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This paper sheds light on key innovation patterns and constraints within a selected set of developing East Asian countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam). It follows a comprehensive approach about national innovation systems while highlighting the supply and demand dimensions of innovation as well as the markets where firms make accumulation decisions for different forms of capital (knowledge capital, human capital. and physical capital). The paper presents a set of empirical exercises drawing from various data sets. The results corroborate the idea of the importance of adopting a broad view of innovation policy and investing in missing complementary factors. Although investment in research and development is key to boost innovation, it is also crucial to have business and regulatory environments that are conducive to overall firm performance and capital accumulation (not only knowledge capital), as they are expected to improve innovation returns. In addition, the results suggest that other innovation inputs aside from research and development matter for innovation activities, such as training for innovative activities, acquisition/licensing of technology, and managerial practices.

Microeconomic impacts of the mergers and acquisitions of energy industries in the World: an analysis for the 1990's. The energy industries have witnessed a significant growth of global mergers and acquisitions (M&A's) process in the 1990's. According to Unctad statistics, the total amount of global M&A deals (domestic and cross borders) on the electric, oil and gas sectors has recorded US$ 329 billions on the 1990-1999 period. The present paper sheds light on M&A process occurred on the energy industries during this period and, based on a sample of 248 transactions carried out by 18 big energy enterprises, develops an empirical microeconomic analysis about the impacts of these transactions over the performance of the firms involved. Overall, the results show significant improvements on the firms' performance after M&A operations, regarding the following variables: sales, net profits, assets, dividends, and, to a less extent, the ratio (net profits/sales). (Rev Econ Polit/GIGA)

En este artículo se analiza la naturaleza y extensión de las reformas en la industria brasileña tras 10 años de liberalización económica. Se demuestra que la mayoría de las características estructurales de dicha industria no ha sufrido modificaciones, excepto en la gestión de los procesos productivos y la propiedad del capital de las empresas, mientras que la racionalización y la internacionalización "hacia adentro" se han generalizado. Brasil puede llegar a enfrentar una situación paradójica respecto de su desarrollo futuro. La historia indica que el capital local y la capacidad en innovación han sido características destacadas en los países que han logrado alcanzar un desarrollo económico sostenido. (Rev CEPAL/DÜI)

This paper is the first one to show the effects of services regulations on downstream firms in the goods and services sectors in a multiple-country setting using firm-level data. The study selected a group of countries that are economically relatively services-oriented and show varying degrees of services regulations over time, namely the European Union. The paper employs four alternative firm-level measures of total factor productivity that have recently been developed in the economics literature and provide robust conclusions. Overall, the results suggest that regulatory barriers in services have diverse effects on downstream manufacturing performance, depending on the type of regulatory measure in question. The policy variables are split into pure entry barriers and those that relate to the anti-competitive policies on the operations of the firm, which the paper calls conduct regulations. The latter appear to play the most important role in explaining downstream performance across services and goods firms. Furthermore, the results show that regulations matter significantly more in the cases when a country is institutionally weak, an industry is considered as relatively close to the technology frontier, or a firm is foreign owned.

Between 2003 and 2008 productivity patterns diverged between the fast growing, newest members of the European Union and the slower paced, elder ones – as would be expected. However, there are also striking divergences within the latter group, with productivity in Southern Europe going into reverse. This paper analyzes which factors - whether countrylevel or firm-specific ones - contributed more to the emergence of a three-speed Europe. The analysis combines firm-level data with country-level inputs. Among the newest members of the European Union, country characteristics including the stock of inward foreign direct investment, the availability of credit, and the quality of the business environment and the skills of the workforce prove to be the most important drivers. Firm specific characteristics are shown to matter as well, notably that small firms and firms which are part of international groups realize more productivity gains than larger domestic competitors. Among the more advanced member countries, firm-level characteristics are most important, with larger firms and firms with international affiliation demonstrating faster productivity gains. Country specific factors, such as the quality of the business environment, the size of outward FDI and the skills of the workforce, do matter as well. These explanations of diverging productivity patterns suggest that European Union nations can realize significant benefits from low cost policy interventions such as improving business regulations and encouraging firms' internationalization.

This article analyzes ownership restructuring and changes in corporate control in four large Latin American countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico—during the 1990s. Drawing on original firm‐level data, this is a comparative study aimed at identifying cross‐country differences and regularities. It focuses on transactions associated with privatizations and private mergers and acquisitions (M&As)—their evolution, relative importance, and sectoral incidence—as well as the role played by different types of investors: local, foreign, and joint ventures. A specially built database was used in the analysis, comprising 3,085 private M&As and 329 privatization transactions. Although similar to processes occurring elsewhere, it is argued that ownership restructuring in Latin America was facilitated and fostered by specific changes in policy‐associated institutional framework conditions. That is, the wide‐ranging process of ownership restructuring is strongly associated with economic liberalization, which has become the main feature of Latin American national regimes of incentives and regulation.

Ferraz, João Carlos ; Hamaguchi, Nobuaki: Introduction. - S. 383-399. Cantwell, John ; Santangelo, Grazia D.: M and As and the global strategies of TNCs. - S. 400-434. Dymski, Gary A.: The global bank merger wave. Implications for developing countries. - S. 435-466. Paula, Germano Mendes De ; Ferraz, João Carlos ; Iootty, Mariana: Economic liberalization and changes in corporate control in Latin America. - S. 467-496. Rocha, Frederico ; Kupfer, David: Structural changes and specialization in Brazilian industry. The evolution of leading companies and the M and A process. - S. 497-521. Hamaguchi, Nobuaki: Will the market keep Brazil lit up? Ownership and market structural changes in the electric power sector. - S. 522-552. Yeh Tsung-ming ; Hoshino, Yasuo: The impact of M and As on shareholder wealth. Evidence from Taiwanese corporations. - S. 553-563. Sohn Chan-Hyun: Corporate debt resolution and the role of foreign capital in the post-crisis restructuring of the Republic of Korea. - S. 564-586