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Four essays on regional growth and other related issues: evidence from the Russian Federation and the Indian Union
Full text linkLa seguente tesi è composta da quattro capitoli. I capitoli sono quattro articoli indipendenti l’uno dall’altro. I primi tre articoli si riferiscono al contesto della Federazione Russa, mentre l’ultimo a quello dell’Unione Indiana. In tutti i lavori si utilizzano metodi di econometria che si adattano al meglio a dati regionali e, in tre capitoli su quattro, ciò implica l’utilizzo di tecniche di econometria spaziale. Nei paragrafi successivi si riassumono i contenuti e i principali risultati conseguiti in ciascuno dei capitoli.
Il primo capitolo studia il processo di convergenza tra le regioni russe utilizzando metodi di econometria spaziale, in complemento alle tradizionali tecniche per lo studio di convergenza derivate dalla teoria economica neoclassica. L’analisi copre l’arco temporale 1999-2004. Un processo di convergenza assoluta sembra essere assente in Russia e questo risultato conferma i risultati di altri lavori antecedenti. Il coefficiente di convergenza beta comincia ad essere significativamente negativo solo dopo l’inserimento di altre variabili esplicative oltre al livello iniziale di reddito procapite. Il modello neoclassico di convergenza condizionata risulta sovrastimare il coefficiente di convergenza beta rispetto al caso in cui si inserisca un ritardo spaziale della variabile dipendente. Ciò sembra rafforzare l’ipotesi di una distorsione dei modelli neoclassici applicati a dati regionali indotta dalla presenza di una dipendenza spaziale nei dati. Le distorsioni indotte dagli effetti spaziali risultano ancora più evidenti con l’utilizzo di metodi di econometria panel. La componente spaziale sembra quindi avere un ruolo non risibile nello spiegare il processo di convergenza tra le regioni russe. Inoltre, variabili come l’estrazione di idrocarburi, il livello di apertura al commercio, e gli investimenti diretti esteri, risultano tutte avere un impatto positivo e statisticamente positivo sulla crescita economica.
Il secondo capitolo si concentra sul ruolo degli idrocarburi come possibile determinante della concentrazione del reddito. Il primo capitolo aveva già mostrato come gli idrocarburi costituissero un fattore molto importante nello spiegare lo sviluppo inter-regionale in Russia. Il presente articolo mostra e discute come gli idrocarburi siano anche un importante determinante della concentrazione del reddito all’interno delle regioni russe. Dopo aver discusso la letteratura rilevante concernente le determinanti della concentrazione del reddito tra paesi e all’interno della Russia, si mostra empiricamente quali siano le determinanti intra-regionali della concentrazione del reddito in Russia, facendo uso di modelli panel dinamici. I risultati tendono a confermare che le regioni dove il petrolio e il gas vengono prodotti tendono ad avere livelli di concentrazione del reddito più alti.
Il terzo capitolo è dedicato all’analisi degli investimenti diretti esteri (IDE) in Russia. Più in particolare, si esplora l’ipotesi di effetti spaziali nella distribuzione degli IDE tra le regioni russe. Il modello utilizzato descrive gli IDE come risultanti da un effetto di agglomerazione (il livello degli IDE in una regione dipende positivamente dal livello di FDI nelle regioni circostanti) e un effetto di isolamento ( la distanza di ogni regione dai più importanti investitori internazionali).
Considerando un panel di 68 regioni russe per il periodo 2000-2004, si rileva che entrambi gli effetti abbiano un ruolo significativo nel determinare i flussi di IDE nella Federazione Russa. I due effetti risultano significativi anche dopo l’inserimento di una serie di variabili ci controllo che sono state rilevate importanti fattori dei flussi di IDE tra paesi (il potenziale del mercato circostante, le infrastrutture, un indice del clima degli investimenti).
Nel quarto ed ultimo capitolo, si analizza il processo di convergenza/divergenza tra gli stati indiani. Dopo aver revisionato tutte le principali riforme economiche implementate durante gli ultimi decenni nell’Unione Indiana, si conduce uno studio econometrico delle determinanti della crescita economica nel quadro neoclassico del modello di Solow. Uno degli aspetti più importanti dello studio è di nuovo l’applicazione di tecniche di econometria spaziale a complemento delle tecniche neoclassiche. Si controlla per due effetti spaziali distinti, un effetto di distanza di ogni regione rispetto a tutte le altre e un effetto di condivisione di un confine. I nostri risultati sembrano suggerire che la disparità tra regioni più ricche e più povere sia costantemente aumentata durante gli anni ottanta e novanta. Più specificamente si rileva che i vincitori sono risultati essere quegli stati che hanno beneficiato maggiormente delle riforme di liberalizzazione, grazie anche ad un vantaggio derivante dalla loto posizione geografica e alla presenza di un settore dei servizi già sviluppato. Le regioni che invece mostrano un arretramento economico più marcato sono risultate essere quelle prive di uno sbocco al mare, altamente popolate, con la presenza predominante del settore agricolo e poco innovative.This thesis consists of four separate chapters, which are all in themselves self standing. The first three papers refer to the Russian Federation context, while the last one to the Indian Union’s one. The liaison linking all the works is represented by the use of econometrics techniques, which better adapt to regional datasets and, in the most of cases, this implies the use of spatial econometrics tools. Here below I briefly summarize the contents and main findings of each of the chapters.
The first paper analyses the process of convergence across Russian regions using spatial econometrics tools in addition to the traditional -convergence techniques as derived from the neoclassical theoretical setting. The study covers the period 1999-2004. Absolute convergence is absent, confirming the results obtained in previous studies on the Russian Federation. The convergence coefficient begins to be significant only after the introduction of other explanatory variables in addition to the initial level of per capita income. The neoclassical conditional convergence model is found to overestimate the absolute value of β with respect to its spatial lag model counterpart, strengthening the hypothesis of a bias due to spatial dependence in the data. When moving to the panel data analysis, the gap in convergence coefficient becomes more evident and slightly present also in the spatial error model. The spatial component appears to be non-negligible and, consequently, conventional convergence estimates suffer a bias due to spatial dependence across observations. Furthermore, variables such as hydrocarbon supply, openness to trade and FDI per capita are found to have an unambiguous, positive and statistically significant impact on growth. Results are also confirmed by the panel data specifications of the models.
The second chapter focuses on the role of hydrocarbons as a possible determinant for inequality. Already in the first chapter I showed that hydrocarbons are one of the main elements constituting the great divide across fast and slow growing Russian regions. Here we concentrate mainly on the role of oil and gas as a possible determinant of within region inequality. After having reviewed the economic literature concerning determinants of inequality across countries and within Russia, we test empirically the determinants of intra-regional inequality in Russia, applying robust dynamic panel data estimators. We find that regions where oil and gas is produced tend to experience higher levels of income inequality in striking resemblance to cross-country results.
The third chapter is devoted to the analysis foreign direct investment in Russia. More in particular, we explore the hypothesis of spatial effects in the distribution of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) across Russian regions. We make use of a model, which describes FDI inflows as resulting from an agglomeration effect (the level of FDI in a given region depends positively on the level of FDI received by the regions in its neighbourhood) and remoteness effect (the distance of each Russian regions from the most important outflows countries). Considering a panel of 68 Russian regions over the period 2000-2004 we find that the two effects play a significant role in determining FDI inflows towards Russia. The two effects are also robust to the inclusion of other widely used explanatory variables impacting the level of FDI towards countries or regions (e.g. surrounding market potential, infrastructures, investment climate).
In the fourth and last chapter, we investigate the process of convergence/divergence across Indian states. After surveying the main economic reforms implemented during the last decades in the Indian Union, we conduct an econometric study of the determinants of economic growth in the neoclassical frame of the Solow model. One of the main novel aspects of our convergence analysis is the attention paid to the spatial pattern of growth across Indian states. Making use of spatial econometric tools, we control for two different kinds of spatial interaction: distance and neighbourhood. Our results suggest that the gap between poor and rich states has constantly increased during the 1980s and the 1990s. Specifically, we find that winners were those states that benefited the most from the recent process of reform and liberalization, thanks also to their geographical advantage and to the presence of a developed service sector. Losers were instead the landlocked and highly populated states with a predominant agricultural sector and a low level of innovation
Endogeneity in Interlocks and Performance Analysis: A Firm Size Perspective
Full text linkThis paper contributes to the literature on interlocking directorates (ID) by providing a new solution to the two econometric issues arising in the joint analysis of interlocks and firm performance which are the endogenous nature of ID and sample selection bias due to the exclusion of isolated firms. Some key determinants of ID network formation are identified and used to check for endogeneity. We analyze the impact of the positioning in the network on firms’ performance and inspect how the impact varies across firms of different sizes drawing on information relating to 37,324 firms in the interlocking network which, to our knowledge, is the widest dataset ever used in approaching the study of ID. Our results, made robust for endogeneity and sample selection bias, suggest that eigenvector centrality and the clustering coefficient have a positive and significant impact on all the performance measures and that this effect is more pronounced for small firms
L’Integrazione dell’economia Indiana nel commercio Internazionale. Le opportunità per le imprese italiane
No full textChina, India and Russia: economic reforms, structural change and regional disparities
No full textThis paper studies the different patterns of growth of China, India and Russia by exploring and comparing the processes of reforms that have generated and accompanied their high and sustained rates of growth. Focusing on the sector transformations involved into the three economies, we show that the growth strategies implemented present specific characteristics in terms of gradualism and policy choices. We analyze the effects of economic growth on regional income disparities and to what extent the recent increase in prosperity has been homogeneously distributed within the three giants. Making use of Theil's T statistics and transition probability matrices, our findings reveal that income disparities within the Indian states and Chinese provinces have increased and, more in particular, landlocked and rural areas are in general still far from reducing the income gap from coastal and richest regions. In the case of Russia, the great divide is fuelled by the presence of hydrocarbons resources, which tend to be concentrated in the West Siberia
Foreign direct investments distribution in the Russian Federation: do spatial effects matter?
No full textIn this paper we explore the hypothesis of spatial effects in the distribution of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) across Russian regions. We make use of a model, which describes FDI inflows as resulting from an agglomeration effect (the level of FDI in a given region depends positively on the level of FDI received by the regions in its neighbourhood) and remoteness effect (the distance of each Russian regions from the most important outflows countries). Considering a panel of 68 Russian regions over the period 2000-2004 we find that the two effects play a significant role in determining FDI inflows towards Russia. The two effects are also robust to the inclusion of other widely used explanatory variables impacting the level of FDI towards countries or regions (e.g. surrounding market potential, infrastructures, investment climate)
Oil and gas: a blessing for few hydrocarbons and within-region inequality in Russia
No full textBuilding on earlier work on regional inequality in Russia (Fedorov 2002; Gaddy and Ickes 2005; Bradshaw 2006 and others) we investigate a novel line of research, i.e. to demonstrate that the regional oil and gas abundance is associated with high within-region inequality. We show empirically that hydrocarbons represent one of the leading determinants of an increased gap between rich and poor in the producing regions. We discuss a possible cluster of geographic, economic and political factors underlying the phenomenon
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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