manufacturing

The paper analyses relative manufacturing
concentration patterns in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay over the period 1985-1998. The econometric evidence indicates that localization of demand and comparative advantages are the main driving forces of these patterns. The establishment of Mercosur seems to have played a role in the spatial distribution of manufacturing in the above three countries.

The authors examine the relationship between knowledge spillovers and both technological and geographical proximities using micro panel data of Indonesian manufacturing plants between 1990 and 1995. They find both physical and technological proximity are significant.

The authors analyze the impact of privatization on multifactor productivity using long panel data for nearly the universe of initially state-owned manufacturing firms in four economies.

The paper investigates the tendencies of co-location between producer services and manufacturing across Swedish functional regions. Empirical results suggest that the location manufacturing
employment can be explained by its accessibility to producer services.

The paper investigates the determinants of entry and exit in the Austrian manufacturing sector based on 1981 to 1994 data. Empirical analysis shows that entry and exit rates are driven by the same determinants. The impacts of these determinants are nearly homogeneous for both, entry rates and exits rates, respectively.

Using panel and cross-reaction data on Moroccan manufacturers, the authors test two alternative models of learning to export. They uncover evidence of market learning but little evidence of productivity learning.

The authors consider the roles of learning, competition and market imperfections in determining three aspects of firm performance, namely firm exit, firm growth and productivity growth. They use a pooled panel data set of firms in Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania that spans a period of five years.

The studys main aim is to derive elasticities of demand and supply for manufactured exports using time series data. These can be used as inputs into other studies, especially in the growing computable general equilibrium model arena.

The paper analyses empirically whether skill-biased
technological change and foreign direct investment play a role in explaining the skill-upgrading in Italian manufacturing industry during the 1990s. Empirical evidence does not provide support that the research and development effort undertaken in high-tech sectors by each group of firms has influence on Italian skill upgrading.

The paper serves as another complementary link in a chain of a rather limited number of investigations in the R&D-innovation-productivity relationship within service industries.