Multinational enterprises and the global economy

In this paper recent developments in the estimation of frontier functions and the measurement of efficiency are surveyed, and the potential applicability of these methods in agricultural economics is discussed. Frontier production, cost and profit functions are discussed, along with the construction of technical, allocative, scale and overall efficiency measures relative to these estimated frontiers. The two primary methods of frontier estimation, econometric and linear programming, are compared. A survey of recent applications of frontier methods in agriculture is also provided. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Recent Developments in Frontier Modelling and Efficiency Measurement

textabstractIn Dutch: Naar een Nieuwe Wereldeconomie: voorstellen voor een internationaal economisch beleid, Rotterdam University Press, Rotterdam, 1965, XV + 335 p.\nIn Spanish: Hacia Una Economia Mundial: sugerencias para una politica economica internacional, Series Biblioteca de Economia No.7, Orbis, Barcelona, 1985, 242 p.

Shaping the World Economy. Suggestions for an International Economic Policy. By Jan Tinbergen. New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1962. pp. xvii, 330. Index. 4.00, cloth.

Why do growth rates differ? This paper surveys the recent empirical literature on economic growth, starting with a discussion of stylized facts, data problems, and statistical methods. Six research questions are emphasized, drawing on growth and convergence research. In answering these questions, the paper argues that efficiency has grown at different rates across countries, casting doubt on neoclassical models in which technology is a public good. The latter half of the paper rounds up a variety of findings before providing answers to all six questions, including a short summary of how differences in growth rates arise.

The New Growth Evidence

http://www.irescampania.com/Pdf/POLECO1180.pdf

Organized crime, the quality of local institutions and FDI in Italy: A panel data analysis

A Review on Productivity, Technical Change and Economic Growth

During past decades, major improvements in productivity and development have been interpreted as a movement towards a knowledgebased economy. In today’s globalised markets new businesses and corporations have emerged, trying intensively to find new investment opportunities and new channels for their products. Significant changes have taken place and firms all over the world are described taking part in a race seeking the most appropriate and effective ways that could provide them with the strengths and opportunities necessary to obtain and sustain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Currently, output and employment are expanding fast in high-technology industries such as computers and electronics, as well as in knowledge-based services such as financial and other business services and more resources are spent on the production and ABSTRACT

Innovation Policy, Competitiveness, and Growth: Towards Convergence or Divergence?

During last decades, regional development and convergence of the countries and regions of the enlarged European Union has been one of the main objectives of the European development strategy, focusing on achieving regionally balanced development levels. On the other hand, there are major differences in level of prosperity, economic performance, output, productivity and employment, reflecting continuing structural weaknesses among and within countries. Development problems are more intense in lagging regions which lack the necessary endowments to compete with others, such as South-Eastern European countries, which suffer from structural weaknesses, bounding their competitiveness and preventing them from achieving sustainable economic growth. In order to deal with this situation, lagging countries and regions pursue policies to promote economic development, using a variety of means, including assistance for technology and innovation, help for restructuring industries facing difficulties, support for entrepreneurial activities and incentives to inward investment. * and Ioannis Psycharis

Foreign Direct Investment: Explaining the Regional Location Determinants in South-Eastern European Countries

Human capital accumulation, education and training skills, is one of the main determinants of individuals’ earning capacity and employment prospects and therefore plays an important role in determining the level and distribution of income in society. Many countries seek to ensure that all young people enter working life with a minimum amount of human capital acquired during the years of compulsory education (Wende van der 2003). However, governments are also heavily involved in the financing and delivery of post-compulsory education and training where returns may to a larger extent accrue to the individual and where participation is by choice. An important motivation for individuals to invest in education is that the acquired knowledge and skills tend to raise their productivity and hence earnings potential. Education appears to provide not only an initial earnings advantage but also a wage premium that increases with time spent in the labour market. The strategic objectives for the European systems of education and training were grouped in three big categories that concern:

https://galaxy.hua.gr/~ctsamad/files/research_series/A.New.Approach.pdf

A New Methodological Approach of Job Requirement Assessment

Globalization and competition has shifted the comparative advantage of economies towards the factor of knowledge and innovation, where productivity based on the endogenous development capabilities plays a rather important role, as far as growth and competitiveness enhancement are concerned. In order to promote innovation activities and technological opportunities, productivity enhancement seems to have significant effects on the long run performance of the economy. Within this framework, the enhancement and convergence of growth and productivity are a major topic in the economic and social policy agenda of E.U. members, since governments seek to concentrate on problems not only related to low employment growth, high unemployment, fiscal deficits and public debt, but also to national disparities and convergence attainment. This paper aims to review the main topics related to innovation activities, as well as competitiveness and economic convergence attainment. It also attempts to analyze, using a benchmarking approach, the effects of innovation activities, in order to clarify the related implications on regional convergence process.

Aikaterini Kokkinou

Papers

A Review on Productivity, Technical Change and Economic Growth

Innovation Policy, Competitiveness, and Growth: Towards Convergence or Divergence?

Foreign Direct Investment: Explaining the Regional Location Determinants in South-Eastern European Countries

A New Methodological Approach of Job Requirement Assessment

The role of innovation in competitiveness and convergence process: a benchmarking study for european regions