Search results for "TRADE"
showing 10 items of 1475 documents
Mestieri e competenze nel cantiere di architettura in Sicilia tra Trecento e primo Cinquecento
2016
La documentazione archivistica ha fornito agli studiosi una solida base di dati per ricostruire il quadro delle professionalità operanti nel cantiere di architettura in Sicilia tra la fine del medioevo e il principio dell’età moderna. Un dato certo è innanzitutto l’esistenza di una organizzazione gerarchica che prevedeva almeno tre livelli. Al vertice della piramide si trova la figura del capomastro chiamato a dirigere l’opera e spesso ad assumere un ruolo di tipo “imprenditoriale”. Impegni e responsabilità sono spesso condivisi con un altro maestro, per ragioni di opportunità e per mantenere la libertà di contrarre più impegni lavorativi in contemporanea. Il livello immediatamente inferior…
Patterns of international capital flows and their implications for developing countries
2017
According to standard economic theory, capital should flow from rich to poor countries. However, a reverse pattern has prevailed in the world economy. This is the so-called Lucas paradox. In addition, it has been shown that, counterintuitively, there is a negative correlation between capital inflow and productivity growth across developing countries. This is the so-called allocation puzzle. This review sheds light on the following questions: “What are the patterns of international capital flows in the world economy?”, “What are the most plausible explanations for these patterns?”, and “What are the possible implications of these developments for developing countries?” In addition, the curre…
Good and useless FDI: The growth effects of greenfield investment and mergers and acquisitions
2017
We explore the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth, distinguishing between mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and “greenfield” investment. A simple model underlines that, unlike greenfield investment, M&As partly represent a rent accruing to previous owners, and do not necessarily contribute to expanding the host country's capital stock. Greenfield FDI should therefore have a stronger impact on growth than M&A sales. This hypothesis is supported by our empirical results that are based on a panel of up to 127 industrialized, emerging, and developing countries over 1990 to 2010.
Direct and indirect knowledge spillovers and industrial productivity
2016
AbstractThis paper analyses the importance of externalities related to the spread of innovation across sectors. Such spillover effects arise from R&D activities and input–output (IO) linkages among sectors in the country. We borrow Spatial Econometrics techniques to make consistent estimates of the impact of these systematic direct and indirect spillovers on sector’s productivity and the possibility of other types of productivity spillovers in the error term. We find that direct spillovers emanating from IO horizontal linkages determine sector’s productivity, while the indirect effects prove to be negligible. Furthermore, the technological intensity of IO linkages and the productive structu…
Export Barriers and Competitiveness of Developing Economies: The Case of the Ethiopian Leather Footwear Industry
2017
Export competitiveness is an important success factor for developing economies. However, several barriers can prevent firms from exporting. This study empirically investigates export barriers in the Ethiopian leather footwear industry. We identify 10 conceptually linked barriers that are prevalent in the industry. Whereas some of the export barriers are in line with previous research, we find several new barriers such as logistics and export marketing. On the firm level, we identify different clusters of firms that are facing specific sub-sets of barriers. Depending on cluster membership, management must focus on certain export barriers for increasing competitiveness.
Evaluation of Load transfer in rigid pavements by Rolling wheel deflectometer and Falling weight deflectometer
2020
Abstract Rigid pavements have widespread use, e.g, in motorways and airports, due to their excellent properties such as high bearing capacity and long lifetime. However, when rigid pavements fail it is often due to bad load transfer efficiency (LTE) at its joints. Traditional methods of measuring LTE can be time consuming. Here, we study the possibility of measuring LTE using a moving load with the aim of achieving higher productivity. An experiment simulating Rolling Weight Deflectometer (RWD) measurements on a joint was carried out to gain understanding and confidence that can guide the analysis of real RWD data. Continuous data from measurements across a joint allows for determination of…
Exploiting 3D Modelling and Life Cycle Assessment to Improve the Sustainability of Pavement Management
2020
Today road agencies worldwide face difficult decisions for construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of their road infrastructure as they try to balance limited budgets. This is further complicated rising environmental concerns over equipment and techniques used for these practices. This has led agencies to consider alternative approaches for smarter and sustainable pavement asset management systems. This paper considers the use of a low-cost 3D image modelling distress identification and classification proposal for data acquisition and analysis. To establish its environmental friendliness, a case study in Palermo, Italy, is considered wherein a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) exercise is do…
Exposure to Exchange Rate Risk and Competitiveness: An Application to South-Eastern Europe
2017
Our chapter investigates the economic exposure to currency risk of stock markets from nine countries in South-Eastern Europe using bilateral exchange rates of the domestic currencies against their main trading partners’ currencies between 1999 and 2015. The relevance and magnitude of exposures are investigated through changes in exchange rates in linear and non-linear specifications. Our results indicate that these economies show contemporaneous exposure to currency risk, but they are different in size and sign from one country to another and from one currency to another, a result that can be explained by the dissimilar economic structures in the region. There is smaller evidence for asymme…
INNOVATION AS A KEY FACTOR IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
2013
There is international scientific consensus that economic progress will be driven by innovation, namely the invention and application of new technologies. Research and Development (R&D) is one category of spending that develops and drives these new technologies. From the perspective of competiveness, private sector firms are prone to focus their R&D on “applied” projects and many government-sponsored technological advances have been instrumental in driving economic growth and rising living standards. According to the published literature, it is expected that countries engaging in R&D activities have a comparative advantage in export of products, and countries with the “largest” R&D expendit…
Reconsidering learning by exporting
2012
Self-selection and learning by exporting are the main explanations for the higher productivity of exporting firms. But, whereas evidence on self-selection is largely undisputed, results on learning by exporting are mixed and far from conclusive. However, recent research by De Loecker (J Int Econ 73(1):69–98, 2007) has shown that the conclusions from previous learning by exporting studies may have been driven by strong assumptions about the evolution of productivity and the role of export status. Relaxing these assumptions turns out to be critical to find evidence of learning by exporting in a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. Our results indicate that the yearly average …