Consequences, opportunities and challenges for modern biotechnology for Europe (BIO4EU) - TASK 2. Report 3
S. Gaisser, Iciar Dominguez Lacasa, Thomas Reiss
Einzelveröffentlichungen,
Nr. 4,
2008
Abstract
Modern biotechnology is one of the key enabling technologies of the 21st century with a potentially wide range of applications in many sectors, including health, agriculture and industrial processes. Considering the potential of modern biotechnology to contribute to the achievement of major European Union policy goals, such as economic growth and job creation, public health, environmental protection and sustainable development, the European Parliament has requested the European Commission to carry out an assessment of modern biotechnology. The European Commission welcomed the initiative and announced to undertake a study “to conduct a cost benefit analysis of biotechnology and genetic engineering, including genetically modified organisms in the light of major European policy goals formulated in the Lisbon Strategy,
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Ownership Structure, Strategic Controls and Export Intensity of Foreign-invested Firms in Transition Economies
I. Filatotchev, Johannes Stephan, Björn Jindra
Journal of International Business Studies,
Nr. 7,
2008
Abstract
This paper examines the relationships between foreign ownership, managers’ independence in decision-making and exporting of foreign-invested firms in five European Union accession countries. Using a unique, hand-collected data set of 434 foreign-invested firms in Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and Estonia, we show that foreign investors’ ownership and control over strategic decisions are positively associated with export intensity, measured as the proportion of exports to total sales. The study also analyzes specific governance and control configurations in foreign-invested firms, showing that foreign equity and foreign control over business functions are complementary in terms of their effects on export intensity.
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The Relationship between Knowledge Intensity and Market Concentration in European Industries: An inverted U-Shape
Niels Krap, Johannes Stephan
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 3,
2008
Abstract
This paper is motivated by the European Union strategy to secure competitiveness for Europe in the globalising world by focussing on technological supremacy (the Lisbon - agenda). Parallel to that, the EU Commission is trying to take a more economic approach to competition policy in general and anti-trust policy in particular. Our analysis tries to establish the relationship between increasing knowledge intensity and the resulting market concentration: if the European Union economy is gradually shifting to a pattern of sectoral specialisation that features a bias on knowledge intensive sectors, then this may well have some influence on market concentration and competition policy would have to adjust not to counterfeit the Lisbon-agenda. Following a review of the available theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between knowledge intensity and market structure, we use a larger Eurostat database to test the shape of this relationship. Assuming a causality that runs from knowledge to concentration, we show that the relationship between knowledge intensity and market structures is in fact different for knowledge intensive industries and we establish a non-linear, inverted U-curve shape.
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Deeper, Wider and More Competitive? Monetary Integration, Eastern Enlargement and Competitiveness in the European Union
Gianmarco Ottaviano, Daria Taglioni, Filippo di Mauro
ECB Working Paper,
Nr. 847,
2008
Abstract
What determines a country’s ability to compete in international markets? What fosters the global competitiveness of its firms? And in the European context, have key elements of the EU strategy such as EMU and enlargement helped or hindered domestic firms’ competitiveness in local and global markets? We address these questions by calibrating and simulating a conceptual framework that, based on Melitz and Ottaviano (2005), predicts that tougher and more transparent international competition forces less productive firms out the market, thereby increasing average productivity as well as reducing average prices and mark-ups. The model also predicts a parallel reduction of price dispersion within sectors. Our conceptual framework allows us to disentangle the effects of technology and freeness of entry from those of accessibility. On the one hand, by controlling for the impact of trade frictions, we are able to construct an index of ‘revealed competitiveness’, which would drive the relative performance of countries in an ideal world in which all faced the same barriers to international transactions. On the other hand, by focusing on the role of accessibility while keeping ‘revealed competitiveness’ as given, we are able to evaluate the impacts of EMU and enlargement on the competitiveness of European firms. We find that EMU positively affects the competitiveness of firms located in participating economies. Enlargement has, instead, two contrasting effects. It improves the accessibility of EU members but it also increases substantially the relative importance of unproductive competitors from Eastern Europe. JEL Classification: F12, R13.
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Determinants of International Fragmentation of Production in the European Union
Götz Zeddies
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 15,
2007
Abstract
The last decades were characterized by large increases in world trade, not only in absolute terms, but also in relation to world GDP. This was in large parts caused by increasing exchanges of parts and components between countries as a consequence of international fragmentation of production. Apparently, greater competition especially from the Newly Industrializing and Post-Communist Economies prompted firms in ‘high-wage’ countries to exploit international factor price differences in order to increase their international competitiveness. However, theory predicts that, beside factor price differences, vertical disintegration of production should be driven by a multitude of additional factors. Against this background, the present paper reveals empirical evidence on parts and components trade as an indicator for international fragmentation of production in the European Union. On the basis of a panel data approach, the main explanatory factors for international fragmentation of production are determined. The results show that, although their influence can not be neglected, factor price differences are only one out of many causes for shifting production to or sourcing components from foreign countries.
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The Effects of Joining the European Monetary Union on Output and Inflation Variability in Accession Countries
Oliver Holtemöller
MPRA Working Paper 8633,
2007
Abstract
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Where do we go? Common Policies in an Enlarged European Union – The Case of Social Policy
Götz Zeddies
Unification of European Economies: Opportunities and Threats,
2004
Abstract
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Enhanced Cooperation in an Enlarged EU, CeGE-Discussion Paper No. 53
J. Ahrens, Renate Ohr, Götz Zeddies
,
2006
Abstract
The paper adresses the need for more flexibility in the integration process of the European Union after its recent eastward enlargement. Due to the increasing number of decision-makers and the increasing heterogeneity of economic structures, financial constraints, societal preferences, and political interests, European integration based on the uniformity principle is hardly feasible. In order to avoid a rank growth of integration and yet to strengthen the momentum of flexibility, so-called enhanced cooperation appears to be an appropriate instrument to be applied to the overall integration process. In this context the paper analyzes different possible developments of selected common policies in the EU if enhanced cooperation is practised by a sub-group of EU-members. Based on cluster analysis similarities and distinctions among the EU members with respect to some specific policy realms are elaborated to identify clusters, or clubs, of countries which may apply the instrument of enhanced cooperation in the specific policy fields.
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The unemployment-growth relationship in transition countries
Hubert Gabrisch, Herbert Buscher
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 5,
2005
Abstract
Does the disappointingly high unemployment in Central and East European countries reflect non-completed adjustment to institutional shocks from transition to a market economy, or is it the result of high labour market rigidities, or rather a syndrome of too weak aggregate demand and output? In the case of transitional causes, unemployment is expected to decline over time. Otherwise, it would pose a challenge to the European Union, particular in case of accession countries, for it jeopardizes the ambitious integration plans of, and may trigger excessive migration to the Union. In order to find out which hypothesis holds 15 years after transition has started, we analyze the unemploymentgrowth dynamics in the eight new member countries from Central-Eastern Europe. The study is based on country and panel regressions with instrument variables (TSLS). The results suggest to declare the transition of labour markets as completed; unemployment responds to output and not to a changing institutional environment for job creation. The regression coefficients report a high trend rate of productivity and a high unemployment intensity of output growth since 1998. The conclusion is that labour market rigidities do not to play an important role in explaining high unemployment rates. Rather, GDP growth is dominated by productivity progress, while the employment relevant component of aggregate demand is too low to reduce substantially the high level of unemployment.
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The Impact of Institutions on the Employment Performance in European Labour Markets
Herbert S. Buscher, Christian Dreger, Raúl Ramos, Jordi Surinach
Discussion Paper No. 1732,
2005
Abstract
Der Beitrag untersucht die Bedeutung von institutionellen Regelungen auf den Arbeitsmärkten in den Staaten der EU. Da die Beschäftigungsquoten relativ unverändert blieben in der Vergangenheit, stellt sich Arbeitslosigkeit im wesentlichen als ein Problem der Arbeitsnachfrage dar. Die Arbeitsnachfrage enthält neben den üblichen Variablen weitere Variablen, die die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen erfassen wie Gewerkschaftsdichte, Verhandlungsmacht, Steuer- und Abgabensystem, Maße der aktiven Arbeitsmarktpolitik etc.
Da zwischen den Modellvariablen Kointegrationsbeziehungen bestehen, werden die Gleichungen in Niveaus geschätzt. Die sich hieraus ergebenden Elastizitäten werden in einem zweiten Schritt dann durch institutionelle Variablen erklärt, was in einem Fixed-effects-Modell geschieht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass mit steigender Flexibilität des Arbeitsmarktes und mit wachsenden Anreizen für die Haushalte Arbeit aufzunehmen, die Beschäftigungsquoten zunehmen.
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