Suchergebnisse

My PhD thesis consists of three chapters in Empirical Industrial Organization. The first two chapters focus on the relationship between firrm performance and specific public policies. In particular, we analyze the cases of cooperative research and development (R&D) in the European Union and the regulation of public transports in France. The third chapter focuses on copyright protection in the digital era and analyzes the relationship between legal and illegal consumption of digital music. The first chapter, entitled European Cooperative R&D and Firm Performance, focuses on the impact of participation in research joint ventures as part of the European Union Framework Programmes on firms' economic performance. These programmes are the main financial tools used by the European Union to support cooperative R&D activities in the EU. Unlike previous empirical studies, this chapter suggests that their impact on firms' competitiveness is significant. We analyze industry-oriented research joint ventures supported by the Fifth European Framework Programme between 1998 and 2002. A key feature of this Programme is that funding is available to the firms based on social and economic concerns instead of pure performance criteria, which guarantees that financial support is not granted conditional on technological opportunities. This allows us to identify the causal effect of the programme on firms' performance using the funding available to the firms in their respective industries as a source of exogenous variation in the decision to participate in the programme. Our results suggest that participation in large research projects raises labor productivity by at least 35 percent and profit margin by up to 8 percentage points. The objective of the second chapter, entitled Knowledge Spillovers in Cost-Reduction Incentives, is to identify and measure the relevance of knowledge spillovers in the French urban transportation industry, where most regulated transportation networks are operated by firms that belong to the same company. We build and estimate a structural cost regulation model under incomplete information where the service is regulated by an authority and is provided by a single operator that may be owned by a larger company. We identify the knowledge spillovers which arise for some operators being linked to a same group, and see how they influence the firms' decisions of exerting effort in order to reduce their operating costs. Our model provides us with estimates of the operators' inefficiencies, the effort of the managers and the knowledge spillovers. Our results show that knowledge spillovers are indeed relevant for the existing industrial groups present in the French urban transport industry. Simulation exercises provide evidence of signifficant reductions in total operating cost following the enlargement of industrial groups and mergers between existing groups. In the third chapter, entitled Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data, we analyze the behavior of digital music consumers on the Internet. Using clickstream data on a panel of more than 16,000 European consumers, we estimate the effects of illegal downloading and legal streaming on the legal purchases of digital music. Our results suggest that Internet users do not view illegal downloading as a substitute to legal digital music. Although positive and signifficant, our estimated elasticities are essentially zero: a 10% increase in clicks on illegal downloading websites leads to a 0.2% increase in clicks on legal purchases websites. Online music streaming services are found to have a somewhat larger (but still small) effect on the purchases of digital sound recordings, suggesting complementarities between these two modes of music consumption. According to our results, a 10% increase in clicks on legal streaming websites lead to up to a 0.7% increase in clicks on legal digital purchases websites. We also find important cross country difference in these effects. ; Mi tesis doctoral consta de tres capí tulos en Organización Industrial Empírica. Los dos primeros capí tulos se centran en la relación entre el rendimiento de la empresa y determinadas políticas públicas. En particular, se analizan los casos de cooperación en Investigación y Desarrollo (I+D) en la Unión Europea y la regulación de transporte público en Francia. El tercer capítulo se centra en el derecho de autor (copyright) en la era digital y analiza la relación entre consumo legal e ilegal de mú sica digital. El primer capítulo, titulado European Cooperative R&D and Firm Performance, se centra en el impacto de los Programas Marco de la Unión Europea (European Union Framework Programmes) sobre los resultados económicos de las empresas participantes. Estos Programas tienen como objetivo fomentar la cooperación en I+D, subvencionando a empresas para que participen en proyectos de cooperación en I+D (Research Joint Ventures). A diferencia de estudios empí ricos previos, este capí tulo sugiere que su impacto sobre la competitividad de las empresas participantes es significante. Se analizan proyectos de cooperación en I+D orientados hacia la industria y financiados por el Quinto Programa Marco de la Unión Europea entre 1998 y 2002. Una característica clave de este programa es que los fondos de financiación disponibles para las empresas se basan en criterios sociales y económicos en lugar de criterios de rendimiento puro, lo que garantiza que la ayuda financiera no se otorga en función de oportunidades tecnológicas. Esto nos permite identificar el efecto causal del programa sobre los resultados de las empresas usando los fondos disponibles para las empresas en sus respectivas industrias como fuente de variación exógena en la decisión de participar en el programa. Nuestros resultados sugieren que la participación en grandes proyectos de investigación aumenta la productividad del trabajo en al menos un 35 por ciento y el margen de beneficio en hasta 8 puntos porcentuales. El objetivo del segundo capítulo, titulado Knowledge Spillovers in Cost-Reduction Incentives, es identificar y medir la relevancia de externalidades de conocimiento (knowledge spillovers) en la industria de transporte urbano francés, donde la mayoría de las redes de transporte reguladas son operadas por empresas que pertenecen a un mismo grupo empresarial. Se construye y se estima un modelo estructural de regulación bajo información incompleta, donde el servicio es regulado por una autoridad y es proporcionado por un único operador que puede pertenecer a una empresa mayor. Se identifican las externalidades de conocimiento que surgen del hecho que algunos operadores están vinculados a un mismo grupo empresarial, y se analiza cómo influyen al esfuerzo de las empresas para reducir sus costes operativo. El modelo nos proporciona estimaciones de las ineficiencias de los operadores, del esfuerzo de los directivos y de las externalidades de conocimiento. Los resultados muestran que las externalidades de conocimiento son relevantes para los grupos industriales presentes en el sector del transporte urbano francés. Ejercicios de simulación proporcionan evidencia de una reducción significativa en el coste operativo total tras ampliar los grupos industriales y tras fusiones entre los grupos existentes. En el tercer capítulo, titulado Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data, se analiza el comportamiento de los consumidores de música digital en Internet. Se hace uso de datos de visitas (clickstream) que permite seguir el comportamiento de más de 16.000 consumidores europeos en Internet y se estiman los efectos de las descargas ilegales y del streaming legal sobre las compras legales de música digital. Nuestros resultados sugieren que los usuarios de Internet no ven las descargas ilegales como un sustituto a la música digital legal. Aunque positivas y significativas, las elasticidades estimadas son esencialmente cero: un aumento del 10 % de los clics en los sitios web de descargas ilegales lleva a un incremento del 0,2% de los clics en sitios web de compra legal. Servicios de streaming de música en línea tienen un efecto algo mayor en las compras de música digital, lo que sugiere una complementariedad entre estos dos modos de consumo de música . De acuerdo con nuestros resultados, un aumento del 10 % de los clics en los sitios web de streaming legales conduce a un aumento de hasta el 0,7 % de los clics en sitios web de compra legal. También encontramos importantes diferencias entre pases en estos efectos. ; Presidente: Bruno Cassiman; Vocal: Georges Siotis; Secretaria: Matilde Pinto Machado

We attempt to identify and measure potential knowledge spillovers in the French urban transport sector, which is strongly regulated and where a few large corporations are in charge of operating several urban networks simultaneously. We build and estimate a structural cost model where the service is regulated by a local government and is provided by a single operator. Knowledge spillovers are directly linked to the know-how of a specific corporation, but they also depend on the incentive power of the regulatory contract which shapes the effort of the local managers. Exerting an effort in a specific network allows a cost reduction in this network, but it also benefit other networks that are members of the same corporation. Our model provides us with estimates of the operators' absorptive capacity, which is their in-house knowledge power in order to optimally benefit from spillovers. We find that diversity of knowledge across operators of a same corporation improves absorptive capacity and increases the flow of spillovers. Simulation exercises provide evidence of significant reductions in total operating cost following the enlargement of industrial groups.

We attempt to identify and measure potential knowledge spillovers in the French urban transport sector, which is strongly regulated and where a few large corporations are in charge of operating several urban networks simultaneously. We build and estimate a structural cost model where the service is regulated by a local government and is provided by a single operator. Knowledge spillovers are directly linked to the know-how of a specific corporation, but they also depend on the incentive power of the regulatory contract which shapes the effort of the local managers. Exerting an effort in a specific network allows a cost reduction in this network, but it also benefit other networks that are members of the same corporation. Our model provides us with estimates of the operators' absorptive capacity, which is their in-house knowledge power in order to optimally benefit from spillovers. We find that diversity of knowledge across operators of a same corporation improves absorptive capacity and increases the flow of spillovers. Simulation exercises provide evidence of significant reductions in total operating cost following the enlargement of industrial groups.

We attempt to identify and measure potential knowledge spillovers in the French urban transport sector, which is strongly regulated and where a few large corporations are in charge of operating several urban networks simultaneously. We build and estimate a structural cost model where the service is regulated by a local government and is provided by a single operator. Knowledge spillovers are directly linked to the know-how of a specific corporation, but they also depend on the incentive power of the regulatory contract which shapes the effort of the local managers. Exerting an effort in a specific network allows a cost reduction in this network, but it also benefit other networks that are members of the same corporation. Our model provides us with estimates of the operators' absorptive capacity, which is their in-house knowledge power in order to optimally benefit from spillovers. We find that diversity of knowledge across operators of a same corporation improves absorptive capacity and increases the flow of spillovers. Simulation exercises provide evidence of significant reductions in total operating cost following the enlargement of industrial groups.

We attempt to identify and measure potential knowledge spillovers in the French urban transport sector, which is strongly regulated and where a few large corporations are in charge of operating several urban networks simultaneously. We build and estimate a structural cost model where the service is regulated by a local government and is provided by a single operator. Knowledge spillovers are directly linked to the know-how of a specific corporation, but they also depend on the incentive power of the regulatory contract which shapes the effort of the local managers. Exerting an effort in a specific network allows a cost reduction in this network, but it also benefit other networks that are members of the same corporation. Our model provides us with estimates of the operators' absorptive capacity, which is their in-house knowledge power in order to optimally benefit from spillovers. We find that diversity of knowledge across operators of a same corporation improves absorptive capacity and increases the flow of spillovers. Simulation exercises provide evidence of significant reductions in total operating cost following the enlargement of industrial groups.

We attempt to identify and measure potential knowledge spillovers in the French urban transport sector, which is strongly regulated and where a few large corporations are in charge of operating several urban networks simultaneously. We build and estimate a structural cost model where the service is regulated by a local government and is provided by a single operator. Knowledge spillovers are directly linked to the know-how of a specific corporation, but they also depend on the incentive power of the regulatory contract which shapes the effort of the local managers. Exerting an effort in a specific network allows a cost reduction in this network, but it also benefit other networks that are members of the same corporation. Our model provides us with estimates of the operators' absorptive capacity, which is their in-house knowledge power in order to optimally benefit from spillovers. We find that diversity of knowledge across operators of a same corporation improves absorptive capacity and increases the flow of spillovers. Simulation exercises provide evidence of significant reductions in total operating cost following the enlargement of industrial groups.