In Ethiopia, firms innovate to improve their competitiveness. But do they, or would they, innovate to reduce their environmental footprint? If not, should the government encourage change through incentives or sanctions? In Latin America, there is normally some interplay between research institutions and private companies. But how close or intense are these partnerships, and to what end? Worldwide, migration can be a harrowing experience, driving some into drug and substance abuse. But for new arrivals there is still very limited access to mental health and addiction services. Why is this not a priority for destination countries, especially in Europe? These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in October 2017 — in five journal articles, one report, and five working papers, among many others. Click here for the full list of our most recent publications.
Journal articles
‘Innovation for green industrialisation: An empirical assessment of innovation in Ethiopia’s cement, leather and textile sectors.’ This study assesses sectoral systems of innovation in Ethiopia’s cement, leather and textile sectors, with a view to understanding their functioning toward supporting green industrialisation. Results reveal low rates of product and process innovations among firms in Ethiopia. The main inhibitors of innovation are high costs of technology, inadequate finance and limited information. Improving competitiveness is the main driver of firms’ innovation, while reducing environmental impacts and meeting environmental regulations are among the least important motivators. Moreover, interactions among firms, government and other actors encourage innovation. The study recommends enhancing coordination among key actors, providing financial incentives for firms, and enforcing environmental regulations. By Dr. Mulu Gebreeyesus et al.
‘Scientific systems in Latin America: performance, networks, and collaborations with industry’ examines how research institutions interact with the private sector in Latin America (LA). The article models the intensity of collaboration of a Research Department with industry as a function of its size, previous performance, and its position in LA and national scientific networks. Results show that the RDs with a higher diversity of research partners in their national scientific network work more intensively with industry. Additionally, collaborations with industry are influenced by previous interactions with the private sector. By PhD fellows Hugo Confraria and Fernando Vargas.
‘Learning to export and learning from exporting: The case of Ethiopia manufacturing’ investigates the relationship between exporting and firm performance using a longer panel dataset of Ethiopian manufacturing firms for the period 1996-2009. The authors test two hypotheses regarding exporting: selection into exporting versus learning by exporting. According to the selection into exporting hypothesis, more productive firms self-select into exporting due to high entry costs. The learning by exporting hypothesis, on the other hand, emphasises that firms learn after entering the export market. The article finds evidence in support of both self-selection and learning by exporting. By Dr. Mulu Gebreeyesus et al.
‘Making sense of the performance (dis)advantage for immigrant students across Canada’ examines first- and second-generation immigrant student achievement results in greater detail across Canada. Overall, Canadian achievement results are atypical in relation to the international community in that immigrant student groups significantly outperform non-migrants in some provincial jurisdictions, and also significantly underperform in other provincial jurisdictions, in relation to reading, mathematics, and scientific literacy. This article offers a conceptual framework that explains the unique case of Canada. The framework highlights the importance of assessing immigrant student achievement by taking into account the level of individual characteristics, provincial policies, as well as sociocultural and demographic contexts across Canada. By Prof. Louis Volante, Dr. Özge Bilgili, Prof. Melissa Siegel et al.
‘Do authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones? Empirical evidence for Africa.’ This paper empirically investigates whether African authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones. The OLS results suggest that Chinese development finance does not systematically flow to more authoritarian countries, controlling for strategic, economic, political, institutional and geographic confounding factors. The results are not driven by the specific democracy indicator used in the analysis. By PhD fellow Tobias Broich.
Reports
‘Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees: an overview of the literature relating to drug use and access to services’. This report suggests that substance misuse is not prioritised in delivering healthcare to newly arrived asylum seekers and access to mental health and addiction services for traumatised or otherwise mentally ill asylum seekers may be limited. By Inez Roosen et al.
Working papers
‘Institutional diversity in the Euro area: any evidence of convergence?’ finds that the overall inequality in the state of institutions across the EMU, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has increased in the period 2006-2015. The paper indicates that the institutional changes across Euro area countries are linked both to the differences in the intensity of the financial and economic crisis (likely to have a two-way causality) as well as the policy responses in terms of fiscal consolidation applied. The empirical findings tend to support the call for structural reforms enhancing institutional quality in order to shorten the institutional gap between ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ Euro area countries. By Prof. Jo Ritzen et al.
‘Industries without smokestacks: Implications for Ethiopia’s industrialisation‘. This paper takes the case of Ethiopia and examines the current state and contribution of the industries without smokestacks to the economy and exports with the aim of improving our understanding of the major bottlenecks and solutions to unlocking the potential of these industries. It gives special attention to the horticulture and tourism industries, given the huge unexploited potential of these sectors in Ethiopia. By Dr. Mulu Gebreeyesus.
‘Stock-flow consistent data for the Dutch economy, 1995-2015′ develops a stock-flow consistent data set for the Dutch economy 1995–2015 in order to stimulate further research in the SFC tradition using actual data, and to enhance our understanding of the Dutch economy. The paper distinguishes between households, firms, government, a foreign sector and a financial sector – the latter comprising a central bank, banks and pension funds. By Prof. Joan Muysken, Prof. Huub Meijers et al.
‘The healthy immigrant paradox and health convergence’ provides insights into the Healthy Immigrant Paradox and the health assimilation of immigrants. Namely, immigrants arrive with better health compared to natives and their health deteriorates with longer residence in the host country, converging to the health of natives or becoming even worse. The paper aims to help societies and policymakers to design appropriate policy frameworks that address public health challenges and prevent the health deterioration of immigrants. By Prof. Amelie Constant.
‘Emergent structures in faculty hiring networks, and the effects of mobility on academic performance.’ This paper examines how movements between universities of different prestige from PhD to first job correlates with academic performance. Using data of South African scholars from 1970 to 2004, the authors find that those who make large movements in terms of prestige have lower research ratings than those who do not. Further, those with higher prestige PhD or first job have high research ratings throughout their careers. By Prof. Robin Cowan and PhD fellow Giulia Rossello.
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