investment takes place. The empirical results are consistent with this idea: facilitating factors such as changes in market regulation, amount of human capital, expenditure on R&D, and the share of the dynamic services sector in the economy, positively influence investment in ICT.

Technology, trade and growth in OECD countries : does specialisation matter?

1. Introduction 2. The role of specialisation within different theoretical approaches to trade and growth 3. Stylised facts emerging from the empirical literature on technology, trade and growth 4. The relationship between the composition of national activities and country performance: a preliminary analysis 5. The impact of specialisation in areas of strong technological opportunity for economic growth 6. The impact of technology and income elasticities of demand on international competitiveness 7. Technological specialisation and national performance in a balance-of-payments-constrained growth model 8. The impact on increasing openness on the sensitivity of export shares to price and non-price competitiveness 9. Conclusions

The economic impact of digital technologies in Europe

This paper analyses the economic impact of digital technologies in Europe distinguishing between different stages/domains of the digitalization process. A set of composite Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) indicators is used for capturing the access to ICTs, the ability to use them and the digital empowerment of individuals in key social and economic domains. We argue that the mere accessibility to ICT facilities is only a pre-condition for moving towards a digitalized society, while the ‘level’ and the ‘quality’ in the use of these technologies, as well as the conditions facilitating or hampering digital empowerment, play a much more important role. Several transmission mechanisms from ICT access, usage and digital empowerment to key macro-economic variables (namely labour productivity, gross domestic product per capita, employment growth and the employment rate) are identified. The econometric evidence supports our hypotheses showing that the usage of ICT, and mostly digital empowerment, exert the major economic effects, especially on employment also favouring the inclusion of ‘disadvantaged’ groups in the labour market. We conclude that digitalization may drive productivity and employment growth and that inclusive policies may effectively contribute to bridge the gap between the most favoured and the disadvantaged parts of the population, thus helping in achieving the 2020 Europe targets.

Knowledge Dynamics, Structural Change and the Geography of Business Services

The paper provides a review of and presents some empirical evidence on the dynamics of knowledge, structural change and spatial concentration of economic activities, focusing on the case of business services (BS). It explores how the role of knowledge has evolved in relation to the dimensions of: (i) science, technology and structural change; (ii) the long‐term processes of tertiarization of the economy – in particular the growth of BS; (iii) the spatial concentration of BS as an outcome of the increasing volume and complexity of knowledge and the need to manage it through spatial proximity. Our arguments are supported by empirical evidence on the spatial concentration of BS in the European regions.

Do inter-sectoral flows of services matter for productivity growth? an input/output analysis of OECD countries

This article investigates the impact of technology-intensive services sectors on direct and indirect labour coefficients in a sample of OECD countries. We find that both domestic and imported services contribute to increase productivity. We also find that different service industries (transport, communication, financial, and business services) have a different impact on technological change in non-service sectors classified according to the Pavitt taxonomy.This article investigates the impact of technology-intensive services sectors on direct and indirect labour coefficients in a sample of OECD countries. We find that both domestic and imported services contribute to increase productivity. We also find that different service industries (transport, communication, financial, and business services) have a different impact on technological change in non-service sectors classified according to the Pavitt taxonomy.

Technological specialization and economic performance in oecd countries

The paper investigates the growing sectoral specialization in technological activities of OECD countries (measured using patent data) and its impact on countries innovative-and economic performance in the 1975-1990 period. Aggregate indicators of sectoral specialization are introduced, showing the extent to which countries concentrate their innovations in few fields, or spread them across several sectors. A general positive relationship us found between the degree of specializatin in technology and higher rates of growth, while specialization in electronics-related fields in not associated to better economic or technological performances.The position of individual countries in these patterns is also examined, showing that specialization has been an element of the catching-up process of the past decades, which has led to a growing economic convergence among OECD countries.

The Determinants of Inward Foreign Direct Investment in Business Services across European Regions

Castellani D., Meliciani V. and Mirra L. The determinants of inward foreign direct investment in business services across European regions, Regional Studies. The role of forward linkages with manufacturing sectors and other service sectors as attractors of business services foreign direct investment (FDI) is studied at the regional level. Using data on 146 NUTS-2 regions, it is found that regions specialized in those (manufacturing) sectors that are high potential users of business services attract more FDI in the business services than other regions. Results are robust to the inclusion of the traditional determinants of foreign investments at the regional level as well as to controls for spatial dependence. The results suggest that regional policies aimed at attracting foreign investors in the business service industry might prove ineffective in the absence of a pre-existing local intermediate demand.

International Competitiveness in Producer Services

This paper investigates the determinants of international competitiveness and specialisation in a group of producer service for a sample of OECD countries during the 1990s. We identified intermediate demand from the manufacturing sector as a strategic variable for international specialisation in producer services. Specialisation in manufacturing sectors that are large users of producer services contributes positively to the export of producer services. Spending in information and communication technologies (ICTs) has also a positive impact on the export of producer services. This supports those theories that emphasise the role of technology in trade performance.