What are the comparative advantages of Chinese scientific research? How important is trust in Ethiopian diaspora policies? And how do Arab countries perform in terms of technology transfer in manufacturing? Just three of the questions tackled by UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance in September 2015. Our most recent publications are detailed below including three research reports, four book chapters, and 12 journal articles, among many more. Click here for the full list.
Book Chapters
‘The Role of Rare Earth Supply Risk in Low-Carbon Technology Innovation’ is a book chapter in Rare Earths Industry: Technological, Economic and Environmental Implications. The book offers a synthesis of the current research needed for managing Rare Earth Elements resources and reducing their potential environmental impacts. The various chapters present the latest techniques, approaches, processes and technologies to reduce the costs of compliance with environmental concerns with a view, in turn, to anticipate and mitigate emerging problems. By PhD fellow Eva Bartekova.
‘Multiple Child Deprivation in Romania’ is a book chapter in ’25 Years Since the Romanian Revolution’. This chapter employs a Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) to look at different dimensions of child deprivation in Romania. This analysis fits into the objectives underlined by the European Commission and CRC to measure, disseminate and inform on the vulnerability and deprivation of children in Romania. By Dr. Victor Cebotari, Dr. Denisa Maria Sologon et al.
Journal Articles
‘Introduction to Low-Carbon Innovation and Development: Insights and Future Challenges for Research‘ brings together the fields of low-carbon development (LCD) and innovation studies and contributes to the debate by addressing how the learning, innovation, and competence-building lens adds to the discussion about the development outcomes of climate change mitigation. The aim of this article is fourfold. First, it discusses key advances in the debate about the role of innovation and competence building in LCD in developing countries. Second, it seeks to add to the debate by paying particular attention to the heterogeneity of developing countries in terms of the context and innovative capacity for LCD. Third, it addresses the challenges to policy arising from such differentiated starting points. Finally, it sets forth the insights from the articles in this issue and the implications for future research.By Dr. Michiko Iizuka et al.
‘To Return Permanently or to Return Temporarily? Explaining Migrants’ Intentions‘ expands on the notion of return as an event or process that can be either permanent or temporary in nature, with both forms of return contributing to development processes. The study shows that there are significantly more people interested in temporary rather than permanent return. Considering the potentially positive impact of (temporary) return on development, this research provides insights into the profiles of potential return migrants who could be helped to return by relevant programmes and policies. By Dr. Özge Bilgili and Dr. Melissa Siegel.
‘Replication Data for: A Configurational Analysis of Ethnic Protest in Europe‘ analyses the conditions under which ethnic minorities intensify or moderate their protest behaviour. This study employs a technique – fuzzy-set analysis – that is geared toward matching comparable groups to specific analytical configurations of causal factors to explain the choice for strong and weak protest. The authors find that while territorial concentration is a necessary condition for strong protest, national pride is a necessary condition for weak protest. The contextual factors of level of democracy and ethnic fractionalisation, which are often emphasised in the literature, and the perceived political discrimination of a group, are neither necessary nor individually sufficient conditions for either strong or weak protest. By Dr. Victor Cebotari et al.
‘Estimation of Rates of Return on Social Protection: Ex-ante Microsimulation of Social Transfers in Cambodia‘ goes beyond standard cost-efficiency analyses by developing a dynamic microsimulation model. The study shows that social protection promotes equitable economic growth by enhancing human capital and fostering economic performance at the micro level. A positive rate of return is achieved after 12 periods and can reach between 12% and 15% after 20 periods. This study shows that microsimulation models can be extended in order to analyse the long-term economic returns on social protection. By PhD fellow Andres Mideros Mora, Prof. Franziska Gassmann and Prof. Pierre Mohnen.
‘Overview of Technology Transfer in Manufacturing Industries in the Arab Countries: the case of UAE and Sudan‘ fills a gap in Arab literature by investigating the channels and effects of technology transfer in industrial manufacturing firms in the UAE and Sudan. The paper supports efforts aimed at enhancing the positive effects of technology transfer for both building the absorptive capacity and building knowledge-based economies in the Arab region. The findings imply that it is essential for the Arab region to support the absorptive capacity in order to utilise the effects of technology transfer to boost industrial firms and to achieve sustainable economic development in the UAE, Sudan and the Arab region. By Dr. Samia Nour.
‘The Economic Importance and Impacts of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) In Sudan‘ examines the factors hindering and contributing toward enhancing IPRs in Sudan. The study finds that the inadequacy of IPRs protection in Sudan is attributed to low integration in the international institutions, lack of legal issues, lack of government concern, lack of private sector concern, weak institutions setting, lack of public awareness, lack of resources, a weak culture for IPRs, lack of cooperation between universities and industry and lack of coordination. The inadequate IPRs protection in Sudan leads to poor national system of innovation, hindering Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and hindering transfer of technology. By Dr. Samia Nour.
‘The Impact of ICT in Public and Private Universities in Sudan‘ explains the most important advantages linked to using the internet for enhancing production, creation and transfer of knowledge. These include the increase of digital knowledge for academic and researchers, the rapid quantitative and qualitative increase in transferring information, the development of new models for disseminating and distributing electronic information, and the increase of free access to electronic publications for academic purposes. The study finds that the main problem related to using the internet is the lack of a regular budget for university libraries to pay for licenses and access to scientific and technical information. By Dr. Samia Nour.
‘The Socio-Economic Sustainability of Refugee Return: Insights from Burundi‘ uses household and community data collected from 1,500 households. From both a household perspective and community perspective, the study raises various questions about the sustainability of return in Burundi. The findings provide support for studying sustainability from a wider view that incorporates both household and community perspectives, together with a multidimensional approach that includes multiple indicators. The results also show that returnees are not a uniform group by highlighting the additional challenges confronted by second-generation returnees in Burundi. By Dr. Sonja Fransen.
‘Optimal Health Investment and Preference Structure‘ develops a general equilibrium framework to study the role of preference structure (additive, multiplicative and a convex combination of the two) in connecting consumption, health investment, stock of health and capital, and their effects on the wage rate and on productivity. The study shows that the elasticities of health production, health investment and health cost determine jointly how health influences the wage rate. By Prof. Théophile T. Azomahou, Prof. Luc Soete et al.
‘Determinants of Diaspora Policy Engagement of Ethiopians in the Netherlands‘ examines Ethiopian migrants in the Netherlands, specifically their awareness of and participation in five different diaspora policies implemented by the Government of Ethiopia. The authors explore the factors that contribute to having knowledge of these diaspora policies from a sample of 350 Ethiopians in the Netherlands. Five categories of factors are investigated including: socio-demographic characteristics, transnational ties, integration, migration experience, and trust. The study finds that trust and migration experience are the most significant variables in determining knowledge of the Ethiopian diaspora policies. By Dr. Katherine Kuschminder and Dr. Melissa Siegel.
‘High-Growth versus Declining Firms: The Differential Impact of Human Capital and R&D‘ provides evidence that both human capital and R&D increase the likelihood that a firm will be a high-growth firm in the industry. However, different from human capital, being an R&D active firm also increases the probability of substantial decline or failure, underscoring the risky nature of innovation. The study shows that, different from R&D, human capital is growth-enhancing for all firms, hence also those located in the lower quantiles of the distribution of growth rates across firms. By Dr. Micheline Goedhuys et al.
‘The Structure and Comparative Advantages of China’s Scientific Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives‘ finds that the quality of China’s research, represented by papers published in high-impact journals, is promising. Since 2006 the growth of scientific publications in China has been driven by papers published in English-language journals. The study finds that increasing visibility of Chinese science seems to be paving the way for its wider recognition and higher citation rates. By Dr. Lili Wang.
Working Papers
‘Industrialisation in Time and Space’ analyses broad changes in the global structure of production in the last half century. A novelty of the paper is the use of sector-specific PPPs to estimate the structure of production in current PPP international dollars. The original contribution of this dataset is that it covers almost the entire world for a very long span of time and uses the best available data in order to express all variables in a measure that is internationally comparable. In constructing this dataset the authors also explored different measures to analyse the major shifts in global production and found that the indicator used to measure the level of “industrialisation” is not neutral. This working paper is part of a collaborative research effort of UNIDO and UNU‐MERIT. It has been commissioned as a background paper for the UNIDO Industrial Development Report 2016. By Dr. Alejandro Lavopa and Prof. Adam Szirmai.
‘Measuring Innovation in all Sectors of the Economy‘ reviews the history of measurement of innovation using definitions in three editions of the Oslo Manual. The study then draws on work on innovation in the public sector and innovation by households to generalise the Oslo Manual definitions for application in all sectors of the economy, as defined in the 2008 Manual for the System of National Accounts. The generalised, or meta-definitions are then discussed in the context of each sector and linked to current literature. Finally, the role of measurement in policy learning is considered as well as the importance of innovation indicators for the development, monitoring and evaluation of innovation policy across the economy. By Prof. Fred Gault.
‘The Emergence of Parallel Trajectories in The Automobile Industry: Environmental Issues and the Creation of New Markets‘ shows how three trajectories are being traced simultaneously in a noncompeting environment around the world. This paper finds that industries of the South are continuously learning and improving; yet only a few firms, as the case of India and China prove, have been able to actively invest in Northern firms. These cases appear to represent a new international business (IB) model featuring, on the one hand, Southern owners with the funds to acquire a Northern firm without the technological mastery of the North, and on the other hand, Northern firms with technological mastery but in need of financial injections. The learning effects of these trajectories are still unknown, and a new body of IB literature based on case studies is just starting to form. By Dr. Bertha Vallejo.
‘UNU-MERIT at 25 Years: How Doctoral Training at UNU-MERIT Contributes to the Community of Scholars in the Economies of Innovation?‘ concurs with previous contributions to the literature which show how the creation of different institutions, from research organisations, learned societies and meeting places facilitate interaction, promote collaboration and underpin the work of the rapidly growing community of innovation scholars. A pertinent contribution of this paper is the distinction and contrast of networking activities in terms of social and scientific activities, which is expected to shed light on the effectiveness of social networks and social capital. By Dr. Semih Akçomak, Dr. Abraham Garcia and Dr. Fernando Santiago-Rodriguez.
‘Foreign Direct Investment and Technology Spillovers in Low and Middle-Income Countries: A Comparative Cross-Sectoral Analysis‘ analyses the trends in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows worldwide across sectors and across value‐chain activities, with a particular focus on low‐ and middle‐income countries in comparison with advanced countries. Overall, the findings of this study point to the heterogeneous nature of FDI flows across countries and across sectors. Most knowledge‐intensive FDI projects tend to be concentrated in advanced economies and a few emerging economies. Non‐EIE developing countries tend to receive a proportionately higher share of FDI projects in natural‐resource intensive sectors such as, in particular, mining and construction. This working paper is part of a collaborative research effort of UNIDO and UNU‐MERIT. It has been commissioned as a background paper for the UNIDO Industrial Development Report 2016. By Dr. Jojo Jacob and PhD fellow Simone Sasso.
‘Does Too Much Work Hamper Innovation? Evidence for Diminishing Returns of Work Hours for Patent Grants‘ suggests that individual time is an important factor that needs to be considered in innovation research. The study finds that work time has a positive but diminishing effect on innovative output such that after a certain point the innovation-enhancing role of work time is taken over by individual free time. This working paper is part of a collaborative research effort of UNIDO and UNU‐MERIT. It has been commissioned as a background paper for the UNIDO Industrial Development Report 2016. By Dr. Mehmet Guney Celbis and PhD fellow Serdar Turkeli.
Research Reports
‘Afghanistan Remittance Overview and Trends‘ provides an overview of remittance trends, their implications for Afghanistan and the development trajectory of the country. Remittances, the money and goods sent from migrants living away from their places of habitual residence, can play an important role in contributing to economic resilience during conflict and post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction phases. While there is much debate about the most effective use of remittances and ways in which sustainable remittance use can be encouraged, the pivotal role of remittances in supplementing and buoying livelihoods and livelihood opportunities cannot be dismissed, especially in the Afghan context. By Dr. Michaella Vanore and PhD fellow Katrin Marchand.
‘Afghanistan Return and Circular Migration’ provides an overview of return and circular migration flows currently occurring in Afghanistan and suggests policy options for managing the changing return migration flows to Afghanistan. By Dr. Katherine Kuschminder, PhD fellow Katrin Marchand et al.
‘Afghanistan Migration Profile’ provides detailed information on the migration patterns in Afghanistan with a focus on circular migration and remittances. The report is a tool to be used to enhance policy coherence, evidence-based policymaking and the mainstreaming of migration into development planning. It was prepared in consultation with a broad range of government and non-government stakeholders. By PhD fellow Katrin Marchand, Dr. Melissa Siegel, Dr. Katherine Kuschminder, Dr. Michaella Vanore et al.
Conference Presentations
‘Fostering Social Mobility. The Case of the Bono De Desarrollo Humano in Ecuador‘ evaluates the long-term effect of social transfers on social mobility. The study shows that there are clear poverty traps (demographic, low education, low labour participation) and inequalities that constrain social mobility. The authors also find new evidence of the positive effects of social transfers on social mobility: i.e. that social transfers have a higher positive effect if they are part of a comprehensive strategy for poverty eradication. By PhD fellow Andres Mideros Mora and Prof. Franziska Gassmann.
MEDIA CREDITS
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