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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2008‒10‒28
six papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Yasser Abdih; Frederick L. Joutz |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of public capital on private sector output by testing and estimating an aggregate production function for the U.S. economy over the postwar period augmented to include the stock of public capital as an additional factor input. We use patent applications to proxy for knowledge/technology stocks and adjust labor hours for changes in human capital or skill. Using Johansen's (1988 and 1991) multivariate cointegration analysis, we find a positive and significant long run effect of public capital, private capital, skilladjusted labor, and technology/ knowledge on private sector output. We find that public capital accounts for about half of the post-1973 productivity slowdown, but only plays a minor role in the partial recovery of labor productivity growth since the mid 1980s. The largest contribution to that (partial) recovery comes from the knowledge stock and human capital. |
| Keywords: | Human capital , Public finance , Private sector , Capital , Labor productivity , Economic growth , Economic models , Economic policy , Working Paper , |
| Date: | 2008–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:08/218&r=knm |
| By: | Sami Saafi (Labrii, ULCO) |
| Abstract: | Certes, l’innovation technologique a souvent été synonyme de chômage pour l’opinion publique. Cette opinion est fondée sur l’idée de substitution du capital au travail. En revanche, selon la théorie de compensation, l’innovation technologique détruit des emplois à court terme (effet de remplacement), mais en crée à moyen et à long terme (effet de compensation). La théorie de compensation postule qu’à long terme - c’est-à-dire lorsque l’accumulation de nouveau capital est possible et le revenu global disponible n’est plus supposé constant, l’extension des capacités de production, favorisée par l’augmentation des profits, permet de créer de nouveaux emplois. Néanmoins les mécanismes de compensation requièrent un transfert fluide de la main d’oeuvre, du capital et de la demande entre les différentes activités. Un tel transfert s’opère d’autant mieux que les marchés sont efficients, flexibles, c’est-à-dire que les prix s’adaptent et que les barrières de mobilités sont réduites. Certainly, in the public opinion, technological innovation has often been considered as synonymous to unemployment. This opinion is based on the idea of substitution capital/labor. However, according to the compensation theory, technological innovations destroy jobs in the short term (replacement effect) but create new jobs in the medium and long terms (compensation effect). The compensation theory postulates that in the long term- that is to say when new capital accumulation is possible and available, total income is not assumed constant- the extension of production capacities, favored by the increase of benefits, allows to create new jobs. But, the compensation mechanisms request a fluid transfer of employees, capital and demand between different activities. Such transfer takes place even better when markets are efficient, flexible, which means that prices are flexible and that the barriers to mobility are reduced. |
| Keywords: | : Technological innovations, employment, compensation theory |
| JEL: | O33 C52 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rii:riidoc:184&r=knm |
| By: | Henry Sauermann; Wesley M. Cohen |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of individual-level motives upon innovative effort and performance in firms. Drawing from economics and social psychology, we develop a model of the impact of individuals' motives and incentives upon their innovative effort and performance. Using data on over 11,000 industrial scientists and engineers (SESTAT 2003), we find that individuals' motives have significant effects upon innovative effort and performance. These effects vary significantly, however, by the particular kind of motive (e.g., desire for intellectual challenge vs. pay). We also find that intrinsic and extrinsic motives affect innovative performance even when controlling for effort, suggesting that motives affect not only the level of individual effort, but also its quality. Overall, intrinsic motives, particularly the desire for intellectual challenge, appear to benefit innovation more than extrinsic motives such as pay. |
| JEL: | O3 O30 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14443&r=knm |
| By: | Andreas Ziegler (CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | Based on a unique firm-level data set from the German manufacturing sector, this paper disentangles environmental and non-environmental product and process innovations. The multivariate probit analysis shows that the various innovation types are determined by different factors. The estimation results suggest a policy mix which comprises the encouragement of R&D activities, certified management systems, and specific management activities referring to environmentally friendly products when the implementation of all innovation types is to be supported. |
| Keywords: | Product and process innovations, Environmental and non-environmental innovations, Management systems, Multivariate probit models |
| JEL: | Q55 O31 O32 C35 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:08-100&r=knm |
| By: | Zhao, Liang |
| Abstract: | Building on the predecessors' thoughts and modern researches from empirical disciplines, and with thinking over the behavior assumption usually held and used by mainstream economics, the paper generalizes three basic assumptions and one explanatory framework on human individual behavior and its process, and stresses hierarchical characteristics in preferences, heterogeneity between learning capacity and learning and, human dealing with and reducing uncertainty from environments in the process of natural evolution, and rethinks the questions of individual rationality, acquirement of behavior mode, intellectual history on "knowledge" in the level of experientialism. The purpose is that along the path of "falsifying a theory" and with the help of empirical results, the paper trys to propose behavioral presuppositions and thinking framework, so that enhancing the effectiveness of economic theory on explaining individual behavior in real situations, and in the end advancing transdisciplinary researches between the empirical and social sciences. |
| Keywords: | assumption; explanatory framework; individual behavior; hierarchical preference; learning capacity; knowledge; evolutionary process; empirical substrate; transdiscipline |
| JEL: | B21 B31 A12 D8 B59 Y80 D01 |
| Date: | 2008–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11152&r=knm |
| By: | Caliendo, Marco (IZA); Clement, Michel (University of Hamburg); Papies, Dominik (University of Hamburg); Scheel-Kopeinig, Sabine (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | More than 70% of global e-mail traffic consists of unsolicited and commercial direct marketing, also known as spam. Dealing with spam incurs high costs for organizations, prompting efforts to try to reduce spam-related costs by installing spam filters. Using modern econometric methods to reduce the selection bias of installing a spam filter, we deploy a unique data setting implemented at a German university to measure the costs associated with spam and the costs savings of spam filters. The applied methodological framework can easily be transferred to estimate the effect of other IS technologies (e.g., SAP) implemented in organizations. Our findings indicate that central IT costs are of little relevance since the majority of spam costs stem from employees who spend working time identifying and deleting spam. The working time losses caused by spam are approximately 1,200 minutes per employee per year; these costs could be reduced by roughly 35% through the installation of a spam filter mechanism. The individual efficiency of a spam filter installation depends on the amount of spam that is received and on the level of knowledge about spam. |
| Keywords: | propensity score matching, treatment effects, spam filter, spam |
| JEL: | M12 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3755&r=knm |