KNOWLEDGE IMPACTS OF UNIVERSITIES ON INDUSTRY AN AGGREGATE SIMULTANEOUS INVESTMENT MODEL*

ABSTRACT. This paper is concerned with the impacts of academic knowledge production (human capital, research, and consultancy) on the investment behavior of the manufacturing industry. Beginning with the neoclassical theory of capital accumulation, a multiregional investment model for non-residential structures and equipment is developed. Within this model, the knowledge impacts of universities are represented by a diffusion function, which takes into account the possibilities of contagious and hierarchical diffusion of knowledge. Special attention has been given to the development of a theoretically sound and empirically operational investment model, and to the identification of spatio-temporal correlation. The latter has been approached by means of the use of an EGLS estimator, based on a stationary spatio-temporal Markov scheme for the residual. The main result of the case study relating to the Netherlands is that academic knowledge production has a significant positive impact on investments in equipment which is strongest in the neighborhood of central places (i.e., following a hierarchical diffusion pattern).     

Representing Structural Change in U.S. Migration Patterns

This paper focuses on the identification of three sets of relationships exhibited by a time series of age-specific national migration rates and multiregional transition probability matrices: the relationship across time for the same age group, as defined by period (temporal) transformation coefficients or matrices; the relationships across age at a particular moment in time, as defined by age transformation coefficients or matrices; and the relationships across time and age, as defined by cohort transformation coefficients or matrices. Given any two of these relationships one can solve for the third. This feature of age-period-cohort relationships has a practical application in the development of improved methods for representing structural change in migration patterns over time and for indirectly estimating migration patterns using inadequate data.     

Explaining A Paradox: The Alberta-California Natural Gas Trade Dispute

For over 3 years the Alberta government and the California Public Utilities Commission engaged in a bitter dispute over the future of the Alberta-California natural gas trade. This article examines how both sides sought to use their regulatory authority to control the substance of gas trade restructuring. It assesses the dispute as an exercise in deregulatory policymaking and suggests the need for increased study of the role and motivations of subnational regulatory actors.     

Inward investment and economic development in Poland

This paper summarizes results of a research project funded by the Overseas Development Administration of the UK Government. Its aims were to explore the nature and extent of foreign direct investment in Poland, and to assess the extent of integration of such investment with the indigenous economy. The research involved interviews with Polish government ministries, banks, development agencies, inward investors and indigenous firms. It concludes that there are numerous financial and technical obstacles to indigenous business development. The majority of inward investors aim to serve the Polish and other Central and Eastern European markets rather than simply selling cheaply produced products to the West. Moreover, most have already developed significant local sourcing from Polish suppliers.