The paper looks at some macro data on the availability of infrastructure, economic growth, density of population and the availability of formal financial services to examine if any of these factors explain the growth of microfinance in certain regions, while the other regions lag behind.
The authors compare their insights from the formal scientific sector with our investigations in informal scientific sector. The effort to blend excellence in formal and informal scientific sectors would require overcoming the gender imbalances in both these sectors.
This paper evaluates new economic geography (NEG) theory by comparing it with a competing non-nested model derived from urban economics. Using bootstrap inference and the J-test, the paper shows that while NEG theory is supported by the data, it needs to be modified to achieve this, and it is not the only, or even the best or simplest, explanation of regional wage variations across the EU.
This paper uses an idea introduced by Fisher and Griliches (1995) and Griliches and Cockburn (1995) to develop price indexes for goods that are not purchased in each period. A comparison of the resulting price indexes with those calculated under the standard assumption suggests that the sharp declines typically exhibited by price indexes for many high technology goods may be overstated.
Reexamining foreign direct investment as a potential channel for knowledge diffusion -- based on industry data from seventeen OECD countries during the period 1973-2000 -- the authors find that FDI-receiving countries benefit strongly from FDI-related knowledge spillovers.
This paper integrates in a unified and tractable framework some of the key insights of the field of international trade and economic growth. It examines a sequence of theoretical models that share a common description of technology and preferences but differ on their assumptions about trade frictions.
The annual report focuses on the competitiveness of nations, ranking and analyzing how a nation’s environment creates and sustains the competitiveness of enterprises.
This paper examines Angus Maddisons revisions to official data and finds them invalid. Angus Maddisons growth estimates for China in the reform period constitute no alternative to the official data.
This paper assesses what role product market competition and reforms may have played in the performance of the Dutch economy over the past decade, and discusses what further product market reforms might contribute to enhancing growth. In general, competitive pressures appear to be relatively strong in the Netherlands, particularly in the traded goods sector.
The study is an attempt to measure globalization by using both parametric and non-parametric approaches. The data cover a wide range of industrialized, transition and developing countries on the basis of their international integration.