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Abstract:
Interest in links between protection of intellectual property and growth has been revived by developments in new growth theory and by the WTO's TRIPS Agreement. The relationship between the strength of a country's intellectual property rights (IPRs) regime and rate of growth is ambiguous from a theoretical standpoint, reflecting the variety of channels through which technology can be acquired and their differing importance at different stages of development. We investigate the impact of IPR protection on economic growth in a panel of 79 countries using threshold regression analysis. We show that whilst the effect of IPR protection on growth depends upon the level of development, it is positively and significantly related to growth for low- and high-income countries, but not for middle-income countries. This suggests that, although IPR protection encourages innovation in high-income countries, and technology flows to low-income countries, middle-income countries may have offsetting losses from reduced scope for imitation.

Abstract:
Interest in links between protection of intellectual property and growth has been revived by developments in new growth theory and by the WTO's TRIPS Agreement. The relationship between the strength of a country's intellectual property rights (IPRs) regime and its rate of growth is theoretically ambiguous, reflecting the variety of channels through which technology can be acquired and their differing importance at different levels of development. In this paper, we investigate the impact of IPR protection on economic growth in a panel data of 80 countries using threshold regression analysis. We show that whilst the impact of IPR protection on growth depends upon the level of development, IPR protection is positively and significantly related to growth for low- and high-income countries, but not for middle-income countries. This suggests that, while IPR protection encourages innovation in high-income countries, and technology flows to low income countries, middle-income countries may have offsetting losses from reduced scope for imitation.

Intellectual property rights, economic growth

Abstract:
Labor market performance has differed considerably between OECD countries over the last two decades. The focus of the literature so far has been to ask whether these differences can be explained by varying degrees of labor market rigidities and generosity of welfare states. This paper takes a different perspective and analyzes whether differences in venture capital investments have explanatory power with respect to labor market performance across countries and over time. In particular, the Anglo-Saxon countries have been relatively successful over the last two decades in producing employment growth and in reducing unemployment compared to most continental European OECD countries. As a rule they have also been and are still ahead in developing thriving venture capital markets that are often deemed crucial for the creation of new firms and for successfully managing the ongoing radical structural change away from traditional industrial production toward the so-called "new economy".

Labor Markets, Venture Capital, Unemployment, New Economy, Panel Analysis

Abstract:
Anglo-Saxon countries have been successful in the 1990s concerning labor market performance compared to the former role models Germany and Japan. This reversal in relative economic performance might be related to idiosyncrasies in financial markets, with bank-based financial markets as in Germany and Japan being possibly inferior to stockmarket-based financial markets in turbulent times and when approaching the economic frontier. A cleavage is related to venture capital markets which are flourishing on Anglo-Saxon but not on German type financial markets. Venture capital is crucial for financing structural change, new firms and innovations and therefore possibly also nowadays for employment growth.

Labor Markets, Venture Capital, Unemployment, New Economy, Panel Data Analysis

Abstract:
The endogenous growth literature has stimulated empirical research into links between trade and growth in general and international knowledge spillovers in particular. Results relating to the latter have been mixed and the issue of the appropriate construction of the spillover variable remains contentious. In this paper we develop measures taking account of whether knowledge is a public or private good in the donor and recipient countries, and include these in a dynamic panel model of growth. For a sample of five OECD donor countries and 52 developing recipient countries, we conclude that it matters little whether we treat knowledge as a private or public good in the donor but that spillovers, if they exist, act as a public good in the recipient. We also find that the level of trade is important in facilitating knowledge spillovers from donors to recipients.

Knowledge Spillovers, Economic Growth, International Trade, Dynamic Panel Data

Abstract:
In this paper we search for evidence of North-South trade-related knowledge spillovers from a sample of five major OECD countries to 45 developing countries using panel data. We then extend the analysis to examine whether the impact of domestic factors affects the extent of knowledge spillovers. In particular, we investigate whether knowledge spillovers are stronger, the further a country is behind the technological leader, or whether they are stronger in countries with higher levels of absorptive capacity. Our results suggest that the impact of trade-related knowledge spillovers on growth does not depend upon how far a country is behind the technological leader, but that knowledge spillovers are stronger in countries with higher levels of absorptive capacity.

Absorptive capacity, backwardness, economic growth, knowledge spillovers

Abstract:
Economic theory suggests some ambiguity concerning the effects of strengthening intellectual property rights (IPRs) on international trade. Here we extend the empirical literature that attempts to resolve this ambiguity. We use panel data to estimate a gravity equation for manufacturing exports, in aggregate and by industry, from five advanced countries to 69 developed and developing countries over the period 1970-99. In particular, we use threshold regression techniques to determine whether the impact of IPR protection on trade depends upon the level of development, imitative ability and market size of the importing country. We confirm the importance of the importers' imitative ability, and also find some evidence of a role for market size in this relationship. The individual industries present different patterns of thresholds and coefficients, with total manufacturing closely reflecting that of fabricated metal products.

Intellectual Property Rights, International Trade, Gravity Equation, Imitative Ability

Abstract:
Economic theory predicts that consumption growth rates should be highly correlated across countries. Empirical evidence overwhelmingly rejects this prediction. We examine whether increased financial integration and labour market rigidities can help explain this apparent contradiction between theory and empirics. Using data for OECD countries we show that although financial integration has a limited impact upon cross-country consumption correlations, labour market rigidities significantly increase consumption correlations. The results suggest that labour market rigidities improve the allocation of consumption risks either by shifting risk from employees to firms and shareholders or because it makes future income streams easier to use as collateral.

consumption correlation puzzle, financial integration, foreign direct investment, employment protection

Abstract:
Panel data is used to investigate the extent of R&D spillovers between OECD countries, and the importance of barriers to technology adoption in affecting the benefits of such spillovers. Our results indicate that countries with less regulated goods and labour markets benefit more from foreign R&D.

R&D Spillovers, Technology Adoption, Economic Growth

Abstract:
Many economic reforms are undertaken at a time of economic crisis. But is this a good time to undertake trade reform? In this paper we investigate whether an economic crisis at the time of trade liberalization affects a country's subsequent growth performance. We employ threshold regression techniques on five crisis indicators commonly used in the literature, to identify the relevant "crisis values" and to estimate the differential post-liberalization growth effects in the crisis and non-crisis regimes. We find that the post-liberalization growth depends on the characteristics of the crisis. Broadly speaking, an internal crisis implies lower growth and an external crisis higher growth relative to the non-crisis regime. These effects appear to be present in both the short and longer runs.

Trade liberalisation, Growth, Crises

Abstract:
The impact of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies' trade integration with European markets on CEE trade structures has been studied extensively. These studies frequently observe a quality upgrading of CEE exports. In this paper we consider three dimensions of quality upgrading: upgrading across industries, upgrading across different quality segments within industries and, finally, product upgrading within quality segments inside industries. For the analysis we partition industries into quality segments based on EU-15 import unit values. The results for ten CEE countries (comprising the CEE-5, the Baltics and South East Europe) and thirteen industries suggest fundamental differences, both across country groups and across the three different notions of quality upgrading. The CEE-5 show no evidence of entering a 'low-quality trap' in all three dimensions. By contrast, while there is a general catching-up process across industries and inside quality segments, the second notion of low-quality specialization may be applicable within the high-tech industries to the performance for the Baltics and South East Europe as a group.

Abstract:
Individual country experience with trade liberalisation has been mixed. This paper examines the relationship between liberalisation and growth for a sample of 75 liberalising countries. To consider the importance of heterogeneity in the growth response to liberalisation this paper employs quantile regression methods which allow the coefficient on liberalisation to vary across the conditional growth distribution. The results suggest that countries experiencing the lowest rates of growth benefit most from liberalisation. The results also suggest that while such countries benefit most in the long-run they are the most likely to suffer from short-run negative effects of liberalisation.