TY - JOUR A1 - Eckel, Carsten A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Javorcik, Beata A1 - Neary, J. Peter T1 - Testing the Core‐competency Model of Multi‐product Exporters JF - Review of International Economics N2 - We review the implications of the “core‐competence” model of multi‐product firms, including the “market‐size puzzle”: for most countries, the world market is much larger than the home market, while the costs of accessing foreign markets are relatively low; hence the model predicts that most domestic firms should export more of their core products than they sell domestically; yet, in practice, we do not observe this. Extending the model to allow for investment in export market penetration resolves the puzzle and Mexican data confirm its predictions: in particular, only the largest firms exhibit the dominance of exports over home sales. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/roie.12234 VL - 24 IS - 4 SP - 699 EP - 716 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Pereira-López, Mariana A1 - Schiffbauer, Marc T1 - Competition makes it better: Evidence on when firms use it more effectively N2 - This paper uses a unique firm-level data set for Mexico, with information never used for research before, to assess how use of information technology (IT henceforth) influences firm performance. Further, the paper explores if, in the context of increasing competition from China, this effect is different for firms more strongly affected by competition where incentives for upgrading and innovation may be more intense. In this perspective, the paper analyzes the complementarity between IT and other changes spurred by competition, taking advantage of the exogenous shock generated by Chinese competition. The results indicate that IT use has higher effects over productivity in the case of firms facing higher competition from China, in the domestic market and in the U.S. market. Furthermore, the paper shows how these changes appear to be driven by complementary investments in innovation and organizational changes. Y1 - 2016 UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/24212 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Pereira-López, Mariana A1 - Schiffbauer, Marc T1 - ICT use, competitive pressures and firm performance in Mexico T2 - Policy Research Working Papers N2 - This paper presents a set of stylized facts on the relation between information and communications technology (ICT) use, firm performance, and competition. Taking advantage of a novel firm-level data set on information and communications technology for Mexico, the study finds that firms facing higher competition appear to have more incentives to increase their use of information and communications technology. Accordingly, although there is indeed a positive relation between information and communications technology use and firm performance, this effect is greater for firms that face higher competition pressures, which is consistent with the theoretical predictions of the trade-induced technical change hypothesis. Y1 - 2016 UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/24201/ICT0use00compe0erformance0in0Mexico.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y U6 - https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-7629 ET - April 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - De Hoyos, Rafael E T1 - Economic Performance under NAFTA: A Firm-Level Analysis of the Trade-productivity Linkages JF - World Development N2 - Did the North American Free Trade Agreement make Mexican firms more productive? If so, through which channels? This paper addresses these questions by deploying an innovative microeconometric approach that disentangles the various channels through which integration with the global markets (via international trade) can affect firm-level productivity. The results show that the North American Free Trade Agreement stimulated the productivity of Mexican plants via: (1) an increase in import competition and (2) a positive effect on access to imported intermediate inputs. However, the impact of trade reforms was not identical for all integrated firms, with fully integrated firms (i.e. firms simultaneously exporting and importing) benefiting more than other integrated firms. Contrary to previous results, once self-selection problems are solved, the analysis finds a rather weak relationship between exports and productivity growth. Y1 - 2013 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.09.008 VL - 44 SP - 180 EP - 193 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cardot, Olivier A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Pierola, Martha Denisse A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand T1 - Success and failure of African exporters JF - Journal of Development Economics N2 - Using a new dataset with transaction-level export data from four African countries (Malawi, Mali, Senegal and Tanzania), this paper explores the determinants of success upon entry into export markets, defined as survival beyond the first year at the firm-product-destination level. We find that the probability of success rises with the number of same-country firms exporting the same product to the same destination, suggesting the existence of cross-firm externalities. We explore several conjectures on the determinants of these externalities and provide evidence suggestive of information spillovers, possibly mediated through the banking system. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.12.004 VL - 101 SP - 284 EP - 296 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo T1 - The better you are the stronger it makes you: Evidence on the asymmetric impact of liberalization JF - Journal of Development Economics N2 - This paper studies how liberalization affects productivity growth using micro-level plant data. While previous studies have already shown the existence of a positive relationship between competition and economic performance, the novelty of this paper is that it analyzes not only the average impact of liberalization, but also goes "beyond the average" and shows how the liberalization can affect dissimilar plants in a different way. The author first develops a model which predicts that, while the impact of liberalization on productivity growth is positive "on average", more advanced firms tend to benefit more. In fact, liberalization generates two competing effects: on one side it spurs more innovative efforts because of the increased entry threat by foreign competitors, on the other side, enhanced competition curtails expected profits and reduces the funds available to finance innovative activities. The pro-competitive effect is weaker for less advanced firms as for them it is harder to catch-up with the "technology frontier". These predictions are then tested focusing on Mexican plants during the NAFTA liberalization. The results show that a 1 percent reduction in tariffs spurred productivity growth between 4 and 8 percent on average. However, for backward firms this effect is much weaker if not close to zero, otherwise for more advanced ones this effect is stronger with productivity growing between 11 and 13 percent. Consistent with the theoretical model the results are stronger in those sectors where the scope for innovative activities is more pronounced. These results are particularly important for policy makers because they suggest that while increasing competition may be good in spurring average productivity, it is also true that this effect does not hold for all type of firms, in particular more backward firms may need some complementary support policy to upgrade their capacities and keep up with the more competitive environment. Y1 - 2012 UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/4124 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.06.001 VL - 99 IS - 2 SP - 474 EP - 485 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Javorcik, Beata A1 - Fitriani, Fitria A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo T1 - Productivity Performance in Indonesia's Manufacturing Sector T2 - Indonesia PREM policy note N2 - Relying on firm-level data from Statistik Industri this note analyzes the evolution of productivity dynamics of Indonesian firms over the past 20 years (1990-2009). Economy-wide and sectoral productivity changes are decomposed into their two main components: changes due to the evolution of average productivity and changes due to 'allocative efficiency'. This decomposition shows that while during the 20 years both components have increased, the changes in allocative efficiency have been mainly driven by average productivity growth and less by increases in allocative efficiency, even if the latter has also improved during the period under analysis. Interestingly, the note shows that both average Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth and allocative efficiency improvements are especially driven by a few sectors: electronics, machinery and instruments, and textiles, clothing and footwear. Limited improvements in both allocative efficiency and average TFP have occurred instead in natural-resource-based sectors, sectors characterized by more limited competition and higher rents. This note emphasizes the importance of 'allocative efficiency' for productivity evolution because, in a context where firms are very different in their productivity, it becomes crucial how resources are allocated in the economy. This series of policy notes suggests that regulatory reforms, exposure to foreign competition and access to imported intermediate inputs are important determinants of allocative efficiency. The problem of a 'missing middle' is closely related to that of sub-optimal allocation of resources across firms: a strong feature of Indonesian firm-size distribution. Going further, the note suggests that burdensome regulations and imperfect financial markets are two important causes of this missing middle. To complement the focus on productivity, the note also analyzes firm-level job dynamics and points to the crucial role of 'start-ups' and new companies as a key driver of job creation. This finding suggests that the focus of policymakers on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) may be misplaced and that this focus should start realigning towards supporting more dynamic 'start-ups' rather than SMEs. Y1 - 2012 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/485831468044119749/Productivity-performance-in-Indonesias-manufacturing-sector PB - World Bank Group ET - 5 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Gonzalo, Varela A1 - Aldaz-Carroll, Enrique T1 - Determinants of Market Integration and Price Transmission in Indonesia T2 - Policy Research Working Paper N2 - This paper investigates the determinants of price differences and market integration among Indonesian provinces, using data from retail cooking oil, rice and sugar markets during the period 1993-2007, and from wholesale maize and soybean markets during the period 1992-2006. The authors measure the degree of integration using co-integration techniques, and calculate average price differences. They use regression analysis to understand the drivers of price differences and market integration. For rice and sugar, they find wide market integration and low price differences, in the range of 5-12 percent. For maize, soybeans and cooking oil, they find less integration and higher price differences (16-22 percent). Integration across provinces is explained by the remoteness and quality of transport infrastructure of a province. Price differences across provinces respond to differences in provincial characteristics such as remoteness, transport infrastructure, output of the commodity, land productivity and income per capita. Y1 - 2012 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9312 PB - World Bank CY - Washington, DC ET - No. 6098 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Javorcik, Beata Smarzynska T1 - Getting ready: Preparation for exporting T2 - Centre for Economic Policy Research N2 - This study examines developments at the plant-product level preceding an expansion into foreign markets. It relies on very detailed Mexican data for 1994-2004, a period of liberalization in US trade policy vis a vis Mexico, mandated by the North American Free Trade Agreement. Our approach is novel in that we focus on quality, proxied by domestic price premium, of current and future export products. Our findings are consistent with quality upgrading taking place in preparation for entry into export markets. We show that manufacturers who export a particular product variety tend to obtain a price premium for their domestic sales of this variety. Consistently with the hypothesis of quality upgrading before exporting, we find evidence that this premium emerges exactly one year before a variety starts being exported. We find no evidence of upgrading after entering export markets. Our IV estimates suggest that the changes in the price premium are driven by the anticipated cuts in US tariffs and are particularly pronounced among producers exhibiting better performance in the initial period. Y1 - 2012 UR - https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=8926 ET - DP8926 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Pereira-López, Mariana T1 - ICT Adoption and Wage Inequality: Evidence from Mexican Firms T2 - Policy Research working paper N2 - This paper uses a panel of firms from the Mexican Economic Censuses and analyzes at the microeconomic level how labor markets adapt to the adoption of information and communication technologies. The paper studies the effects of the adoption of information and communication technologies over the labor structure of the firm and wages. Thus, it assesses whether increasing the use of information and communication technologies leads to an increasing demand for skilled relative to low-skilled labor, and, thus, analyzes its effects on the wage gap between the two groups. The results of this analysis show that there is indeed an effect of the adoption of information and communication technologies over the demand for higher-skilled workers. However, for the manufacturing and services sectors, instead of increasing the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers, the wage gap decreases. The results for the manufacturing sector appear to be driven by an increasing sophistication of blue-collar workers due to the organizational adjustments derived from the adoption of information and communication technologies. Y1 - 2018 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/295511515507675734/ICT-adoption-and-wage-inequality-evidence-from-Mexican-firms CY - Washington, D.C. ET - WPS 8298 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Sanchez-Bayardo, Luis Fernando A1 - Gonzalez, Alvaro T1 - Micro-level analysis of Mexican retail markets and their response to changes in market structure and competition policies T2 - Policy Research working paper N2 - This paper develops the following price indicators to measure the relative efficiency (functioning) of markets: (a) price dispersion, (b) price volatility, and (c) price transmission (speed, completeness, and symmetry). The paper uses these indicators to study trends and conditions of the outlet level in retail prices for common commodities sold throughout Mexico. The analysis examines price patterns for each indicator across commodities, regions, and time. The descriptive results indicate that although there is (expected) heterogeneity in the behavior of these indicators across commodities, location variables explain the most variation in the indicators. There are clear and persistent regional- and commodity-specific effects. Thus, the study concludes that Mexico is not one, well-integrated national market. The study tested whether changes in these indicators (increased efficiency) have the expected correlation with measures affecting the functioning of markets. It considered changes in competition and entry of large retail stores in the local retail market. These changes affect market efficiency in the way theory would predict. The results suggest that these indicators are good measures of the relative efficiency (functioning) of markets. The findings also suggest that efforts to monitor markets using these indicators may be useful. For example, for policy makers who are concerned about the distributional effects of liberalizing trade, the indicators may predict where price impacts will be felt the most and by whom. In addition, the indicators provide preliminary information about relative competition levels, which may be helpful in saving the time and effort of the competition authorities and possibly making them more effective. Y1 - 2018 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/110401515422368009/Micro-level-analysis-of-Mexican-retail-markets-and-their-response-to-changes-in-market-structure-and-competition-policies PB - World Bank Group CY - Washington, D. C. ET - WPS 8294 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Coutino, Pablo Gordillo A1 - Pereira-López, Mariana T1 - Robots at the Tropics N2 - In recent years, a growing concern has emerged regarding the potential effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotization on firms, and even more specifically on workers and the risks for their displacement (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014; Acemoglu and Restrepo, 2017; Graetz and Michaels, 2015, among others). The emphasis of current research studies has been driven by the rapid decrease in the prices of robots, that according to Graetz and Michaels (2015) fell by 2005 to one fifth of its 1990 level adjusting for quality. Consequently, utilization of robots has increased in a wide range of different industries, with the operational stock of robots doubled between 2005 and 2016, reaching 1,828,024 units by the end of 2016 and expected to reach three millions by 2020 (International Federation of Robotics, 2017). The evidence on the impact of robots on the global economy is still very limited and the results of recent studies exhibit great differences. For example, while Frey and Osborne (2017) indicate that the number of jobs that are in risk of automation could account for around 50%, Arntz et al.(2017) argue that this figure is overestimated due to the fact that the heterogeneity of tasks within occupations is not considered, which would reduce this number to around 9%. Y1 - 2018 UR - http://jobsanddevelopmentconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/liacovone_s1rB.pdf ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Campos, Francisco A1 - Frese, Michael A1 - Goldstein, Markus A1 - Johnson, Hillary C A1 - McKenzie, David A1 - Mensmann, Mona T1 - Is Personal Initiative Training a Substitute or Complement to the Existing Human Capital of Women? Results from a Randomized Trial in Togo JF - AEA Papers and Proceedings N2 - Personal initiative training—a psychology-based mindset training program—delivers lasting improvements for female business owners in Togo. Which types of women benefit most? Theories of dynamic complementarity would suggest training should work better for those with higher pre-existing human capital, but there are also reasons why existing human capital might inhibit training participation or substitute for its effects. We examine the heterogeneity in treatment impact according to different types of human capital. We find little evidence of either complementarities or substitutability, suggesting this new business training approach can work for a wide range of human capital levels. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20181026 IS - 108 SP - 256 EP - 261 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Calderón, Gabriela A1 - MacGregor, Cristina T1 - Participating or Not? Characteristics of Female Entrepreneurs Participating in and Completing an Entrepreneurial Training Program JF - AEA Papers and Proceedings N2 - Who are the female entrepreneurs who end up starting and completing entrepreneurial training programs? In this paper, relying on a large set of baseline characteristics collected before the entrepreneurs are selected into an entrepreneurial training program in Mexico, we analyze how the women entrepreneurs who complete the training program differ from those who do not take it up, as well as how those who take it up but drop off before completing differ from those who do not even start. We uncover large differences in performance and non-cognitive skills but no differences in inputs used. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20181023 IS - 108 SP - 246 EP - 251 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Campos, Francisco A1 - Frese, Michael A1 - Goldstein, Markus A1 - Johnson, Hillary A1 - McKenzie, David A1 - Mensmann, Mona T1 - Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo T2 - Gender innovation lab policy brief N2 - Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries, by teaching accounting, marketing and other basic business skills. However, research shows limited impacts of this traditional business training approach. Through an experiment in Togo, we introduced the personal initiative training program, a new and effective psychology-based entrepreneurship training that outperforms traditional business training. The personal initiative training increased firm profits in Togo by 30 percent relative to a control group, compared to no significant impacts from a traditional business training. Personal initiative training led to more than just a boost in profits for micro entrepreneurs. After the training business owners were more innovative, introduced new products, borrowed more and made larger investments. The personal initiative training was particularly effective for female entrepreneurs, for whom traditional training has often been in effective. Women who received personal initiative training saw their profits increase by 40 percent, compared to 5 percent for traditional business. This study’s findings make a strong case for the role of psychology in better influencing how small business training programs are taught in West Africa and beyond. It shows the importance of developing an entrepreneurial mindset in addition to learning the business practices of successful entrepreneurs. Based on these promising results, the personal initiative training is being implemented in programs in Mozambique, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Mexico. Y1 - 2018 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/635311516194319062/Personal-initiative-training-leads-to-remarkable-growth-of-women-owned-small-businesses-in-Togo PB - World Bank Group CY - Washington, D. C. ET - 22 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Campos, Francisco A1 - Frese, Michael A1 - Goldstein, Markus A1 - Johnson, Hillary C A1 - McKenzie, David A1 - Mensmann, Mona T1 - Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa JF - Science N2 - Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries by teaching basic financial and marketing practices, yet the impacts of such programs are mixed. We tested whether a psychology-based personal initiative training approach, which teaches a proactive mindset and focuses on entrepreneurial behaviors, could have more success. A randomized controlled trial in Togo assigned microenterprise owners to a control group (n = 500), a leading business training program (n = 500), or a personal initiative training program (n = 500). Four follow-up surveys tracked outcomes for firms over 2 years and showed that personal initiative training increased firm profits by 30%, compared with a statistically insignificant 11% for traditional training. The training is cost-effective, paying for itself within 1 year. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan5329 VL - 357 IS - 6357 SP - 1287 EP - 1290 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Calderón, Gabriela A1 - Juarez, Laura T1 - Opportunity versus necessity: understanding the heterogeneity of female micro-entrepreneurs JF - The World Bank Economic Review N2 - Entrepreneurs that voluntarily choose to start a business because they are able to identify a good business opportunity and act on it -- opportunity entrepreneurs -- might be different along various dimensions from those who are forced to become entrepreneurs because of lack of other alternatives -- necessity entrepreneurs. To provide evidence on these differences, this paper exploits a unique data set covering a wide array of characteristics, including cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills and managerial practices, for a large sample of female entrepreneurs in Mexico. Descriptive results show that on average opportunity entrepreneurs have better performance and higher skills than necessity entrepreneurs. A discriminant analysis reveals that discrimination is difficult to achieve based on these observables, which suggests the existence of unobservables driving both the decision to become an opportunity entrepreneur and performance. Thus, an instrumental variables estimation is conducted, using state economic growth in the year the business was set up as an instrument for opportunity, to confirm that opportunity entrepreneurs have higher performance and better management practices. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhw010 VL - 30 IS - Supplement 1 SP - 86 EP - 96 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Brown, J David A1 - Crespi, Gustavo A A1 - Marcolin, Luca T1 - Productivity Convergence at the Firm Level: New Evidence from the Americas T2 - Understanding the Income and Efficiency Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean N2 - Uses firm-level data from the manufacturing sector in Colombia, Mexico, and the United States, in the past decade, to investigate the extent to which aggregate productivity growth in the manufacturing sector is driven by growth in productivity at the firm level or by reallocation of employment shares across firms. The evaluation produced results that stress a focus on firm-level productivity growth, as this has contributed the most to overall productivity growth. Reallocation between firms, within sectors, results in a weak force of productivity growth, and reallocation between sectors an even weaker source of growth. Although firms converge toward the domestic frontier with spillovers arising from the growth of the domestic frontier, no convergence occurs with respect to the global frontier. For all countries analyzed, the most important determinant of productivity convergence at the firm level remains innovation effort, measured as the firm-level expenditure shares in innovation and investment in capital equipment. Y1 - 2016 SN - 978-1-4648-0450-2 SN - 978-1-4648-0451-9 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0450-2_ch5 SP - 117 EP - 186 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Sánchez-Bayardo, Luis F A1 - Sharma, Siddharth T1 - Regional productivity convergence in Peru T2 - Policy Research working paper N2 - This paper examines whether labor productivity converged across Peru’s regions (“departments”) during 2002-12. Given the large differences in labor productivity across the regions of Peru, such convergence has the potential to raise aggregate productivity and incomes, and also reduce regional inequalities. The paper finds that labor productivity in the secondary sector (especially manufacturing) and the mining sector has converged across Peruvian departments. The paper does not find robust evidence for labor productivity convergence in agriculture and services. These patterns are consistent with recent cross-country evidence and with the hypothesis that productivity convergence is more likely in sectors with greater scope for market integration, because of the effects of competition and knowledge flows. The convergence in labor productivity within manufacturing and mining has been sufficient to lead to convergence in aggregate labor productivity across departments. But because services and agriculture continue to employ the majority of workers in Peru, aggregate convergence is slower than that within manufacturing. The paper also finds that poverty rates are not converging across departments. The limited impact of labor productivity convergence on poverty could be tied to the facts that not all sectors are experiencing productivity convergence, poorer people are employed in sectors where convergence has been slower (such as agriculture), and there is very little labor reallocation toward converging sectors (such as manufacturing). Y1 - 2015 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/915951468178458739/Regional-productivity-convergence-in-Peru PB - World Bank Group CY - Washington, D. C. ET - WPS 7499 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Eckel, Carsten A1 - Javorcik, Besta A1 - Neary, J Peter T1 - Multi-product firms at home and away: Cost- versus quality-based competence JF - Journal of International Economics Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2014.12.012 VL - 95 IS - 2 SP - 216 EP - 232 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand A1 - Winters, L Alan T1 - Trade as an engine of creative destruction: Mexican experience with Chinese competition JF - Journal of International Economics N2 - This paper exploits the surge in Chinese exports from 1994 to 2004 to evaluate the effects of a competition shock from a low wage competitor for producers in an important middle-income country, Mexico. We find that this shock causes selection and reallocation at both firm and product levels and that its impact is highly heterogeneous at the intensive and extensive margins. Sales of smaller plants and more marginal products are compressed and are more likely to cease, whereas those of larger plants and core products seem relatively impervious to the shock. This implies a reallocation in terms of market shares within firms and between firms. We also show that the impact of expanded access to cheaper Chinese intermediate inputs has a similar effect, with larger plants benefiting more from the availability of cheaper imported inputs. Y1 - 2013 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2012.09.002 VL - 89 IS - 2 SP - 379 EP - 392 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Javorcik, Beata A1 - Keller, Wolfgang A1 - Tybout, James T1 - Supplier responses to Walmart's invasion in Mexico JF - Journal of International Economics N2 - This paper examines the effect of Walmart's entry into Mexico on Mexican manufacturers of consumer goods. Guided by firm interviews that suggested substantial heterogeneity across firms in how they responded to Walmart's entry, we develop a dynamic industry model in which firms decide whether to sell their products through Walmex (short for Walmart de Mexico), or use traditional retailers. Walmex provides access to a larger market, but it puts continuous pressure on its suppliers to improve their product's appeal, and it forces them to accept relatively low prices relative to product appeal. Simulations of the model show that the arrival of Walmex separates potential suppliers into two groups. Those with relatively high-appeal products choose Walmex as their retailer, whereas those with lower appeal products do not. For the industry as a whole, the model predicts that the associated market share reallocations, adjustments in innovative effort, and exit patterns increase productivity and the rate of innovation. These predictions accord well with the results from our firm interviews. The model's predictions are also supported by establishment-level panel data that characterize Mexican producers' domestic sales, investments, and productivity gains in states with differing levels of Walmex presence during the years 1994 to 2002. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2014.08.003 VL - 95 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 15 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Javorcik, Beata A1 - Fitrani, Fitria T1 - Trade Integration, FDI, and Productivity N2 - Policy attitude towards trade integration and foreign direct investment (FDI) is often a controversial yet popular subject. This note presents evidences from recent policy researches that arguing that engaging in an open trade and investment regime have brought productivity gains which is key factor for sustaining increase in income per-capita. Evidence from Indonesia also suggests that foreign owned plants have become increasingly important, generating a significant share of exports and overall output, as well as more productive and more export intensive than domestic plants, and to spend more on RD and training. FDI also have positive impact on firms in the same sector, through competition and demonstration effects, and in upstream sectors, as suppliers to foreign-owned plants improve the quality of their own products to meet their clients more exacting needs. Evidence also suggests a positive impact from import competition in improving allocative efficiency across manufacturing plants which is a key element in driving productivity in manufacturing sector. Y1 - 2015 UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23508 PB - World Bank ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Zahler, Andrés A1 - Mattoo, Aaditya T1 - Trade and innovation in services: Evidence from a developing economy JF - The World Economy N2 - Studies on innovation and international trade have traditionally focused on manufacturing because neither was seen as important for services. Moreover, the few existing studies on services focus only on industrial countries, although in many developing countries services are already the largest sector in the economy and an important determinant of overall productivity growth. Using a recent firm-level innovation survey for Chile to compare the manufacturing and "tradable" services sector, this paper reveals some novel patterns. First, although services firms have on average a much lower propensity to export than manufacturing firms, services exports are less dominated by large firms and tend to be more skill intensive than manufacturing exports. Second, services firms appear to be as innovative as -- and in some cases more innovative than -- manufacturing firms, in terms of both inputs and outputs of "technological" innovative activity, although services innovations more often take a "non-technological" form. Third, services exporters (like manufacturing exporters) tend to be significantly more innovative than non-exporters, with a wider gap for innovations close to the global technological frontier. These findings suggest that the growing faith in services as a source of both trade and innovative dynamism may not be misplaced. Y1 - 2013 UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/twec.12117 VL - 37 IS - 7 SP - 953 EP - 979 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Ramachandran, Vijaya A1 - Schmidt, Martin T1 - Stunted growth: why don't African firms create more jobs? T2 - Policy Research Working Papers N2 - Many countries in Africa suffer high rates of underemployment or low rates of productive employment; many also anticipate large numbers of people to enter the workforce in the near future. This paper asks the question: Are African firms creating fewer jobs than those located elsewhere? And, if so, why? One reason may be that weak business environments slow the growth of firms and distort the allocation of resources away from better-performing firms, hence reducing their potential for job creation. The paper uses data from 41,000 firms across 119 countries to examine the drivers of firm growth, with a special focus on African firms. African firms, at any age, tend to be 20–24 percent smaller than firms in other regions of the world. The poor business environment, driven by limited access to finance, and the lack of availability of electricity, land, and unskilled labor have some value in explaining this difference. Foreign ownership, the export status of the firm, and the size of the market are also significant determinants of firm size. However, even after controlling for the business environment and for characteristics of firms and markets, about 60 percent of the size gap between African and non-African firms remains unexplained. Y1 - 2013 UR - https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-6727 PB - World Bank Group ET - 6727 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - González, Alvaro S. A1 - Subhash, Hari T1 - Russian volatility: Obstacle to firm survival and diversification T2 - Policy Research Working Paper N2 - The need for economic diversification receives a great deal of attention in Russia. This paper looks at a way to improve it that is essential but largely ignored: how to help diversifying firms better survive economic cycles. By definition, economic diversification means doing new things in new sectors and/or in new markets. The fate of emerging firms, therefore, should be of great concern to policy makers. This paper indicates that the ups and downs -- the volatility -- of Russian economic growth are key to that fate. Volatility of growth is higher in Russia than in comparable economies because its slumps are both longer and deeper. They go beyond the cleansing effects of eliminating the least efficient firms; relatively efficient ones get swept away as well. In fact, an incumbency advantage improves a firm's chances of weathering the ups and downs of the economy, regardless of a firm's relative efficiency. Finally, firms in sectors where competition is less intense are less likely to exit the market, regardless of their relative efficiency. Two policy conclusions emerge from these findings -- one macroeconomic and one microeconomic. First, the importance of countercyclical policies is heightened to include efficiency elements. Second, strengthening competition and other factors that support the survival of new, emerging and efficient firms will promote economic diversification. Efforts to help small and medium enterprises may be better spent on removing the obstacles that young, infant firms face as they attempt to enter, survive and grow. Y1 - 2013 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15828 PB - World Bank Group CY - Washington, D. C. ET - 6605 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Aterido, Reyes A1 - Beck, Thorsten T1 - Access to Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There a Gender Gap? JF - World Development N2 - We show the existence of an unconditional gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, when key observable characteristics of the enterprises or individuals are taken into account the gender gap disappears. In the case of enterprises, we explain our finding with differences in key characteristics and a potential selection bias. In the case of individuals, the lower use of formal financial services by women can be explained by gender gaps in other dimensions related to the use of financial services, such as their lower level of income and education, and by their household and employment status. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.02.013 VL - 47 SP - 102 EP - 120 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Ferro, Esteban A1 - Pereira-López, Mariana A1 - Zavacka, Veronika T1 - Banking crises and exports: Lessons from the past JF - Journal of Development Economics N2 - This paper analyzes the impact of banking crises on manufacturing exports, exploiting the fact that sectors differ in their needs for external financing. Relying on data from 160 developed and developing countries during 1970–2012, we analyze 147 banking crisis episodes and separate their impact on export growth from the impact of other exogenous shocks (e.g., demand shocks, exchange rate shocks). Our findings show that during a crisis, the exports of sectors more dependent on external finance grow significantly less than other sectors. However, this result holds only for sectors that depend on banking finance as opposed to interfirm finance (i.e., trade finance or trade credit). For sectors that depend heavily on banking finance, the effect of banking crises on exports is robust, additional to external demand shocks, and not driven by exchange rate shocks. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.12.005 IS - 138 SP - 192 EP - 204 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Crespi, Gustavo A1 - Bowen, J David A1 - Marcolin, Luca T1 - Decomposing firm-level productivity growth and assessing its determinants: evidence from the Americas JF - The Journal of Technology Transfer N2 - This paper provides novel empirical evidence on productivity growth in the manufacturing sector in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Relying on plant-level data, we first decompose productivity and productivity growth into plant-level growth and market allocation forces. While the average productivity of the survivors is higher than the overall contribution of reallocation forces, during recessions the inverse is true and reallocation gives a positive, albeit small, contribution to aggregate productivity growth. Next we analyze how policy measures can determine allocative efficiency levels and growth, and find important scope for action on education, financial regulation, and structural reforms. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-018-9678-0 VL - 43 IS - 6 SP - 1571 EP - 1606 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Frese, Michael A1 - Campos, Francisco A1 - Goldstein, Markus A1 - Johnson, Hillary A1 - McKenzie, David A1 - Mensmann, Mona T1 - Closing the Gender Gap – Personal Initiative Training and Female Business Performance JF - Academy of Management Proceedings N2 - While female entrepreneurship has important impacts on economic development, female-owned businesses obtain lower profits and lower growth rates than male- owned businesses. We conduct a randomized controlled field experiment with 1196 entrepreneurs in Lomé, Togo, to determine whether personal initiative training constitutes a way to enhance female entrepreneurs’ business success and to close this gender gap. Basing our argumentation on social role theory and the process model of entrepreneurial action, we argue that because of their social gender roles female entrepreneurs perceive that entrepreneurial action incurs higher risks and lower returns. We hypothesize that personal initiative training leads female entrepreneurs to decrease perceived risks of entrepreneurial action by increasing their entrepreneurial self-efficacy and error competence and to increase their perceived returns of entrepreneurial action by increasing entrepreneurial passion, which ultimately leads to female entrepreneurs’ business success. The results largely support our hypotheses. This study contributes to the literature on the gender gap in entrepreneurship and has important implications for entrepreneurial training interventions. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2018.10669abstract VL - 2018 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Cruz, Marcio A1 - Bussolo, Maurizio T1 - Organizing knowledge to compete: Impacts of capacity building programs on firm organization JF - Journal of International Economics N2 - A growing literature aiming at explaining differences in productivity and access to global export markets across firms has focused on the internal organization of firms. This paper contributes to this literature by evaluating the impact of a program that aims at enhancing competitiveness of small and medium enterprises in Brazil by providing coaching and consulting on management and production practices. Specifically, the paper tests whether the program induces treated firms to reorganize knowledge by adding more layers of different skills and competencies to their workforces. Using a unique firm-level data set, the number of layers of knowledge of the firms are compared before and after the program. The impact of the program is identified by relying on an instrumental variable approach, exploiting the quasi-experimental roll-out of its implementation, which was carried out at different times across Brazilian regions. The analysis finds that the program had an effect and that this effect is heterogeneous. The program is particularly effective in promoting the reorganization of small and medium firms. The results confirm another finding of the literature, namely that in re-organized firms wage inequality increases. Finally, these results are used to discuss how the change in firms' organization is positively correlated with export performance. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2017.12.001 IS - 111 SP - 1 EP - 20 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Byiers, Bruce T1 - An analysis of pre-crisis Madagascar firm performance: Firm growth and productivity N2 - This paper uses firm-level data to examine the performance of developing country firms, focusing in particular on Madagascar during its pre-crisis period from 2004 to 2007. We use three different analyses: i) a cross-country comparison of firm performance across a selection of comparator countries; ii) a panel analysis of Malagasy firms using two years of survey data; and iii) an analysis of Malagasy micro and informal firms, using data from two additional surveys on micro-enterprises. These are intended to highlight structural factors thought relevant to understanding developing country firm performance, and particularly Malagasy firm performance. The three analyses lead to the following findings. Most firm employment growth is by medium and large firms and not micro and small firms as developed country studies would predict. Higher firm growth rates are positively associated with single proprietorships and firms that import inputs while, counter-intuitively, having a university-educated manager and a high share of skilled employees are associated with lower growth rates. In terms of labor productivity there is an apparent inverted-U relationship between firm performance and firm size: productivity increases up to a certain large size before stagnating or declining. As such, high productivity and firm growth relates to medium and large firms. Notable, productivity stagnates at a smaller firm size than growth rates, implying continuing growth without productivity growth. Our micro and informal sector firm analysis also suggests the presence of an inverted–U relation between size and productivity but at a vastly smaller scale. The evidence also suggests that informal firms have higher productivity than their formal counterparts. The results suggest two key policy messages. First, there is a need to tackle distortions and barriers to firm growth that hinder more productive firms from growing faster and unleashing their potential. Second, improvements in the business environment, in particular for micro and small firms will be fundamental to encouraging firms to operate in the formal sector and provide a basis for further firm expansion. Y1 - 2011 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Keller, Wolfgang A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand T1 - Innovation responses to import competition N2 - How does trade liberalization that raises a country’s import competition affect the innovative activity of its firms? We exploit the strong growth of Chinese exports resulting from China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a competitive shock to, specifically, Mexican manufacturing firms. Innovation is captured through information on the adoption of detailed firm level production techniques such as just in time inventory methods, quality control measures, and job rotation among the Mexican firms. Our results indicate that China’s rise in global trade did not affect by much Mexico’s rate of innovation, which contrasts with the substantial gains that others have found in the case of bilateral iberalizations. At the same time, there is a striking heterogeneity in the responses across firms for different productivities, with productive firms innovating more and less productive firms innovating less, which leads to positive selection in that initial differences in firm performance are sharpened by the advent of new competition. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of trade and innovation. Y1 - 2011 UR - https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/55d4/4ed62dbefe54fd318ce1b4035d9dbff45ddc.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Fuchs, Michael A1 - Jaeggi, Thomas A1 - Napier, Mark A1 - Pearson, Roland A1 - Pellegrini, Giulia A1 - Villegas Sanchez, Carolina T1 - Financing small and medium enterprises in the Republic of South Africa N2 - Numerous studies worldwide have highlighted the important contribution made by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to employment, income and economic growth. In a study of 76 developed and developing economies, Ayyagari and others (2007) found that SMEs account for more than 60 percent of total manufacturing employment and that SMEs contributed significant proportions of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). SME growth requires external financing, but constraints to accessing credit, consistently rated as some of the greatest barriers to the operation and growth of firms, affect SMEs more severely than large firms (Beck and Demirguc-Kunt 2006; Beck and others 2006). The purposes of this report are to: a) analyze the availability of bank finance to SMEs in South Africa and how availability might be enhanced in the context of the economic downturn; and b) offer concrete policy recommendations on how to lessen obstacles to bank SME financing and reduce the negative effects of the economic downturn (or of a similar downturn in future) on access to finance. The report is structured in 5 sections: section two provides a short overview of existing studies and data on SME finance in South Africa. Section three presents the main results of the surveys. Section four provides policy considerations. Section five concludes. Y1 - 2011 UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/12687 PB - World Bank ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Keller, Wolfgang A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand T1 - Innovation When The Market Is Shrinking: Firm-level Responses To Competition From China N2 - How does trade liberalization that raises a country’s import competition affect the innovative activity of its firms? We exploit the strong growth of Chinese exports resulting from China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a competitive shock to, specifically, Mexican manufacturing firms. Innovation is captured through information on the adoption of specific production techniques such as just in time inventory methods, quality control, and job rotation. Our results indicate that China’s rise in global trade did not affect by much Mexico’s rate of innovation, which contrasts with the substantial gains that others have found in the case of bilateral liberalization. At the same time, there is a striking heterogeneity in the responses across firms: productive firms innovate more while less productive firms innovate less. This leads to positive selection in that initial differences in firm performance are sharpened by the advent of new competition. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of trade and innovation. Y1 - 2010 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Crespi, Gustavo A T1 - Catching up with the technological frontier: Micro-level evidence on growth and convergence JF - Industrial and Corporate Change N2 - In this article, we study how firm heterogeneity influences productivity catching up using plant-level data from Mexico. The article addresses three issues: first, it evaluates the process of convergence towards the global versus the local technological frontier in a middle-income country such as Mexico. Second, it systematically evaluates the role of technological efforts in determining the speed of convergence towards each of these technological frontiers. Third, it assesses the role of openness and trade integration in determining the speed of convergence and presents a horse race between integration and technological effort in explaining the determinants of heterogeneity in influencing the process of convergence toward both the domestic and the global technological frontier. Our results suggest that building firm-level technological capabilities is important for catching up with the global frontier. A policy focused on trade alone will facilitate convergence towards the best technological practices available locally, but it will fall short of encouraging convergence with the global frontier. Y1 - 2010 UR - https://academic.oup.com/icc/article/19/6/2073/731503 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtq057 VL - 10 IS - 6 SP - 2073 EP - 2096 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Maloney, William F. A1 - Tsivanidis, Nick T1 - Family Firms and Contractual Institutions N2 - This paper offers new evidence on the relationship between contractual institutions, family management, and aggregate performance. The study creates a new firm-level database on management and ownership structures spanning 134 regions in 11 European countries. To guide the empirical analysis, it develops a model of industry equilibrium in which heterogeneous firms decide between family and professional management when the latter are subject to contracting frictions. The paper tests the model's predictions using regional variation in trust within countries. Consistent with the model, the finding show that there is sorting of firms across management modes, in which smaller firms and those in regions with worse contracting environments are more likely to be family managed. These firms are on average 25 percent less productive than professionally managed firms, and moving from the country with the least reliable contracting environment to the most increases total factor productivity by 21.6 percent. Family management rather than ownership drives these results. Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/139191554304091289/Family-Firms-and-Contractual-Institutions ET - no. WPS 8803 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Maloney, William F. A1 - McKenzie, David John T1 - Improving Management with Individual and Group-Based Consulting: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia N2 - Differences in management quality are an important contributor to productivity differences across countries. A key question is then how to best improve poor management in developing countries. We test two different approaches to improving management in Colombian auto parts firms. The first uses intensive and expensive one-on-one consulting, while the second draws on agricultural extension approaches to provide consulting to small groups of firms at approximately one-third of the cost of the individual approach. Both approaches lead to improvements in management practices of a similar magnitude (8-10 percentage points), so that the new group-based approach dominates on a cost-benefit basis. Moreover, authors find some evidence that the group-based intervention led to increases in firm size over the next 1.5 years, including a statistically significant increase in employment, while the impacts on firm outcomes are smaller and statistically insignificant for the individual consulting. The results point to the potential of group-based approaches as a pathway to scaling up management improvements. Y1 - 2018 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/121371546237097316/Improving-Management-with-Individual-and-Group-Based-Consulting-Results-from-a-Randomized-Experiment-in-Colombia ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - McKenzie, David T1 - Shortening Supply Chains : Experimental Evidence from Fruit and Vegetable Vendors in Bogota T2 - World Bank Group: Policy Research Working Paper 8977 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/728681565630010702/pdf/Shortening-Supply-Chains-Experimental-Evidence-from-Fruit-and-Vegetable-Vendors-in-Bogota.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Maloney, William A1 - McKenzie, David T1 - Improving Management in Colombian Firms Through Individual and Group Consulting T2 - Finance & PSD Impact Y1 - 2019 UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/31843/Improving-Management-in-Colombian-Firms-Through-Individual-and-Group-Consulting.pdf?sequence=1 VL - 53 IS - June 2019 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Grover, Arti A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Chakraborty, Pavel T1 - Management Practices in Croatia : Drivers and Consequences for Firm Performance T2 - World Bank Group: Policy Research Working Paper 9067 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/521611574453619743/pdf/Management-Practices-in-Croatia-Drivers-and-Consequences-for-Firm-Performance.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Maloney, William A1 - McKenzie, David T1 - Improving Management with Individual and Group-Based Consulting Results from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia T2 - World Bank Group: Policy Research Working Paper 8854 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/166671557929384690/pdf/Improving-Management-with-Individual-and-Group-Based-Consulting-Results-from-a-Randomized-Experiment-in-Colombia.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Cali, Massimiliano A1 - Cantore, Nicola A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Pereira-López, Mariana A1 - Presidente, Giorgio T1 - Too Much Energy The Perverse Effect of Low Fuel Prices on Firms T2 - World Bank Group: Policy Research Working Paper 9039 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/670351570710975641/pdf/Too-Much-Energy-The-Perverse-Effect-of-Low-Fuel-Prices-on-Firms.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Aterido, Reyes A1 - Beck, Thorsten T1 - Gender and finance in Sub-Saharan Africa : are women disadvantaged ? T2 - World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Y1 - 2011 UR - http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2011/02/23/000158349_20110223113408/Rendered/PDF/WPS5571.pdf VL - 5571 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Molina, Ana Cristina A1 - Bussolo, Maurizio A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo T1 - The DR-CAFTA and the extensive margin : a firm-level analysis T2 - World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2010/08/27/000158349_20100827150309/Rendered/PDF/WPS5340.pdf VL - 5340 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Javorcik, Beata S. T1 - Multi-product exporters: diversification and micro-level dynamics T2 - World Bank policy Research Working Paper Y1 - 2008 UR - http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2008/09/24/000158349_20080924094003/Rendered/PDF/WPS4723.pdf VL - 4723 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Javorcik, Beata S. T1 - MULTI-PRODUCT EXPORTERS: PRODUCT CHURNING, UNCERTAINTY AND EXPORT DISCOVERIES JF - The Economic Journal N2 - Recent research on international trade focuses on firm‐product‐level heterogeneity and the role of uncertainty in shaping international trade. This article contributes to the literature by examining product‐level dynamics within firms in the context of Mexican trade integration under NAFTA. The data show intense product churning within firms and confirm the existence of within‐firm product heterogeneity. The data indicate that new exporters enter foreign markets with a small number of varieties, most of which were previously sold at home, and with a small export small volume. The data also suggest that export discoveries are relatively rare and are imitated within a short period of time. Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02356.x VL - 120 IS - 544 SP - 481 EP - 499 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Dyker, David A. T1 - Introduction: Productivity And Social Capability — A Historical And Analytical Framework T2 - Closing the EU East-West Productivity Gap Foreign Direct Investment, Competitiveness and Public Policy Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/9781860948015_0001 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Dyker, David A. A1 - Stolberg, Cordula T1 - Identifying the channels and mechanics of FDI-induced technology transfer T2 - Closing the EU East-West Productivity Gap Foreign Direct Investment, Competitiveness and Public Policy Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/9781860948015_0002 SP - 19 EP - 33 PB - World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Kofoed, Neils T1 - Checking The Results Of The Case Study Interviews— An Essay In Triangulation T2 - Closing the EU East-West Productivity Gap Foreign Direct Investment, Competitiveness and Public Policy Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/9781860948015_0005 SP - 93 EP - 133 PB - World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. ER -