Suchergebnisse

In this article, the impact of diminishing levels of uncertainty on labour demand, as a consequence of conflict resolution processes, is tested by means of a case study of a European region largely affected by political violence. For this purpose, the response of Basque manufacturing employment during conflict resolution attempts is used as a natural experiment with which to evaluate the effect of reduced uncertainty on labour demand. Accordingly, using the difference-in-differences technique, which overcomes some of the shortcomings of previous studies, the relative performance of Basque labour demand during the last two attempts to bring peace to the region is quantified. The longest ceasefire episode ever declared in the region is shown to have triggered a reactivation in labour demand and, therefore, that Basque manufacturing firms responded positively to the reduction in uncertainty by significantly raising their average number of employees. More precisely, it is found that the average number of workers employed by Basque manufacturing firms increased considerably when credible peace talks directed towards the end of the conflict were undertaken. Thus, when compared with their counterparts in similar Spanish provinces, the truce declared in 1998 boosted employment demand in Basque companies by more than 4%, which reflects the economic dividend of peace to be reaped in the event of an eventual conflict resolution and the establishment of a peaceful environment in the region.

This article discusses the ideas creation model that was initially formulated by Paul Romer and later generalized and empirically applied by Charles Jones. In particular, we generalize Jones´ model to include catching up to a technological frontier, which improves the empirical results for European countries, and ensures convergence to the technological frontier in the steady state.

Purpose– The aim of this paper is to gain new insight on the determinants of economic growth. More precisely, it disentangles the contribution of an increase in the stock of ideas that exceeds the rate of growth in the steady state and the growth inherent to the steady state.Design/methodology/approach– Following Romer (1990) and Jones (2000, 2002) this paper uses an aggregate production function. The paper also models the evolution of the stock of ideas following the generalisation of Jones (1995). The analysis decomposes growth utilising the estimated parameters inherent to the ideas function.Findings– This article presents a growth accounting exercise that estimates total factor productivity for three Southern European economies. Systematic comparison of the countries illustrates the importance of innovation for economic growth. This exercise shows the main growth patterns over the last 50 years, and highlights the principal determinants by specifying an ideas function.Originality/value– This study yields recent timeframe for explaining per capita income variations within economies and observed differences across economies.

AbstractThis study sheds additional light on the product diversification‐performance relationship for firms in a country having recently attained an advanced economy status in our period of analysis. We assume there will be an inverted U‐shaped relationship and use a sample of small, medium, and large Spanish manufacturing firms between 1994 and 2008. Our findings provide solid support for this assumption, and are identical when the sample consists of small, medium, and large firms and of large firms alone. Our results also suggest that the larger the firm, the higher the optimal level of diversification. Panel data models are used to control for unobservable heterogeneity and potential endogeneity problems. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study explores both the individual impact of geographical diversification and its effect combined with product diversification on small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) performance. Unlike most prior studies, this study distinguishes between related and unrelated product diversification. The research setting is a sample of manufacturing SMEs (1994–2014). By using dynamic panel data models, the results provide statistical support for the existence of a horizontal S-shaped relationship between geographical diversification and performance. The findings also indicate that while related product diversification positively enhances the performance of those SMEs engaged in geographical diversification (albeit not indefinitely), unrelated product diversification may significantly impair it, especially for SMEs opting for low and high levels of international diversification. Our study reveals that product and international diversification strategies in the case of SMEs are complementary or substitutive strategies depending on the specific type of product diversification strategy and the level of geographical diversification adopted. JEL CLASSIFICATION: F23; L25; M16