Suchergebnisse

This book provides an elaboration upon the concept of knowledge from an economic viewpoint. However this is not a book on economics of knowledge, at least not in the conventional sense. Most of the existing books on the matter have focused on the treatment of knowledge in terms of properties of knowledge as an economic good, incentive schemes for the creation of knowledge, issues about the codified/tacit nature of knowledge and the like

This paper investigates whether ICTs hardware and services play a complementary role in boosting economic growth. The main argument is that investments in ICTs fixed capital are a necessary but not sufficient condition leading to productivity gains, above all in late adopter countries. Their effective implementation indeed requires on the one hand a changing economic structure characterized by a growing weight of service sectors, on the other hand complementary investments in ICTs services, directed to ease the integration of the new technologies within firms' boundaries. The analysis is conducted on a late-industrialized country like Italy, and shows that in lagging countries the weak impact of ICTs adoption is the result of three converging forces: relatively high share of manufacturing sectors, low adoption levels of ICTs in traditional manufacturing sectors, inadequate investments in ICTs services.

This paper investigates the diffusion of regional innovation capabilities within the manufacturing sector. The competence-based theory of the region allows for combining Schumpeter's view upon innovation and business cycles and the notion of round of growth elaborated by Perroux. Innovation capabilities spread within the region long after the expansion of the propulsive sector, due to contagion dynamics and learning by interacting. Adopting a methodology for the analysis of diffusion processes, the paper presents empirical evidence on Italian regions. The results support show that in late-industrialized regions the diffusion of innovation capabilities is faster than in the early-industrialized ones. The role of R&D and complementary changes in the economic structure is also investigated.