We present total factor productivity growth (TFPG) calculations for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, using a consistent methodology and data sets. We reassess the productivity growth experience of Korea and Taiwan, as compared to Japan and to previous work on Latin American countries. We conclude...

The Italian economy is often said to be on a declining path. In this paper, we document that: (i) Italy’s current decline is a labor productivity problem (ii) the labor productivity slowdown stems from declining productivity growth in all industries but utilities (with manufacturing...

The innovation value chain (IVC) divides the innovation process into three separate links or activities: knowledge gathering, knowledge transformation and knowledge exploitation. Here, we report a comparative panel data analysis of the IVC in Ireland and Switzerland. Both economies are small,...

One of the main characteristics of the technological capabilities of countries has always been their uneven distribution across the countries. This paper explores the dynamic of technological capabilities for a sample of 42 countries over the period 1995-2007 introducing some methodological...

This paper employs a new global panel data set on innovation related variables to examine patterns of R&D investment across the development process. We find that R&D effort measured as a share of GDP rises with development at an increasing rate, but that several countries have experienced...

Do legal institutions governing financial contracts affect the nature of real investments in the economy? We develop a simple model and provide evidence that the answer to this question is yes. We consider a levered firm's choice of investment between innovative and conservative technologies, on...

Despite the increasing global integration of economic activities, technological specialisations of national innovation systems and comparative strengths associated thereby only change slowly. Germany and Japan, whose innovation systems similarly feature an industry-based profile, own relatively...

We investigate the optimality of the actual degree of Intellectual Property Rights protection using a methodology derived from Patent Race Literature. We applied the methodology to Colombia, using the available two Innovation Surveys. Our result are consistent with an already optimal existing...

This paper supports the proposition that the indexes of technological achievement and of human development exhibit similar information validity and similar country rankings, thus questioning the need for the existence of two indexes rather than one.

We employ the concepts of socio-ecological regime and regime transition to better understand the biophysical causes and consequences of industrialization. For two case studies, the United Kingdom and Austria, we describe two steps in a major transition from an agrarian to an industrial...