Governments consult various groups when preparing their eco-innovation policies – but can these consultations truly safeguard the public interest? A new manual sets the standard for data collection, interpretation and policymaking to ensure a greener global economy.
Refugees in Uganda often look for jobs outside of camps and settlements – but what helps or hinders their search for work? What discrimination do they face and how much can they trust local employers? A new report considers the evidence from urban areas across Uganda.
Care and social protection transfers are a lifeline for many families, particularly for women – but can all countries afford the “full package”? If not, what should be the priorities beyond healthcare and income support? A UN discussion paper presents a new costing analysis.
These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in November 2019 — in five reports, four journal articles, and four working papers, among many others. Click here for the full list of our most recent publications.
Reports
‘The Maastricht manual on measuring eco-innovation for a green economy’ is a new tool for studying eco-innovation, for learning about this activity, and supporting policy that can lead to a greener economy. In addition to setting standards for data collection and interpretation, the manual educates the reader, encourages the use of data and indicators, while building communities of practice in support of the green economy. By Prof. René Kemp, Prof. Anthony Arundel, Dr. Serdar Turkeli et al.
‘Decision making on the Balkan route and the EU-Turkey statement’ unpacks the changing dynamics of the migration flows on the Western Balkans route from 2015-2018. This report focuses specifically on the role of the EU-Turkey Statement in influencing refugees and migrants’ decision making. Multiple facets of the EU-Turkey Statement have therefore not been included in this report, such as details regarding returns under the one-for-one arrangement, or the resettlement of Syrians from Turkey to the EU. This report aims to address the interplay of policy dynamics and refugees and migrants’ decision making, and to ascertain how different interventions, including potential future interventions, may impact migration flows. By Dr. Katherine Kuschminder, Talitha Dubow et al.
‘Relevant data to understand migration in the EU’ provides a review of presently-existing data sources on migration between EU Member States and aims to map the main patterns and dynamics of migration within the EU28. The report aims to facilitate a more effective discussion on the consequences of the right to free movement in the EU for countries of origin and destination and their respective societies, labour markets, and social systems. By Dr. Katrin Marchand, Prof. Melissa Siegel et al.
‘Improving access to labour markets for refugees: Evidence from Uganda’ studies the frictions faced by refugees to access local labour markets in Uganda. The report collects evidence on what frictions refugees face to access local labour markets in Uganda. The authors find some evidence of discrimination by SMEs in major urban areas, incomplete or wrong information around the legal status of refugees in the country, discrepancy between what refugees do when looking for jobs and what firms ask to job-seekers, and presence of in-group favoritism among refugees and a general low level of trust towards locals. The authors also explore what factors would help refugees to move outside their settlements and look for jobs in urban areas around the country. By PhD fellow Mariajose Silva Vargas.
‘Costing of a package of family-friendly transfers and services to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment: An introduction to the calculations and results‘ presents a costing analysis for a set of family-friendly services and transfers. The social protection and care policies that are included in the costing have enormous significance for families and broader society, and their implementation would have particularly important impacts for women. This discussion paper looks at an integrated package of family-friendly services and transfers and estimates the costs for a large sample of countries. The costing shows that such a package is affordable in many countries.Those countries that cannot finance the full package can initially afford at least some of its critical elements, such as health care or income support. This discussion paper was commissioned as a background paper for the 2019–2020 report, “Progress of the world’s women: Families in a changing world”, and is released as part of the UN Women discussion paper series. By Dr. Mira Bierbaum et al.
Journal articles
‘User innovation in the digital economy‘ reviews the current state of user innovation in the business and the households sectors and considers the impact of the digital economy on user innovation. The article introduces a general definition of innovation, applicable in all sectors of the economy, to expand the domain of user innovation to all economic sectors, not just the business sector and households. This raises questions about innovation policy, especially in a digital economy, and how policy affects innovation in households. Outcomes of this study include the implications for skills needed to support user innovation in the different economic sectors of the digital economy and the relevance of user innovation to policy objectives. By Prof. Fred Gault.
‘Strategic orientation, innovation performance and the moderating influence of marketing management‘ aims at exploring the relationship between a firm’s strategic orientation, marketing management in terms of marketing mix tactics, and innovation performance. The article examines three types of strategic orientations: customer, technology, and combined customer/technology orientation, and analyses their direct effect on innovation performance as well as the moderating effect of marketing management in terms of the marketing mix on this relationship. The study shows that the moderating effect of marketing management in boosting innovation success is positive for all orientations, but greatest for organisations with a technology orientation. By Isabel Bodas Freitas et al.
‘The use of external support and the benefits of the adoption of resource efficiency practices: An empirical analysis of European SMEs’ seeks to examine the relationship between the use of external support for the adoption of resource efficiency practices and the extent and profitability of this adoption by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The article shows that the effects of the adoption of resource efficiency practices on production costs are higher among firms that receive external financial support for adoption, as well as among those firms that adopt a wide set of process reengineering measures for resource efficiency. However, external technical and business advice plays an important role in the extent of adoption of different resource efficiency measures. By Isabel Bodas Freitas et al.
‘Understanding differences in household expenditure inequality between India and Indonesia‘ aims to explain the different levels of household expenditure inequality in India and Indonesia. The study decomposes it into the contribution of price effects, demographic effects and labour market structure effects. Differences in expenditure structures (price effects) and demographic characteristics are found to be the greatest contributors to the inequality gap across the two countries. The study finds that the difference in the education distribution of household heads also has a positive and significant impact on the inequality gap. Differences in the labour market structure, on the other hand, turn out to be less important. By Dr. Arip Muttaqien, Prof. Cathal O’Donoghue et al.
Working papers
‘Confronting the challenge of immigrant and refugee student underachievement: Policies and practices from Canada, New Zealand and the European Union’ examines the double- and triple disadvantages that characterise immigrant and refugee student groups. The paper highlights the different levels of adversity that these groups face, which are not only related to socioeconomic background characteristics but also to migration trajectory factors. The paper synthesises trends from policies and practices associated with more favourable student outcomes and discusses concrete cases from Canada, New Zealand and the European Union. The paper calls for contextually and culturally responsive adaptation of promising policies and the implementation of new policies that effectively engage communities and enhance the skills of educators. By Dr. Özge Bilgili, Prof. Louis Volante, Prof. Melissa Siegel et al.
‘The impact of mission-oriented R&D on domestic and foreign private and public R&D, total factor productivity and GDP‘ analyses the dynamic interaction of mission-oriented R&D expenditure stocks with domestic and foreign private and public R&D, total-factor-productivity (TFP) and gross domestic product (GDP) for seven EU countries. For most countries the study finds that in steady states mission R&D reacts to foreign and domestic public R&D and increases TFP. TFP, foreign public and domestic private R&D have two-way causality relations. By Dr. Thomas Ziesemer.
‘Credit constraints and trade performance: Does trust-based social capital matter?’ argues that financially constrained sectors are relatively better off in countries with a higher social trust level. The study finds that countries with a higher social trust level export more in financially vulnerable sectors because they export more products to each destination (extensive margin) and sell more of each product (intensive margin), which is in line with the hypothesis. With the exception of the intensive margin, these results are robust to a battery of sensitivity checks, including controlling for formal financing. By Dr. Gideon Ndubuisi and Dr. Maty Konte.
‘The effect of public funding on scientific performance: A comparison between China and the EU‘ studies the role of public funding in the development of science and technology. The paper analyses a dataset of co-publications between China and the EU and a dataset of joint project collaborations in European Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation (FP7 & H2020) in order to investigate whether different public funding agencies have different goals in their research policy. The results show that projects funded by the Seventh Framework Programme and Horizon 2020 do not have a positive contribution to the output of joint publications between China and the EU. By Dr. Lili Wang et al.
PhD defences
‘Rethinking economic growth and structural change: The role of boundaries and linkages between industries’ discusses two central questions: How can countries add new products to their production? How does the change in their productive structure affect their growth dynamics? This thesis provides empirical evidence of the importance of both boundaries and linkages between industries to understand structural change and the dynamics of economic growth. Results indicate that the effect of the manufacturing sector on economic growth is far from uniform and that the measure of economic structure also matters. By Dr. Charlotte Guillard.
‘Employment effects of vocational rehabilitation in Germany: A quantitative analysis’ describes the employment effects of vocational rehabilitation measures in Germany, which were investigated through a series of quasi-experiments. The dissertation finds that personal employment and income history are the strongest predictors of employment outcomes after vocational rehabilitation. It also finds that vocational re-training greatly improves the employment status of the rehabilitants and that, in the long term, the employment effects associated with the traditional, two-year re-training programmes are larger than those of partial, one-year re-training programmes. Lastly, the study shows that both one-year and two-year vocational re-training are cost-effective; however, the payback period of one-year re-training is shorter. By Dr. Nicolas Echarti.
‘Regional innovation and entrepreneurship patents, trade marks, entry and entrants’ sheds new light on the relationship between knowledge pools and entrepreneurships by analysing the role of strategic behaviour of incumbents shielding their knowledge from competitors, cognitive relatedness between knowledge pools and new businesses activity, type and industry of entry. Results indicate that knowledge pools are related to entry and growth of new manufacturing firms. However, the strength of this relationship is much higher for entry of innovating firms and firms in high-tech industries than entry in general. The dissertation also finds that appropriation strategies of incumbents weaken the positive externalities from their knowledge. As a result, in general, knowledge pools in related industries may be more critical for entry and growth than knowledge pools in the focal industry. In high-tech contexts, however, the focal industry knowledge pools are more salient for entry than related knowledge pools. By Dr. Michal Kazimierczak.
‘The influence of within school and across schools’ collaborative practices on student learning and teaching outcomes in West Africa’ focuses on the influence of collaborative practices on student learning and teaching outcomes in West Africa. Specifically, the thesis focuses on (i) collaboration within the school between teachers on pedagogical topics; (ii) on principals’ instructional support to teachers on pedagogical matters; and (iii) teachers’ collaboration through Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), which refer to a group of teachers sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective and collaborative way. This research is especially relevant considering the current global learning crises, characterised by a larger share of students attending school but not gaining the expected competencies for their grades. It shows that by supporting in-service teachers to improve their classroom practices through ongoing, sustainable, longer-term approaches grounded in their own realities, we can help deliver quality education and increase student learning. By Dr. Fernanda Assuncao Soares.
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The opinions expressed here are the authors’ own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of UNU.
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