Publications
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PDF Techno-Economic study on the potential of European Industrial Companies regarding Europe's Green Deal
The study provides theoretical as well as case-study based evidence for the potential of European industries to become carbon neutral… Show more and provide job security and growth in the EU. The study identifies, maps, and analyses Global Innovation Networks, i.e. networks between industry and other actors that facilitate innovation, and their role in making the European Green Deal a success. The study also presents the main current policy context in place in the EU, China and the U.S., e.g. regulatory and financial frameworks, and identifies the main drivers and barriers for investing in technologies relevant for Europe's Green Deal. In addition, a concise policy toolbox for Research & Development & Innovation (R&D&I) policies supporting technologies relevant for Europe's Green Deal is discussed. It moves beyond the current European, national, regional and sectoral policy instruments and mixes of policies based on the insights obtained throughout the whole study. The findings offer an important knowledge base for devising new and additional policy instruments. Show less
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Do capacity constraints trigger high growth for enterprises?
High-Growth Enterprises (HGEs) have a large economic impact, but are notoriously hard to predict. Previous research has linked high-growth episodes… Show more to the configuration of lumpy indivisible resources inside firms, such that high capacity utilisation levels might stimulate future growth. We theorize that firms reaching critically high capacity utilisation levels reach a ‘trigger point’ involving either broad-based investment in further growth, or shrinking back to previous levels. We analyse EIBIS survey data (matched to ORBIS) which features a question on time-varying capacity utilisation. Overcapacity is a transitory state. Firms enter into overcapacity after a period of rapid growth of sales and profits, and the years surrounding overcapacity have higher employment growth rates. Firms operating at overcapacity make incremental investments (e.g. capacity expansion, process improvements, and modern machinery) rather than investing in R&D and new product development. We find support for the ‘fork in the road’ hypothesis: for some firms, overcapacity is associated with launching into massive investments and subsequent sales growth, while for other firms, overcapacity is negatively related to both investments and sales growth. Show less
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PDF Is Export a Probe for Domestic Production?
Recent works leverage export data to assess country production structure and ultimately country relative competitiveness. These works mostly rely only… Show more on the exported part of the total country output for reasons of data availability, homogeneity, and quality. Here we use the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), which offers cross-country harmonized data that accounts both for domestic production and export, to investigate to what extent export is a proxy for domestic production. We find that export mirrors remarkably well domestic production for manufacturing sectors or sectors related to physical goods. Conversely, this relation fades away for service related sectors. We found those relations consistently across most of the 40 countries for which data are available. Show less
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PDF The new paradigm of economic complexity
Economic complexity offers a potentially powerful paradigm to understand key societal issues and challenges of our time. The underlying idea… Show more is that growth, development, technological change, income inequality, spatial disparities, and resilience are the visible outcomes of hidden systemic interactions. The study of economic complexity seeks to understand the structure of these interactions and how they shape various socioeconomic processes. This emerging field relies heavily on big data and machine learning techniques. This brief introduction to economic complexity has three aims. The first is to summarize key theoretical foundations and principles of economic complexity. The second is to briefly review the tools and metrics developed in the economic complexity literature that exploit information encoded in the structure of the economy to find new empirical patterns. The final aim is to highlight the insights from economic complexity to improve prediction and political decision-making. Institutions including the World Bank, the European Commission, the World Economic Forum, the OECD, and a range of national and regional organizations have begun to embrace the principles of economic complexity and its analytical framework. We discuss policy implications of this field, in particular the usefulness of building recommendation systems for major public investment decisions in a complex world. Show less
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The birth of new high growth enterprises: internationalisation through digitalisation
Internationalisation and the adoption of new digital technologies play an important role in the formation of new high growth enterprises.… Show more This paper examines this relationship for high growth enterprises in Europe and the UK, using data from the EIB Investment Survey and ORBIS. Its results highlight the complex influence of exporting and foreign direct investment on the capacity to become a high growth enterprise and the role of new digital technologies in this process. Show less
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1. The birth of new HGEs (2021): internationalization through new digital technologies
This paper explores the relationship between new digital technologies, internationalisation activity and its impact on High Growth Enterprises (HGEs), using… Show more the EIB Group Survey of Investment and Investment Finance and ORBIS data for 27 EU Member States and the United Kingdom. After controlling for sample selection bias, our results suggest that being a HGE is positively associated with the probability that a firm conducts international activities, particularly FDI. Conversely, the internationalisation process seems to trigger strong subsequent firm-growth only for FDI, not for exports. Furthermore, we show evidence on the positive association between firms that are internationalised and those adopting new digital technologies. The adoption of new digital technologies is indirectly related to the status of being a HGE via internationalisation activity in the current period. Our results highlight the complex influence of exporting and FDI on the capacity to become a HGE and the role of new digital technologies in this process. Show less
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PDF Policy Brief: GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS AND INNOVATION NETWORKS IN THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL ERA
This policy brief provides insights into several issues from a policy perspective that are closely related to the implementation of… Show more I4.0 in the European context of digitalisation. The successful implementation of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) within the European Union (EU) should build upon existing global innovation networks (GINs) and global value chains (GVCs) and the ecosystem of EU firms, especially in the manufacturing industry where I4.0 could play an important role. Due to the large share of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that define the EUs competitiveness, it is vital to integrate I4.0 by ensuring these companies can benefit from their efforts in implementing it and create and offer value. It is important to address training, requalification and workers’ concerns about I4.0 in order to support its implementation while maintaining the EU social model. Harnessing the EU’s strength in industrial application, while bearing in mind its lag in traditional ICT industries, could make I4.0 a viable policy option ensuring future leadership of the European economy, if certain factors discussed in this policy brief are included in future industrial policies. Show less
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PDF Technological and innovation challenges for industry: Science for policy insights
This JRC Science for Policy report addresses the technological and innovation challenges that the EU industry has to face during… Show more the next decade. The report focuses on the following themes: Technology diffusion and industrial dynamics; Innovation and company value chains; Financing innovation; Industrial innovation for transitions and transformation; Employment and skills for industrial transformations; Integration of global to local industrial innovation perspectives; and new data, standards and methods. Show less
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A Preliminary Index of SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostic Testing Patents
Diagnostic testing for COVID-19 is an important part of the management of the current pandemic. In this paper we reason… Show more that previous knowledge in diagnostic testing for Coronaviruses (such as MERS-Cov and SARS-Cov) might prove critical to the development and deployment for COVID-19 testing. By extracting keywords from this knowledge, we construct an indicator of inventive activity in the area of Coronavirus diagnostic tests and analyse this over time and measure where this knowledge is located in the world, with potentially important implications for the development and deployment of diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2. Show less