the role of price and nonprice factors in predicting australia s trade performance this article investigates the role of price and nonprice factors in predicting australia s trade performance results broadly suggest that australia s trade performance is largely explained by the

the role of energy in productivity growth the objective of this paper is to analyze the role of energy in the growth of productivity the special significance of energy in economic growth was first established in the classic study energy and the american economy 1850 1975 by sam schurr and his associates 1960 at resources for the future for the period from 1920 to 1955 schurr noted that energy intensity of production had fallen while both labor and total factor productivity were rising the simultaneous decline in energy intensity and labor intensity of production ruled out the possibility of explaining the growth of productivity solely on the basis of substitution of less expensive energy for more expensive labor since the quantity of both energy and labor inputs required for a given level of output had been reduced technical change is also a critical explanatory factor an alternative explanation for growth of output with declining energy and labor intensity required an examination of the character of technical change this examination was motivated by the fact that from 1920 to 1955 the utilization of electricity had expanded by a factor of more than ten while consumption of all other forms of energy only doubled the two key features of technical change during this period were that the thermal efficiency of conversion of fuels into electricity increased by a factor of three and that the unusual characteristics of electricity had made it possible to perform tasks in altogether different ways than if the fuels had to be used directly schurr 1983 p 3 schurr 1982 has recently extended the analysis of energy and the american economy through 1981 for the period through 1969 his conclusions are as follows although the inverse relationship between total factor productivity and energy intensity virtually disappeared during the 1953 1969 period it is still noteworthy that high rates of improvement in total factor productivity were essentially not associated with increases in energy intensity 1982 p 6 schurr 1982 has analyzed the experience of the u s economy in the aftermath of the oil embargo of 1973 he points out that energy intensity of production has fallen steadily since 1973 and that the rate of decline accelerated sharply after the second oil price shock in 1979 following the iranian revolution he goes on to point out that

exports foreign market structure and profitability in japanese and u s manufacturing this paper examines the influence of price d ecisions by foreign firms on export price decisions by domestic firms the theor etical analysis develops a general model which hypothesizes a positive relation between export price and foreign price assuming international product differenti ation this model further suggests that export price depends on foreign structur al traits as they determine foreign price the empirical analysis based on a cr oss section of sixty nine four digit manufacturing industries matched between th e united states and japan provided support for the hypothesis that foreign mark et structure and foreign pricing affect export pricing and thus the observed pri ce cost margin copyright 1986 by mit press

energy consumption and gdp in developing countries a cointegrated panel analysis in this paper we re investigate the co movement and the causality relationship between energy consumption and gdp in 18 developing countries using data for the period 1975 to 2001 recently developed tests for the panel unit root heterogeneous panel cointegration and panel based error correction models are employed the empirical results provide clear support of a long run cointegration relationship after allowing for the heterogeneous country effect the long run relationship is estimated using a full modified ols the evidence shows that long run and short run causalities run from energy consumption to gdp but not vice versa this result indicates that energy conservation may harm economic growth in developing countries regardless of being transitory or permanent

factor inputs and japanese manufacturing trade structure the japanese international trade structure in manufactured goods has been analyzed using cross section regression analysis in which labor capital human capital and energy are regressed on japanese net exports exports and imports with the world oecd and developing countries for 1967 and 1975 skill and wage differential measures have been utilized for the measuring of human capital contrary to the dualism found in earlier studies the estimated results show that in 1967 japan exported unskilled labor intensive goods with respect to the developing countries as well as the oecd countries in 1975 japan exported capital intensive goods to all regions and imported unskilled labor intensive goods from the world and the developing countries skilled labor intensive goods were imported from the oecd countries in both years drastic changes between 1967 and 1975 are noted japanese exports shifted from unskilled labor intensive goods to capital intensive goods while imports did the opposite this result conforms to the changes in unskilled labor and capital usage in japan and her major trading partners

interactions between monetary and fiscal policy rules the fiscal stability pact for emu implies that constraints on fiscal policy facilitate inflation control in this paper we identify two stable policy regimes when monetary policy seeks to raise real interest rates in response to excess inflation a self stabilising fiscal policy is required to ensure model stability a fiscal policy which does not by itself ensure fiscal solvency constrains monetary policy to be relatively passive however in simulations we conclude that the central bank does not need to seek on this account the degree of debt stabilisation that appears to be implied by the fiscal stability pact

taxes tariffs and transfer pricing in multinational corporate decision making three interrelated aspects of u s multinational corporation activity are analyzed here the ability to shift profits from high tax countries to low tax countries the impact of host country taxes and tariffs on the distribution of real capital and the influence of these policies on international trade patterns of the united states and host countries the cross sectional empirical analysis indicates that the observed pattern of reported profits in high and low tax countries is consistent with income shifting behavior and that real investment responds to host country effective tax rates and tariffs the united states appears both to import more from and export more to low tax countries where mnc investment is greater but this bilateral focus must be amplified to consider multilateral effects if trade benefits are to be projected copyright 1991 by mit press

energy consumption and gdp causality relationship in g 7 countries and emerging markets abstract the causality relationship between energy consumption and income is a well studied topic in energy economics this paper studies the time series properties of energy consumption and gdp and reexamines the causality relationship between the two series in the top 10 emerging markets excluding china due to lack of data and g 7 countries we discover bi directional causality in argentina causality running from gdp to energy consumption in italy and korea and from energy consumption to gdp in turkey france germany and japan hence energy conservation may harm economic growth in the last four countries

the internationalization of production by italian industrial districts firms structural and behavioural determinants mariotti s mutinelli m and piscitello l the internationalization of production by italian industrial districts firms structural and behavioural determinants regional studies the paper argues that structural and behavioural determinants combine to influence internationalization of production through foreign direct investment fdi by industrial districts firms as far as the former leadership effects represented by the presence of large firms within the district and porterian effects denoted by the intensity of domestic rivalry positively influence the likelihood that district firms will start internationalize through fdi moreover spillovers induced by the presence of foreign owned multinational corporations positively impact on the district s degree of internationalization provided it has already autonomously developed the ability to grow internationally as far as behavioural features previous export relationships increase the district firms likelihood of undertaking fdi while innovat

the cyclical conduct of irish fiscal policy this paper provides an overview of the cyclical conduct of fiscal policy in ireland both before and during the crisis it shows that fiscal policy has been procyclical with financial shocks amplifying the fiscal cycle in addition it highlights the importance of institutional reform and outlines the case for a formal fiscal framework

causal relationship between energy consumption and gdp revisited the case of korea 1970 1999 abstract causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth is investigated applying a multivariate model of capital labor energy and gdp usual btu energy aggregate is substituted with a divisia aggregate in an attempt to mitigate aggregation bias to test for granger causality in the presence of cointegration among the variables we employ a vector error correction model rather than a vector autoregressive model empirical results for korea over the period 1970 1999 suggest a long run bidirectional causal relationship between energy and gdp and short run unidirectional causality running from energy to gdp the source of causation in the long run is found to be the error correction terms in both directions

advertising competition and market share instability this paper tests the hypothesis that advertising reduces leading firm market share instability a proxy for interfirm rivalry by creating market power if advertising increases product differentiation and brand loyalty then it also reduces demand cross elasticities and stabilizes shares changes over time in the combined market shares of the top four firms are examined for a large sample of four digit standard industrial classification manufacturing indust ries for 1963 82 multiple regression equations are used to explain s hare instability measured as deviations both about the simple mean a nd about a linear time trend the results indicate that advertising d oes not reduce market share instability copyright 1987 by the university of chicago

determinants of cross national knowledge transfer and its effect on firm innovation this study examines the determinants of international knowledge flow from a resource based perspective it evaluates the impact of cross national knowledge transfer on firm innovative performance based on 56 027 us patents owned by 53 selected firms in the us based pharmaceutical industry the results suggest that innovative performance is a curvilinear function of the international knowledge content used by a firm to innovate as hypothesized it was found that at 1 low and moderate levels of international knowledge content a firm s strategy to transfer international knowledge improves its innovative performance and at 2 higher levels of international knowledge content there are diminishing marginal returns to transferring knowledge from overseas

the voracity effect abstract we analyze an economy that lacks a strong legal political institutional infrastructure and is populated by multiple powerful groups powerful groups dynamically interact via a fiscal process that effectively allows open access to the aggregate capital stock in equilibrium this leads to slow economic growth and a voracity effect by which a shock such as a terms of trade windfall perversely generates a more than proportionate increase in fiscal redistribution and reduces growth we also show that a dilution in the concentration of power leads to faster growth and a less procyclical response to shocks jel f43 o10 o23 o40

advertising competition and market share instability advertising can promote market power by differentiating products by establishing brand loyalty among consumers and by raising the costs of entry on the other hand advertising can be a source of valuable information to consumers that leads to an erosion in the market shares of individual sellers the empirical relationship between advertising and market share instability across industries sheds light on the competitive implications of advertising and promotional activities prior tests of this relationship rely on market share observations from the census of manufactures that are reported only every five years the present study by contrast employs a data set consisting of annual market share observations for 163 four digit manufacturing industries over the period 1978 88 the empirical results show a positive and statistically significant ceteris paribus relationship between advertising intensity and market share instability thereby lending support to the hypothesis that advertising is generally pr

foreign competition domestic knowledge base and innovation activities evidence from chinese high tech industries using panel data analysis for a sample of chinese high technology industries from 1998 to 2008 this study examines how industry characteristics affect industry innovation activities differing from existing studies our research considers the impact of foreign competition on innovation activities at industry level in a large emerging economy the results indicate that the intensity of competition from foreign invested enterprises fies and domestic skill intensity affect industry buy and make activities foreign competition is positively associated with the intensity of buy activity but negatively affects the intensity of make activity further the findings show that domestic skill intensity weakens the impact of foreign competitive pressure on innovation activities our empirical evidence has important policy implications

international trade performance and concentration in british industry this paper reports the results of a cross sectional analysis for 97 industries at the minimum list heading level of their international trading performance 1970 77 and the influence of industrial structure on this it is shown that on average import penetration increased faster than the export ratio for the industries analysed investigation of the relationship between industrial concentration and international trade suggest that in the majority of the analyses especially where the relation between prior concentration change and subsequent with a performance was concerned higher or increasing levels of concentration were associated with a weaker international trade performance on the basis of this it is argued that more attention needs to be paid to international trade as a performance rather than merely a structural phenomenon in industry the reasons for the relatively disappointing performance need to be investigated in more detail the risk of a decline in internaional trade performance needs to

fiscal policy when monetary policy is tied to the mast the paper analyses the time inconsistency problem of both exchange rate and fiscal policy in a small open economy the equilibrium under discretion is characterised by inflation and a deficit comm

changes in concentration turbulence and the dynamics of market shares most previous studies of the dynamics of industry structure by emphasizing changes in concentration conceal much of the nature of underlying competitive processes here we employ a stochastic fir

why a stubborn conservative would run a deficit policy with time inconsistent preferences a conservative government in favor of a low level of public consumption knows that it will be replaced by a government in favor of a larger level of public consumption we show that the resulting level of public consumption is in between the levels the two governments would choose if each were in power both in the present and in the future in particular we show that if the conservative government is more stubborn in a particular sense than the succeeding government the conservative government will borrow more than it would had it remained in power in the future

what should fiscal councils do fiscal watchdogs so called fiscal councils have been proposed as a method to counter deficit bias of fiscal policy the paper analyses theoretically what role fiscal councils could play and surve

causal relationship between energy consumption and gdp growth revisited a dynamic panel data approach abstract this paper uses the panel data of energy consumption and gdp for 82 countries from 1972 to 2002 based on the income levels defined by the world bank the data are divided into four categories low income group lower middle income group upper middle income group and high income group we employ the gmm sys approach for the estimation of the panel var model in each of the four groups afterwards the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth is tested and ascertained we discover a in the low income group there exists no causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth b in the middle income groups lower and upper middle income groups economic growth leads energy consumption positively c in the high income group countries economic growth leads energy consumption negatively after further in depth analysis of energy related data the results indicate that in the high income group there is a great environmental improvement as a result of more efficient energy use and reduction in the release of co2 however in the upper middle income group countries after the energy crisis the energy efficiency declines and the release of co2 rises since there is no evidence indicating that energy consumption leads economic growth in any of the four income groups a stronger energy conservation policy should be pursued in all countries

can budget institutions counteract political indiscipline the budget is an expression of political rather than economic priorities we confirm this proposition for a group of new and potential members of the european union finding that politics dominates the contemporary practice of democracy can increase budget deficits through not only ideological preferences but also more fragmented government coalitions and higher voter participation long term structural forces triggered by societal divisions and representative electoral rules have more ambiguous implications but also appear to increase budget pressures as others have also found however our most robust and hopeful finding is that budget institutions mechanisms and rules of the budget process that create checks and balances have significant value in curbing fiscal pressures even when the politics is representative but undisciplined and when long term structural forces are unfavourable stefania fabrizio and ashoka mody

import share under international oligopoly with differentiated products japanese imports in u s manufacturing this paper seeks to identify the determinants of the japanese impor t share in the u s market from the assumptions of international oligopoly and internationally differentiated products a theoretical model is developed where import share is considered as a cournot nash equilibrium the relative position of the reaction functions is determined by the previous commitments of both domestic and foreign firms on advertising r d and tangible investment as well as by artificial and natural trade barriers using a sample of twenty four three digit import competing u s industries matched to japanese industries the empirical analysis provides evidence supporting the model s predictions that the relative strategic expenditures and market structures of both partners explain the japanese import share in u s markets copyright 1988 by mit press

r d capital rate of return on r d investment and spillover of r d in japanese manufacturing industries the effect of r 50d on productivity growth in japanese manufacturing industries is examined using more accurate firm r 50d expenditure data than widely used data based on financial statements series of r 50d capital are constructed then rate of return on r 50d investment is estimated in addition the impact of other industries r 50d on the productivity growth of an industry is also estimated an attempt is made to determine the effect of electronics technology upon the productivity growth of other industries through the transaction of the intermediate electronics goods with improved quality and through the diffusion of the new technological knowledge discovered japanese technology trade 1977 1981 copyright 1989 by mit press

the cyclical behaviour of fiscal policy evidence from the oecd this paper addresses the topic of cyclicality in scal policy in particular we show that the level of cyclicality varies across spending categories and across oecd countries in line with leading theories of scal cyclicality we show that countries with volatile output and dispersed political power are the most likely to run procyclical scal policies wage government consumption is highlighted as the most important channel by which these variables affect scal cyclicality

lead markets country specific drivers of the global diffusion of innovations abstract globally successful innovations have commonly been preferred first in one country or region before being adopted internationally countries that first adopt an internally successful innovation can be described as lead markets this paper presents the lead market concept of developing global innovations the lead role of a market is discussed first theoretically and then by use of a system of five country specific factors demand advantages price advantages export advantages transfer advantages and market structure advantages the applicability of this system of lead market factors is then evaluated in a detailed case study of the cellular mobile telephone industry it is finally suggested that companies can harness lead markets for the development of global innovations by developing and refining innovations in close interaction with the local environment of a lead market a company can focus on a narrow range of preferences and feedback lowering the risk of being locked into idiosyncratic environments and generate true global innovations a method for identifying potential lead markets is briefly discussed

a dynamic equilibrium of electricity consumption and gdp in hong kong an empirical investigation abstract public debates on electricity policy in hong kong focus on the regulation regime but seldom discuss the macroeconomic impact in this paper we use the novel dataset on electricity consumption and report the following findings 1 there is a long run equilibrium relationship between real gdp and electricity consumption 2 a one way causal effect exists from electricity consumption to real gdp 3 a significant adjustment process occurs when equilibrium is interrupted 4 there exists possible structural change in the relationship between electricity consumption and economic activities in 1990s

competing at home to win abroad evidence from japanese industry the study explores the influence of domestic competition on international trade performance using data from a broad sample of japanese industries domestic rivalry is measured directly using market share instability rather than employing structural variables such as seller concentration we find robust evidence that domestic rivalry has a positive and significant relationship with trade performance measured by world export share particularly when r d intensity reveals opportunities for dynamic improvement and innovation conversely trade protection reduces export performance these findings support the view that local competition not monopoly collusion or a sheltered home market pressures dynamic improvement that leads to international competitiveness

spatial spillover effects in determining china s regional co 2 emissions growth 2007 2010 abstract this study proposes an alternative input output based spatial structural decomposition analysis to elucidate the importance of domestic regional heterogeneity and inter regional spillover effects in determining china s regional co 2 emissions growth our empirical results based on the 2007 and 2010 chinese inter regional input output tables show that changes in most regions final demand scale final expenditure structure and export scale have positive spatial spillover effects on other regions co 2 emissions growth changes in most regions consumption and export preference help reduce other regions co 2 emissions changes in production technology and investment preferences may exert positive or negative effects on other region s co 2 emissions growth through domestic supply chains for some regions the aggregate spillover effect from other regions may be larger than the intra regional effect in determining regional emissions growth all these facts can significantly help provide a better deeper understanding of the driving forces behind the growth of regional co 2 emissions and can thus enrich the policy implications concerning a narrow definition of carbon leakage through domestic inter regional trade as well as a relevant political consensus about responsibility sharing between developed and developing regions inside china

testing the transport energy environmental kuznets curve hypothesis in the eu27 countries abstract transport activities are essential for economic and social development nevertheless the transport sector has also shown the fastest growth in energy consumption in the european union and its contribution to increasing greenhouse gas emissions merits the thorough attention of academics and policy makers in this paper we analyze the relationship of economic growth and transport activities with transport final energy consumption energy kuznets curves are estimated for a panel data set covering the eu27 countries in the period 1995 2009 for total transport energy use household transport energy use and productive transport energy use all three in absolute and per capita energy use terms the productive transport energy use and gross value added relationship are further considered as per hour worked finally the control variables of energy prices and differences in the economic structures are tested empirical results show that the elasticity of transport energy use with respect to gross value added in per capita terms decreases from a threshold for the three transport energy consumption variables but the turning point of improved environmental quality is not reached in any instance

energy consumption and economic growth the experience of african countries revisited abstract the aim of this paper is to re examine the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth for seventeen african countries in a multivariate framework by including labor and capital as additional variables we apply the variance decomposition analysis due to pesaran and shin pesaran m h and shin y generalised impulse response analysis in linear multivariate models economics letters 1998 58 17 29 to evaluate how important is the causal impact of energy consumption on economic growth relative to labor and capital the results of our multivariate modified granger causality analysis due to toda and yamamoto toda h y and yamamoto t statistical inference in vector autoregressions with possibly integrated process journal of econometrics 1995 66 225 250 tend to reject the neutrality hypothesis for the energy income relationship in fifteen out of the seventeen countries in contrast results of our variance decomposition analyses show that in eleven out of the seventeen countries energy is no more than a contributing factor to output growth and not an important one when compared to capital and labor labor and capital are the most important factors in output growth in fifteen out of the seventeen countries however these results should be interpreted with care as they may not be sufficiently robust enough to support the inference that energy consumption plays a minor role in the economic growth of african countries

r d rivalry industrial policy and u s japanese trade the authors examine how the strategic aspect of japanese research and development expenditures and industrial policies affected u s japanese bilateral trade during the late 1970s and investigate which component of r d expenditures on process innovation product quality improvements new products and new technology or technology transfer proved to be most effective they find that while japanese r d expenditures have generally promoted japan s trade advantage certain components of r d have proved more effective than other the depreciation subsidy and special status with the ministry of international trade and industry is positively related to the japanese trade performance while legal cartelization status has not had any apparent effect copyright 1988 by mit press

competitiveness in a globalised world michael porter on the microeconomic foundations of the competitiveness of nations regions and firms in this paper we provide the text of an interview with professor michael porter discussing his research and ideas relating to the microeconomic foundations of global competitiveness the discussion provides a microeconomic perspective on some of the key issues relating to recent research on competitiveness productivity clusters us economic leadership economic growth and development

the persistence of market leadership evidence from japan this article explores the persistence of market leadership in japanese manufacturing industries over the period 1975 2004 by applying survival data techniques we examine how long market leadership persists and how the duration of market leadership varies according to industry specific characteristics our findings indicate that market leaders maintain their leadership positions for on average 20 years from 1975 in japanese manufacturing industries we provide evidence that market leadership tends to persist in capital intensive and legally cartelized industries whereas it is less likely to persist in demand volatile r d intensive and import intensive industries copyright 2009 the author 2009 published by oxford university press on behalf of associazione icc all rights reserved oxford university press

budgetary risks from real estate and stock markets fiscal revenues and government expenditures are affected by asset price changes in ways that are not accounted for by standard cyclical adjustment methods revenues are influenced by capital gains and turnover taxation as well as by output changes determined by the effect of wealth changes on consumption and investment and outlays may also be affected if collapsing asset prices prompt fiscal authorities to bail out private sector balance sheet problems we point out that these effects can be asymmetric resulting in deficit and debt biases and we find support for this phenomenon in panel estimates for a sample of 20 industrialized countries over 1982 2002 the estimated coefficients indicate that 30 40 of the dramatic early 1990s fiscal balance deteriorations in the uk and sweden was due to asset price effects with a particularly relevant role for real estate price changes if financial markets experience boom bust cycles prudent management of fiscal windfalls in boom phases is needed to ensure fiscal and financial sustainability in bust phases and budgetary rules may need to account explicitly for a separate role of asset price related effects felix eschenbach and ludger schuknecht

comparing energy use structures an input output decomposition analysis of large economies abstract in this paper we aim to assess how the changes in aspects of demand impact the use of energy in the developing economies of brazil china and india and the developed economies of germany the united kingdom and the united states to achieve this objective we use input output matrices for the years 1995 and 2005 by applying a structural decomposition analysis we find the following brazil is the only country where technology has a positive impact on energy germany and the united kingdom decrease their use of energy over the sample period china and the united kingdom are the only countries where the use of renewable inputs decreases and in brazil china and the united states the use of coal increases when we change the focus of our analysis from aggregated to disaggregated results these countries can be lined up differently in terms of development in relation to their wealth and energy use

energy consumption and projected growth in selected caribbean countries this paper examines two issues that are central to the understanding of the need to increase efficiency in the use distribution and production of energy in the caribbean region the empirical results of this paper suggest the following first the three caribbean countries provide evidence of short run bi directional granger causality from energy consumption to real gross domestic product per capita second the forecasts with a bvar model indicate that significant growth in energy demand could be expected in haiti jamaica and trinidad and tobago until at least 2010 third the increased growth in energy consumption suggests the need for long term commitments from caribbean countries to undertake a series of policy economic market and research and development measures to advance the adoption and deployment of new energy technologies

further evidence on competition in the us grain export trade this study analyzes the relationship between export market structure and the pricing behavior of u s grain exporting firms a generalized cournot model is estimated by two stage least squares using pooled data sets for u s wheat and corn exports the cross sectional units correspond to foreign country destinations discriminatory export pricing behavior was found to be significantly related to export seller concentration u s market share total export volume and import market size yet the estimated coefficients linking these market structure variables to the export price markup were relatively small in magnitude suggesting little quantitative impact from market power copyright 1994 by blackwell publishing ltd

competition in japan japan registered a remarkable 6 5 percent rate of economic growth from 1955 to 1990 catching up with high income western countries in its level of economic development during the 1950s 1960s 1970s and into the 1980s japan s share of world exports rose dramatically from 2 9 percent in 1960 to 6 1 percent in 1970 8 2 percent in 1980 and a peak of 9 8 percent in 1985 porter takeuchi and sakakibara 2000 japanese firms were increasingly successful internationally in large visible industries such as automobiles semiconductors and consumer electronics the striking economic success of japan was widely attributed to a set of economic institutions and policies that encouraged collaboration and limited competition the japanese case then called into question many of the bedrock assumptions of competition thinking it seemed to show that there was a different path to economic prosperity this article begins by examining competition in japan and the supporting policies and institutions during the twentieth century many factors seem to suggest that competition in japan has been less intense but there is an awkward complication the empirical evidence about the intensity of competition in japanese industry does not support the conclusion the story clearly is more complicated we seek to reconcile the apparent differences between policy and institutional circumstances and the empirical evidence by examining the types of competition that prevail across japanese industries and the underlying causes japan indeed pursued an array of policies that limited competition but these policies were not applied throughout the economy in fact those industries in which competition