Edizioni FrancoAngeli - Last issue of ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE (1/2013)

Labor-use efficiency and employment elasticity in Chinese manufacturing

Sat, 15 Mar 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Subal Kumbhakar, Rui Zhang
The paper analyzes labor-use efficiency and employment elasticity in China’s manufacturing sector by applying a stochastic input distance function to the panel data of twenty-eight Chinese manufacturing industries relative to 1999-2008. The outcome is a labor-use efficiency rate ranging from 32.9% to 100% with a mean value of 85.5%, in addition to efficiency gains over time. Employment elasticity was found to vary extensively across industries. Breaking down the employment rate of change into various components, such as technical change, technical efficiency change, and rate of change in inputs, etc., shows that the Chinese manufacturing industries experienced no "jobless growth" during the review period. Keywords: labor requirement function, technical inefficiency, stochastic frontier model

Firm survival during the crisis: evidence from Tuscany

Sat, 15 Mar 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Marco Mariani, Elena Pirani, Elena Radicchi
The economic crisis of the late 2000s has led many manufacturing companies to abandon the market as a result of poor performance or financial difficulties. The purpose of this study is to analyze the static and dynamic factors that play a role in prompting a company to exit the market. The assessment calls for applying survival analysis techniques to an Italian regional case study (Tuscany) to identify specific profiles among the firms observed both before and during the early years of the crisis. Our findings show that the "weeding-out" or selection process targets those companies that belong to supplier-dominated sectors, industrial districts and, more generally, firms that already suffered pre-crisis due to low levels of productivity or poor overall efficiency. Moreover, the results point to a lack of liquidity and the inability to cover interest expenses as key determinants of market exit during the crisis.

Ihe viability of size and age in the employment growth of italian smes

Sat, 15 Mar 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Marco Corsino, Roberto Gabriele, Sandro Trento
The paper empirically investigates gross job flows and the growth patterns of limited liability companies in Italy in 1996-2004, using original data on workforces and other company traits. The analysis shows that the phenomenon of regression to the mean only partially explains the tendency of small firms to grow at a faster pace than large organizations. The analysis of gross job flow indicates that the extent of job creation and job destruction shrunk in the aftermath of the economic downturn in 2001 and that the labour market was less efficient in allocating job opportunities. The econometric analysis shows that size has a negative impact on the net employment growth of a company, even though the negative correlation disappears among units with more than twenty-four employees. Firms with a history of maximum fourteen years outperform the average firm in the sample, while, conversely, the growth of companies is not influenced by their age if these have been in business for fifteen years or more, in fact it can even be a burden among the oldest firms in the sample.

Time, space, and international diversification of service firms: assessing the abnormal growth of container port MNs

Sat, 15 Mar 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Francesco Parola, Giovanni Satta, Luca Persico
Firms’ internationalization paths and their antecedents has become a major topic of recent international business (IB) literature. Indeed, a lively debate about the adequate degree of international diversification has recently emerged. To challenge the traditional temporal and spatial constructs proposed by the international theories, the profound restructuring of the container port sector - driven by the international opening of local markets, the evolution of competitive paradigms, and the overseas expansion of private stevedores - makes it an ideal setting. Using the strategic management and IB literature, the paper aims to demonstrate and measure the abnormal patterns of international diversification embarked on by container port multinational enterprises (MNEs). The analytical lens adopted examines two specific dimensions of internationalization: (i) time, i.e., the pace and rhythm of international diversification, and (ii) space, i.e., the geographic scope of a firm, modeled as inter- and intra-regional diversification. The findings suggest that some container port MNEs leapfrog some of the logical sequential internationalization phases. Moreover, even when latecomers pursue fast and irregular expansion patterns to catch up with the leaders, their geographic scope remains lower than that of the pioneering MNEs.

Outward fdi from italy during the crisis period

Sat, 15 Mar 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Sergio Mariotti, Marco Mutinelli
This article investigates outward FDI from Italy during the 2006-2011 period. The descriptive statistics show the difficulties in Italy’s capacity to promote direct investment abroad during the current economic crisis. Nonetheless, some signs of new internationalization trends are detected.

The internationalisation of r&d: sectoral and geographic patterns of cross-border investments

Sat, 15 Mar 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Cristina Castelli, Davide Castellani
This paper presents the sectoral and geographic distribution of R&D-related activities, in comparison with manufacturing activities, by analysing data (from the fDi Markets database) on the number of cross-border greenfield investment projects. Investments are concentrated in fewer sectors and countries than manufacturing, and are less sensitive to the obstacles related with the distance between home and host countries. More than two-thirds of all cross-border investments are in the ICT/Electronic and Life Sciences/Chemical sectors, showing a different propensity towards R&D and Design, Development and Testing activities. Almost half of the investments is due to multinationals from North America, and over one third from Western Europe, featuring a different sectoral specialisation. Asia is the largest recipient area for ICT/Electronics and Industrial Machinery, while Western Europe ranks second and attracts relatively more research units in Life Sciences/Chemicals and in the Machinery industry.