Suchergebnisse

Subjective well-being (SWB) is becoming increasingly important as welfare concept in both scientific research and politics, as it comprises additional welfare aspects compared to the GDP per capita. Consequently, it becomes important to explicitly identify its driving forces and clarify still ambivalent findings of the literature. For this purpose, with a multilevel model we investigate the extent to which individual-level and national variables together influence subjective well-being. Moreover, we expect that life satisfaction of people in developing countries is determined differently than life satisfaction of people in industrialized countries. The database used includes both individual and national variables and is split into two subsamples of 40 industrialized countries and 41 developing countries. The results show that the national environment is highly important for a person's SWB. Thus, neglecting this national level would generate biased estimates. Moreover, the split into industrialized and developing countries shows that statistically significant and substantial differences in the effects on life satisfaction exist. Important differences are found for example regarding the income variables. We identify a saturation effect of income on the individual level, whose level is however different depending on the development status of the countries. Moreover, on the aggregated level a significant impact of GDP per capita is found for the developing but not for the industrialized countries. Thus, this study indicates that multilevel modelling approaches are necessary to obtain robust results and that the impact of macroeconomic variables diverges in dependence of the country's development status.

Social trust is increasingly seen as an important determinant of economic growth and social prosperity in regions and nations. Even in a comparatively homogeneous area such as Europe, there are stark sub-national differences in levels of generalized trust. It is thus of crucial importance to identify the driving forces of regional trust and analyze the dynamics of its formation. The present paper considers these issues based on three waves of the European Values Study. Evidence is provided to demonstrate that values of regional trust remain substantially stable over an approx. 20-year period and are modified only through spatially correlated random noise processes. This finding is consistent with additional analyses identifying slow-moving factors that are responsible for the spatial distribution of trust scores and are buried deep in the cultural background of a society. Hence, in spite of its economic significance, social trust does not appear to be amenable to political intervention in the short to medium term.

Theories that emphasise the role of proximity and tacit knowledge in innovation processes highlight the importance of social interaction and networking for the diffusion of knowledge. A concept that captures the impact of human relations on economic activity is Social Capital. Using factorial analysis with data from the European Values Study we demonstrate empirically the multi-dimensionality of Social Capital. The obtained independent dimensions serve as inputs in a knowledge production function estimated for a sample of European regions. One of our major results is that the impact of Social Capital on regional innovation processes is significant and comparable to the importance of Human Capital. However, not all dimensions of Social Capital exhibit the same explanatory power. The dimension "Associational Activity" represents the strongest driving force for patenting activity. Hence, empirical evidence for the significance of weak ties in innovative processes is given.

Several recent papers draw attention to a lack of rigorous research on public policies supporting women entrepreneurs' competitiveness. This paper evaluates the effect of small business development gender specific matching grants using a quasi-experimental approach. The grants have a positive effect on firm survival, as well as positive effects on obtaining bank loans, turnover, value added, employment, and total factor productivity. Heterogeneous treatment effects show that the grants increase the chance of young women entrepreneurs' firm survival and are even more effective for firms owned by mature women. Cost-benefit analysis estimates an increase in value added, which outweighs scheme-induced costs by 80% in the short-run and 170% in the long run. ; Nekoliko recentnih istraživanja skreće pozornost na nedostatak analiza utjecaja javnih politika koje potiču konkurentnost poduzeća u vlasništvu žena. Ovo istraživanje procjenjuje učinak javnog financiranja u obliku manjih bespovratnih potpora namijenjenih isključivo ženama poduzetnicama. Rezultati ukazuju na pozitivan utjecaj bespovratnih potpora na preživljavanje poduzeća, kao i pozitivne učinke na dobivanje bankovnih kredita te povećanje poslovnih prihoda, dodane vrijednosti, zaposlenosti i ukupne faktorske produktivnosti. Heterogeni učinci ukazuju na veću vjerojatnost preživljavanja poduzeća u vlasništvu mlađih žena, dok učinci na poduzeća u vlasništvu starijih žena poduzetnica ukazuju na ekonomski značajnije pozitivne efekte. Analiza troškova i koristi u kratkom roku procjenjuje 80% više stvorene dodane vrijednosti od troškova uzrokovanih potporom, dok se u dugom roku procjenjuje 170% više stvorene dodane vrijednosti od troškova uzrokovanih potporom.

In both academic literature and political discussions the concept of innovation is recognized as an essential ingredient in economic development and competitiveness for firms, regions, and nations. Innovation also ranks at the top of policy agendas in the field of regional policy. Therefore, the attractiveness of an appropriate innovation index for ranking regions and further developing them along a more or less objective measurement scale is evident. However, whether such rankings help convey a better understanding of innovation and its drivers, or whether they are merely a special type of 'beauty contest' with little substance is the focus of our analyses. To deny the latter, the innovation output indicators used for the composite index have to be appropriate representatives of the underlying innovation concept and each indicator has to be driven by the same impact factors. If this is not the case, interpretation of the index inevitably gives rise to partly inappropriate policy recommendations. In order to demonstrate this claim we elaborate a set of innovation indicators at the regional level based on the theoretical concept of the OECD document 'The Measurement of Scientific and Technological Activities, Proposed Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Technological Innovation Data' known as the 'Oslo Manual' (OECD, 2005) and their empirical implementation in the Community Innovation Survey. Additionally, innovation drivers well established in the literature are collected to estimate their impact on each innovation indicator as well as on the composite index derived from the innovation indicators. The question whether 2 innovation should be measured as a multidimensional concept and investigated using various indicators or whether simplifying innovation to a one-dimensional concept is appropriate is clearly answered in favour of the multidimensional approach. Surprisingly, this is not due to the multidimensionality of the indicators themselves (all statistical measures indicate that the considered variables are sufficiently represented by one component), but to our first evidence that the innovation output indicators are driven by various impact factors and can therefore be influenced by various political strategies. According to these findings any type of innovation ranking is of very limited use.