Search results for " Trade"

Wages and productivity growth in the Nordic countries

1995

Abstract The study examines growth in productivity and real wages in four Nordic countries, viz. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, thus extending Gordon's (1987) analysis concentrating on the U.S., Japan and Europe. The results confirm certain key findings of Gordon's (1987) study. In particular, the cyclically adjusted measures of productivity growth confirm the slowdown in productivity growth in the mid-1970s. Gordon's finding that there are considerable differences across the different sectors of the economy is similarly supported. As far as country-specific development in productivity growth is concerned, the results imply that there are considerable inter-country differences which G…

Export intensity and the productivity gains of exporting

2013

This article analyses whether the productivity gains associated with Learning-by-Exporting (LBE) (controlling for self-selection) depend on the intensity of the firm's exporting activity. The results from a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms indicate that the yearly average gains in productivity are larger for those firms that increase their export-to-sales ratio.

The European Union and Interregionalism: Patterns of Engagement - By M. Doidge

2012

Mediating International Conflicts: The European Union as an Effective Peacemaker?

2015

This article examines how the EU's effectiveness as a mediator in peace negotiations can be appropriately conceptualized and analysed. Mediator effectiveness is analysed along two dimensions: goal-attainment and conflict settlement. Investigation of the conditions of mediator effectiveness is structured around four key sets of variables: mediator leverage, mediation strategy, coherence and the conflict's context. In our empirical analysis of EU mediation between Serbia and Kosovo (Belgrade–Pristina dialogue) we find that the medium degree of EU effectiveness (both in terms of goal-attainment and conflict settlement) can be explained by its great leverage vis-a-vis the conflict parties due t…

Negotiating the European External Action Service (EEAS): Analyzing the External Effects of Internal (Dis)Agreement*

2012

Analyses of the rising capacity for co-ordination within the Secretariats-General of the European Commission and Council have concentrated on their effects within these respective institutions. This article, in contrast, argues that the presence/absence of co-ordination capacities developed within an institution may have an important bearing also on the relations between institutions (for example, in inter-institutional negotiations). The empirical analysis traces the negotiation process leading up to the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS), and finds substantial support for the theoretical argument.

European Integration and the Disembedding of Labour Market Regulation: Transnational Labour Relations at theEuropeanCentralBank Construction Site

2013

European integration through mutual recognition has facilitated the growth of a pan-European labour supply system in which transnational subcontractors ‘post’ workers from low-wage areas to higher wage areas. This allows employers to create spaces of exception in which the national industrial relations system of the country where work occurs does not fully apply. Drawing on interviews with managers, workers, unionists and works councillors at the European Central Bank construction site in Frankfurt, Germany, this article shows how transnational subcontracting allows employers to access, and create competition between, sovereign regulatory regimes. It concludes that high-cost, high-collectiv…

The trade-enhancing effect of immigration networks: New evidence on the role of geographic proximity

2012

Abstract We use migration-trade data from Italian, Portuguese and Spanish provinces to examine the importance of geographic proximity in the effectiveness of ethnic networks on bilateral trade. Empirical findings from the gravity model show that the migration-trade link is clearly in-province: exports from a province to a country do not receive any stimuli from immigrants from this country living outside of the province, once we control for country–province time-invariant fixed effects.

Quality pricing-to-market

2014

We examine firm's pricing-to-market decisions in vertically differentiated industries featuring a large number of firms that compete monopolistically in the quality space. Firms sell goods of heterogeneous quality to consumers with non-homothetic preferences that differ in their income and thus their marginal willingness to pay for quality increments. We derive closed-form solutions for the pricing game under costly international trade, thus establishing existence and uniqueness. We then examine how the interaction of good quality and market demand for quality affects firms' pricing-to-market decisions. The relative price of high quality goods compared to that of low quality goods is an inc…

Patents, technological inputs and spillovers among regions

2009

This paper analyses the importance of different technological inputs (R&D and human capital) and different spillovers in explaining the differences in patenting among Spanish regions in the period 1986-2003. The analysis is based on the estimation of a knowledge production function. A region¿s own R&D activities and human capital are observed to have a positive significant effect on innovation output, measured by the number of patents. R&D spillovers weighted by the distance and the volume of trade flows between regions cause positive effects on a region¿s patents. However, distance matters more than the intensity of trade flows and the R&D spillover effects between regions are bounded: spi…

Trade imbalances within the euro area and with respect to the rest of the world

2015

Abstract Many studies have explored the determinants of current account balances in Europe. However, only in a few studies has trade balance been decomposed into intra balance, trade balance vis-a-vis the euro area, and extra balance, trade balance vis-a-vis the rest of the world. This decomposition is necessary for us to understand why some core euro area countries are acting as financial intermediaries for the periphery countries. Furthermore, the determinants of intra and extra balances might be different because nominal exchange rate cannot adjust between the EMU countries while their financial markets are highly integrated. Thus, we apply this decomposition and supplement the previous …