World imports of goods rose by almost 10% in real terms in 2006 under rapid output growth notably in emerging economies. World imports will grow by around 8% in 2007 and 2008 less rapidly in industrial countries (7% per year), than in emerging economies, and first of all China (15% per year)....

Working on a micro based data set this paper attempts to shed light on the effects of public grants on firms? investments, with particular emphasis on ICT adoption. The results show that adoption of ICT is affected by both the industry and firm characteristics. We examine particularly whether...

The paper analyses the co-ordinating role that markets and organisations are called on to play in determining productivity gains. In fact, the viability of innovation processes cannot be dissociated from the way market structures emerge and evolve. The success (or not) of the introduction of new...

The paper reviews work which draws a link between the dynamics of innovation and the dynamics of stock prices. One of the key findings is the relationship between innovation intensity (e.g. radical innovation) and the volatility of firm level stock returns. By connecting the analysis of risk and...

Recent advances in the measurement of productivity change have exposed a much clearer picture of the turbulent dynamics of restless capitalism. This essay has two objectives. First, to show that the population method drawn from evolutionary theory provides a coherent frame in which the various...

This paper estimates the dynamics of price cost margins in UK manufacturing over the period 1989-1997 and links it to the implementation of the Single Market Program. Using the Hall-Roeger methodology, we find a dramatic decline in price cost margins by 25% after 1990. This suggests that firms...

A consensus has emerged that the remarkable behavior of Information Technology (IT) prices provides the key to the surge in U.S. economic growth after 1995. The relentless decline in the prices of information technology equipment and software has steadily enhanced the role of IT investment....

The theme of industry life cycle (ILC) is today one of the central fields of research in industrial dynamics. ILC shows that industries behave like biological organisms, and proceed through different phases of development, from emergence to decline. Although this approach constitutes one of the...

We review the evolution of the market and geographic structure of the automobile, television receiver, and tyre industries in order to gain insights into the primary forces governing the agglomeration of industries. Spinoffs, which are firms founded by employees of incumbent producers, played a...