Suchergebnisse

This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of Big Science Centres on technological innovation. We exploit a unique dataset with information on CERN's procurement orders to study the collaborative innovation process between CERN and its industrial partners. After a qualitative discussion of case studies, survival and count data models are estimated; the impact of CERN procurement on suppliers' innovation is captured by the number of patent applications. The fact that firms in our sample received their first order over a long-time span (1995-2008) delivers a natural partition of industrial partners into "suppliers" and "not yet suppliers". This allows to estimate the impact of CERN on the hazard to file a patent for the first time and on the number of patent applications, as well as the time needed for these effects to show up. We find that a "CERN effect" does exist: being an industrial partner of CERN is associated with an increase in the hazard to file a patent for the first time and in the number of patent applications. These effects require a significant "gestation lag" in the range of five to eight years, pointing to a relatively slow process of absorption of new ideas.

We develop a new structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) model for analysis with mixed-frequency data. The MIDAS-SVAR model allows to identify structural dynamic links exploiting the information contained in variables sampled at different frequencies. It also provides a general framework to test homogeneous frequency-based representations versus mixed-frequency data models. A set of Monte Carlo experiments suggests that the test per-forms well both in terms of size and power. The MIDAS-SVAR is then used to study how monetary policy and financial uncertainty impact on the dynamics of gross capital inflows to the US. While no relation is found when using standard quarterly data, mixed frequency analysis exploiting the variability present in the series within the quarter shows that the effect of an interest rate shock is greater the longer the time lag between the month of the shock and the end of the quarter.

The security of energy supply is a key geopolitical factor in the relationship between the European Union and the southern neighborhood countries of the Middle East and North Africa region. We study the response of eight Mediterranean economies to exogenous oil supply shocks. We focus on the effects on economic activity - as measured by real Gross Value Added - for the whole economy, as well as for selected industries. We show that there are clear patterns characterizing the response of different economies to an unexpected reduction in global oil production. The main determinants of these patterns are the degree of energy intensity and energy dependence of the country, as well as the composition of its Gross Value Added.