Author: Inter-American Development Bank
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349581518
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 366
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Book Description
This volume uses the study of firm dynamics to investigate the factors preventing faster productivity growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, pushing past the limits of traditional macroeconomic analyses. Each chapter is dedicated to an examination of a different factor affecting firm productivity - innovation, ICT usage, on-the-job-training, firm age, access to credit, and international linkages - highlighting the differences in firm characteristics, behaviors, and strategies. By showcasing this remarkable heterogeneity, this collection challenges regional policymakers to look beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and create balanced policy mixes tailored to distinct firm needs. This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.
Author: Akio Hosono
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811503648
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
This open access book provides a glimpse into the Japanese management technique known as “Kaizen,” and the ways it has been disseminated around the developing world. The novelty of this book is three-fold: it provides a contextualized view of the mechanisms of initiatives implementing Kaizen in developing countries; compared with productivity studies, it places the relationship between workers and managers at the center of inquiry, reflecting the intent of SDG8 concerning decent work and economic growth; and it provides an overview of the heterogeneity of Kaizen in terms of geography and firm size. This book explores how improving management techniques can support firms’ productivity and quality. Given its wide range of case studies from across Africa, Asia and Latin America, this book will be of value to scholars, policymakers and advocates of sustainable development alike.
Author: Zvi Griliches
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674003439
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 148
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Book Description
Griliches was a modern master of empirical economics. Here, he recounts what he and others have learned about the sources of economic growth, and conveys how he tackled research problems. For Griliches, theorizing without measurement produces mere parables, but measurement without theory is blind. Judgment enables one to strike the right balance.
Author: Daniel Lederman
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821384910
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 153
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Book Description
Does what economies export matter for development? If so, can industrial policies improve on the export basket generated by the market? This book approaches these questions from a variety of conceptual and policy viewpoints. Reviewing the theoretical arguments in favor of industrial policies, the authors first ask whether existing indicators allow policy makers to identify growth-promoting sectors with confidence. To this end, they assess, and ultimately cast doubt upon, the reliability of many popular indicators advocated by proponents of industrial policy. Second, and central to their critique, the authors document extraordinary differences in the performance of countries exporting seemingly identical products, be they natural resources or 'high-tech' goods. Further, they argue that globalization has so fragmented the production process that even talking about exported goods as opposed to tasks may be misleading. Reviewing evidence from history and from around the world, the authors conclude that policy makers should focus less on what is produced, and more on how it is produced. They analyze alternative approaches to picking winners but conclude by favoring 'horizontal-ish' policies--for instance, those that build human capital or foment innovation in existing and future products—that only incidentally favor some sectors over others.
Author: Sanjaya Lall
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349187984
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
Author: Mark A. Dutz
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464813205
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 139
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Book Description
Brazil approaches its 2018 election with an economy that is gradually recovering from the deepest recession in its recent economic history. However, for many Brazilians, the recovery has not yet translated into new and better jobs, or rising incomes. This book explores the drivers of future employment and income growth. Its key finding: Brazil needs to dramatically improve its performance across all industries in terms of productivity if the country is to provide better jobs for its citizens and generate lasting gains in incomes growth for all. This is particularly important as Brazil is aging rapidly and the boost the country has enjoyed thanks to its young and growing labor force in the past decades will disappear in just a few years’ time. The book recommends a change in the relationship between the state and business, from rewarding privileged incumbents to fostering competition and innovation—together with supporting workers and firms to adjust to the demands of the market. The book is addressed to all scholars and students of Brazil’s economy, especially those interested in why the country’s economic performance has not kept up with earlier achievements since the reintroduction of democracy in the mid-1980s. Its conclusions are urgent and pertinent but also optimistic. With the right policy mix, Brazil could enter the third century of its independence in 2022 well on track to join the ranks of high income countries.
Author: Swapan Kumar Patra
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000049302
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 221
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Book Description
The term BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is gaining global attention both in scholarly and popular discourse. BRICS countries are crucial in terms of their vast areas, huge population and have massive economic potential. These countries are also categorized as developing countries and are aspiring to be considered as developed countries. There is commonality among these countries in that they have similar issues and problems, which may require common solutions. Science, Technology and Innovation in BRICS Countries examines whether more emphasis on Science Technology and Innovation (STI) capability building could be the solution to these countries’ economic upgradation and poverty reduction. This book is a collection of various Science Technology and Innovation (STI) issues of BRICS economics, and will be of interest to general readers, scholars working in this field, as well as policy makers all over the globe. The contributions come from various scholars across the globe who have published their BRICS economics research in a special issue of the African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development.
Author: Andrea Ciani
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464815585
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 178
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Book Description
Economic and social progress requires a diverse ecosystem of firms that play complementary roles. Making It Big: Why Developing Countries Need More Large Firms constitutes one of the most up-to-date assessments of how large firms are created in low- and middle-income countries and their role in development. It argues that large firms advance a range of development objectives in ways that other firms do not: large firms are more likely to innovate, export, and offer training and are more likely to adopt international standards of quality, among other contributions. Their particularities are closely associated with productivity advantages and translate into improved outcomes not only for their owners but also for their workers and for smaller enterprises in their value chains. The challenge for economic development, however, is that production does not reach economic scale in low- and middle-income countries. Why are large firms scarcer in developing countries? Drawing on a rare set of data from public and private sources, as well as proprietary data from the International Finance Corporation and case studies, this book shows that large firms are often born large—or with the attributes of largeness. In other words, what is distinct about them is often in place from day one of their operations. To fill the “missing top†? of the firm-size distribution with additional large firms, governments should support the creation of such firms by opening markets to greater competition. In low-income countries, this objective can be achieved through simple policy reorientation, such as breaking oligopolies, removing unnecessary restrictions to international trade and investment, and establishing strong rules to prevent the abuse of market power. Governments should also strive to ensure that private actors have the skills, technology, intelligence, infrastructure, and finance they need to create large ventures. Additionally, they should actively work to spread the benefits from production at scale across the largest possible number of market participants. This book seeks to bring frontier thinking and evidence on the role and origins of large firms to a wide range of readers, including academics, development practitioners and policy makers.
Author: Alberto Rodriguez
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821374397
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
The research presented in this volume explains how well-educated workers can interact with physical capital inputs to innovate and add value to processes, products and services, ultimately creating a multiplier-effect on macroeconomic growth. It fills a significant gap in the existing literature by providing a detailed map of the relationship between microeconomic inputs such as health and education services and macroeconomic outputs such as growth. Grounded in economic theory and backed by economic analysis, Knowledge and Innovation for Competitiveness makes a compelling argument that human c.
Author: Patricia Hofmann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642345816
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 317
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Book Description
Economic globalisation and technological change are the two issues that concerned people in the past, concern them today and will concern them in the future - all over the world, poor or rich. Traditionally, questions about allocative effects are asked: What are the labour market implications? Who loses? Who wins? What is the net aggregate welfare effect after an adjustment period? However, two points are rarely taken into consideration: How do globalisation and technological change interact and what are the potential long-run implications for economic growth? This book addresses the interplay of these megatrends. It asks how economic globalisation may affect innovation and technology of individual firms and eventually the growth prospects of countries. Thereby it shows that protectionism not only harms static efficiency but might as well lead to dynamic losses. The book provides a systematic overview of the theoretical underpinnings of the openness-growth nexus and summarises the conceptual problems and important findings of the empirical analyses so far. The theoretical insights are supported by two empirical studies, the first dealing with the innovative behaviour and the “within-multinational” technology transfer of Spanish firms that were acquired by foreign companies and the second analysing productivity growth rate implications from exporting for German manufacturing firms.
