133,815 research outputs found
R&D, firm size and incremental product innovation
This article addresses an issue that is debated in the economics of innovation literature, namely the existence of increasing returns to R&D expenditures and firm size, in product innovation. It explores further how the firm's structural characteristics and contextual factors affect the sustained introduction of new components over a relatively long time period. Taking advantage of an original and unique database comprising information on new product announcements by leading semiconductor producers, we show that: (i) decreasing returns to size and R&D expenditures characterize the innovation production function of the sampled firms; (ii) producers operating a larger product portfolio exhibit a higher propensity to introduce new products than their specialized competitors; (iii) aging has positive bearings on the firm's ability to innovate
Clusters of firms in space and time
The use of the K-functions (Ripley, 1977) has become recently popular in the analysis of the spatial pattern of firms. It was first introduced in the economic literature by Arbia and Espa (1996) and then popularized by Marcon and Puech (2003), Quah and Simpson (2003), Duranton and Overman (2005) and Arbia et al. (2008). In particular in Arbia et al. (2008) we used Ripley’s K-functions as instruments to study the inter-sectoral co-agglomeration pattern of firms in a single moment of time. All this researches have followed a static approach, disregarding the time dimension. Temporal dynamics, on the other hand, play a crucial role in understanding the economic and social phenomena, particularly when referring to the analysis of the individual choices leading to the observed clusters of economic activities. With respect to the contributions previously appeared in the literature, this paper uncovers the process of firm demography by studying the dynamics of localization through space-time K-functions. The empirical part of the paper will focus on the study of the long run localization of firms in the area of Rome (Italy), by concentrating on the ICT sector data collected by the Italian Industrial Union in the period 1920- 2005.Agglomeration, Non-parametric measures; Space-time K-functions, Spatial clusters, Spatial econometrics.
Advances in spatial economic data analysis: methods and applications
Spatial economic studies traditionally exploit areal data at the regional or sub-regional level. More recently, scholars have started to exploit spatial data of a different nature and, at the same time, extend the fields of application in economics. Specifically, this special issue contributes to the spatial economic literature by providing empirical evidence on a wide range of phenomena (socio-economic deprivation, land price volatility, electoral competition, real estate market, firm survival and tourism economics) and exploiting data at the municipality, firm, house and even individual level. At the same time, it tackles some of the methodological issues faced by the above-mentioned analyses
Experimental investigation of 2-D free convection in a differentially heated trapezoidal cavity
Decomposing regional business change at plant level in Italy. A novel spatial shift-share approach
In this paper, spatial shift-share decomposition is analysed when applied to Italian
data on regional business change at plant level, over the period 2004–2009. A new type of spatial
decomposition, which looks more effectively at neighbourhood influence, is introduced here.
Notable results emerge from the empirical investigation. First, it can be seen that the spatial level
of aggregation greatly affects results. Second, evidence of neighbourhood advantage in the
Southern NUTS 3 regions is found, together with opposite results for the Central-Northern
NUTS 3 regions. Finally, evidence of positive industrial mix effects is only found in CentralNorthern Ital
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