Firms’ distance to the European productivity frontier
AbstractIn this article we explore the factors contributing to reduce the distance of laggard firms to the European frontier, focusing on institutional factors. To characterize Total Factor Productivity frontier firms within industries for the European Union we use firm level data from AMADEUS for the period 2003–2014. Our findings provide evidence on the importance of governance quality and easiness in getting credit in explaining the distance of laggard firms to the European productivity frontier. We also find that other factors at the country level -tertiary education, R&D stock, and trade openness- and at the firm level -size, age, and capital-intensity- influence the distance of la…
Foreign Direct Investment Spillovers: Evidence from the British Retail Sector
This paper discusses the impact of foreign-ownership presence on the productivity performance of British-owned domestic retailers. In particular, we analyse the existence of productivity spillovers, in the form of knowledge transfer, by using establishment-level data from the Annual Respondents Database over the period 1997–2003. The results confirm the presence of such spillovers and highlight their positive and significant impact on the productivity of domestic firms, although these spillovers are mostly confined to the region in which foreign subsidiaries locate. There is also evidence that the productivity benefit from regional foreign direct investment spillovers increases with the abs…
The impact of information and communication technology (ICT), education and regulation on economic freedom in Islamic Middle Eastern countries
Our study investigated the impact of ICT expansion on economic freedom in the Middle East (Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen). Our empirical analysis used archival data from 1995 to 2005; it showed that ICT expansion in the Middle East has been effective both in bridging the digital divide and also in promoting economic freedom in a region that was vulnerable to political, social, and global conflict. However, differences between countries, such as the educational attainment of their citizens and institutional resistance to technology acceptance, both enhanced and restricted the relationship between ICT and economic fre…