1,720,977 research outputs found
L’anomalia del modello di specializzazione italiano e l’evoluzione del commercio internazionale: una analisi quantitativa
No full textThe Italian Anomaly in the Evolution of International Trade - This study offers a quantitative assessment of the international specialization of Italy in view of the evolving patterns of international trade over the period 1980- 2000. The analysis is based upon the co-evolution of the PRODY index, recently proposed in Hausmann et al. (2005), together with the classical Balassa index of revealed comparative advantage. Our findings suggest that Italian specialization is persistent and increasing in sectors characterized by decreasing capacity to sustain economic growth
The evolution of world export sophistication and the italian trade anomaly
No full textThis work provides an empirical assessment of the sophistication level of the Italian international specialization pattern from 1980 to recent years. In particular we present an original analysis which explores the intertemporal co-evolution of the newly proposed PRODY index of export sophistication (Hausmann et al. 2005, 2007) with standard measures of revealed compar- ative advantage. We argue that the results of this exercise can shed light on the Italian ’trade specialization anomaly
Productivity, profitability and financial performance
No full textThis work presents a comparative analysis of two crucial dimensions of firms’ performance: profitability and productivity. The characteristics of their empirical distribution and the associated degree of persistence over time are explored through a set of parametric and non-parametric exercises performed on an exhaustive panel of Italian firms, active in both manufacturing and services, during the period 1998–2003. The main strength of our analysis resides in the use of a credit rating index which allows us to document not obvious interactions which are in place among economic performances, financial conditions and access to external credit. We also investigate how profitability and productivity relates with a third important dimension of performance, that is growth. We find that, independently from the particular sector of activity and from financial conditions, there seems to be weak market pressure and little behavioral inclination for the more efficient and more profitable firms to grow faster. Copyright 2008 , Oxford University Press.
Persistent high-growth firms in China's manufacturing
Full text linkThis article investigates the characteristics of high-growth (HG) firms in Chinese manufacturing, and further explores the effects of firm characteristics on persistence of high-growth. We employ a multidimensional definition of HG firms that simultaneously accounts for growth of sales and employment. Exploiting a representative panel covering the period of the China’s miracle, we find that HG firms outperform other firms, showing higher productivity, higher profitability, larger investment intensity, higher sales from product innovation, lower interest expenses and lower leverage. HG firms are also relatively young, larger in size, more often exporters and more concentrated in non-State-controlled companies. However, regression analysis suggests that none of the indicators of structural characteristics and performance considered above displays any statistical association with the ability to persistently replicate high-growth over time. The results speak against the long-run effectiveness of policies supporting the creation and backing of high-growth firms
Zipf Law and the Firm Size Distribution: a critical discussion of popular estimators
Full text linkThe upper tail of the firm size distribution is often assumed to follow a Power Law. Several recent papers, using different estimators and different data sets, conclude that the Zipf Law, in particular, provides a good fit, implying that the fraction of firms with size above a given value is inversely proportional to the value itself. In this article we compare the asymptotic and small sample properties of different methods through which this conclusion has been reached. We find that the family of estimators most widely adopted, based on an OLS regression, is in fact unreliable and basically useless for appropriate inference. This finding raises doubts about previously identified Zipf behavior. Based on extensive numerical analysis, we recommend the adoption of the Hill estimator over any other method when individual observations are available
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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
- …
