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1. Migrant Inventors and the Technological Advantage of Nations

Author:
Hillel Rapoport, Prithwiraj Choudhury, and Dany Bahar
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
We investigate the relationship between the presence of migrant inventors and the dynamics of innovation in the migrants’ receiving countries. We find that countries are 25 to 50 percent more likely to gain advantage in patenting in certain technologies given a twofold increase in the number of foreign inventors from other nations that specialize in those same technologies. For the average country in our sample this number corresponds to only 25 inventors and a standard deviation of 135. We deal with endogeneity concerns by using historical migration networks to instrument for stocks of migrant inventors. Our results generalize the evidence of previous studies that show how migrant inventors "import" knowledge from their home countries which translate into higher patenting. We complement our results with micro-evidence showing that migrant inventors are more prevalent in the first bulk of patents of a country in a given technology, as compared to patents filed at later stages. We interpret these results as tangible evidence of migrants facilitating the technology-specific diffusion of knowledge across nations.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, Migration, Science and Technology, Migrant Workers, and Knowledge Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Innovation and Precarity: Workplace Discourse in Twenty-First Century Capitalism

Author:
Sidney Rothstein
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
Abstract:
This paper analyzes discourse in the workplace in order to explain puzzling patterns of precarity in twenty-first century capitalism. Tech workers’ central role in digital transformation endows them with labor market power reflected by their high wages, but during economic downturns, when demand for their skills decreases, even they are vulnerable to downsizing. Comparing workers’ responses to downsizing at two sites of an American tech firm, this paper shows how management disempowers workers by framing the employment relationship in a financial discourse. Disposing workers to believe that their jobs are threatened by market forces beyond their control, rather than by managers’ decisions, this financial discourse undermines labor’s established power resources by persuading workers that mobilizing will be ineffective in protecting their jobs. Relying on detailed case study evidence, this paper demonstrates the importance of discourse to explaining variation in worker power. It argues that the workplace should play a larger role in comparative political economy, particularly in explaining labor market outcomes related to digital transformation.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Hegemony, Capitalism, Discourse, Knowledge Economy, Power, and Digital Platform Workers
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY PYRAMID: Transforming Knowledge Value in Increasing Productivity and Competitiveness

Author:
Octavian Serban
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
The global economy’s landscape needs a new economic model where knowledge is used as a valuable resource to stimulate innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship in order to increase productivity and competitiveness for sustainable growth as a premise for social welfare. The policymakers have to design the new public policy for productivity and competitiveness considering the Knowledge Economy frontier and to establish the institutional capacity to manage the knowledge perspective of development. The Knowledge Economy Pyramid model is a catalyst of knowledge ecosystems from education, research, technology, business, innovation, government and local communities, capable to create a collaborative environment with synergy effect: transforming knowledge value in increasing productivity and competitiveness. The Knowledge Economy Pyramid is a robust framework based on the four pillars of Knowledge Economy with three effective and powerful structures build upon: Knowledge Triangle, Triple Helix, and Smart Specialization. The main axis which unifies these structures is education-business and all the other stakeholders from research, science, technology, government, administration, clusters, and community are equal contributors to process the knowledge along the central shaft. Considering the Knowledge Economy Pyramid model, this research work is defining the coordinates of the public policy for productivity and competitiveness which will be implemented by the institutional capacity – Productivity and Competitiveness Center. This institution is a concrete and accurate representation of the Knowledge Economy Pyramid model with the scope to implement the principles of Knowledge Economy to increase productivity and competitiveness as outputs of the process. Moreover, the capacity building will provide the premises to conclude the new public policy into outcomes: standard of living, well-being, quality of life, and green growth. Knowledge Economy Pyramid provides a toolkit for policy/decision- makers to take action in order to improve the activity at any stage of development or maturity for an economy or institution related with productivity and competitiveness and it is able to measure the gap between actual development level and the knowledge edge. From an economic perspective, to analyze the concepts of productivity and competitiveness in Knowledge Economy, this study is a very complex work where the tangible is mixed with the intangible, human with technology, economic growth with people prosperity. This study is a “one-stop shop” for all the policy/decision-makers, leaders, representatives, officials, professors, researchers, specialists and practitioners, all engaged in the work to transform the traditional economic model into a new one, according to the Knowledge Economy Pyramid framework.
Topic:
Economic Growth, Innovation, Strategic Competition, Knowledge Production, Productivity, Knowledge Economy, and Specialization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Globalization, Peace & Stability, Governance, and Knowledge Economy

Author:
Voxi Amavilah, Simplice A. Asongu, and Antonio Rodríguez Andrés
Publication Date:
08-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
A previous analysis of the impact of formal institutions on the knowledge economy of 22 MiddleEastern and Sub-Sahara African countries during the 1996-2010 time period concluded that formal institutions were necessary, but inadequate, determinants of the knowledge economy. To extend that study, this paper claims that globalization induces peace and stability, which affects governance and through governance the knowledge economy. The claim addresses one weakness of previous research that did not consider the effects on the knowledge economy of globalization. We model the proposition as a three-stage process in four hypotheses, and estimate each hypothesis using robust estimators that are capable of dealing with the usual statistical problems without sacrificing economic relevance and significance. The results indicate that globalization has varying effects on peace and stability, and peace and stability affect governance differently depending on what kind of globalization induces it. For instance, the effects on governance induced by globalization defined as trade are stronger than those resulting from globalization taken to be foreign direct investment. Hence, we conclude that foreign direct investment is not a powerful mechanism for stimulating and sustaining the knowledge economy in our sample of countries. However, since globalization-induced peace and stability have both positive and negative effects on governance simultaneously, we also conclude that while the prospect for knowledge economy in African countries is dim, it is still realistic and attainable as long as these countries continue to engage in the kind of globalization that does indeed induce peace and stability. We further conclude that there is a need for a sharper focus on economic and institutional governance than on general governance as one possible extension of this paper.
Topic:
Globalization, Governance, Political stability, Peace, and Knowledge Economy
Political Geography:
Middle East, Global Focus, and Sub-Saharan Africa

5. The Impact of Formal Institutions on Knowledge Economy

Author:
Antonio Rodríguez Andrés, Simplice A. Asongu, and Voxi Amavilah
Publication Date:
07-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
Using Kauffman, Kraay, and Mastruzzi governance indicators, this article analyzes the impact of formal institutions on the knowledge economy- by assessing how the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) through good governance mechanisms affects the knowledge economy. The article also employs the World Bank’s four components of the knowledge economy index characteristic of its knowledge for development (K4D) framework. We estimate panel data models for 22 Middle East & North African and Sub-Sahara African countries over the period 1996-2010. The results show that for this group of countries the enforcement of IPR laws (treaties), although necessary, is not a sufficient condition for a knowledge economy. The results also suggest that other factors are more likely to determine the knowledge economies of these nations. Overall these findings have important implications for both policy and further research.
Topic:
Economics, Institutions, Knowledge Economy, and Panel Data
Political Geography:
Global Focus