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In this paper is a simple Johansen approach to multiregional economic modeling addressed. We reformulate a partial equilibrium model to analyze traffic and trade changes in a interregional economy due to exogenous shocks in transportation costs. A biregional model about Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Rest of the Country is used to numerically assess the effects on prices, output and imports of hypothetical reductions in transportation costs between these regions. Since prices play an important role to determine new equilibrium, we derive input/output elasticities and introduce a graph theory approach to decompose propagation mechanisms in nominal and real quantities.

We investigate the extent to which small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) external financing varies with the innovation profiles they reveal in terms of introduced and combined innovation typologies. Using Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises data, we address this research issue with respect to 11 European countries over the 2014–2019 period and overcome the context specificity of previous analyses. Results suggest that the innovative profile of SMEs is responsible for several nuances in both their demand for and supply of bank loans. Being an innovator increases SMEs’ credit requests, but this demand increases also and above all with their involvement in specific innovation typologies and combinations. Having an innovative profile of nearly any type does not lead SMEs to refrain from demanding bank loans because of a fear of rejection, but a wide involvement in specific innovation types reduces the chance that their internal funds make them refrain from asking for credit. Innovative SMEs are significantly more likely to be credit-constrained than non-innovative ones, but the probability of not receiving bank loans increases only for firms that combine specific innovation typologies. An innovation status of SMEs makes banks more selective in their decision to completely fulfill a credit request, but the probability of this decision decreases only with respect to a few, multi-innovation profiles. The extent to which SMEs innovate in different domains, rather than the simple innovation intensity, appears to be a crucial dimension to consider in future research and in devising policies to attenuate financial constraints to innovation.

We investigate the long-run income and price elasticity of import demand functions with a heterogeneous unbalanced panel of 34 countries over the period 1985:q1-2018:q3. To estimate world elasticities the model is tested with the activity variables derived from the theoretical and empirical literature: GDP, GDP minus exports, Private Demand, Aggregate Domestic Demand, National Cash Flow, and Import intensity-Adjusted Demand (IAD). First, we evaluate time series properties using second generation panel unit root and cointegration tests. Second, we rely on the dynamic common correlated effects mean groups (CCEMG) estimator to deal with cross-sectional dependence (CSD). We find that the IAD, whose world elasticity is close to one, is the best performing specification. Our results confirm that the most appropriate activity variable to assess import demand should encompass intermediate goods as suggested by the recent literature on global supply chains. Moreover, we partially solve the puzzle of the recent trade slowdown since, taking stock of the role of intermediates, the time needed to resort to the long run equilibrium in the aftermath of a global turmoil is greater than that predicted by previous studies.

Using European Central Bank restricted-access biannual data on European small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over the period 2014–2017, we analyze the impact that innovation, financial constraints, and an efficient regulatory environment exert on the probability of switching from the status of nonexporter to exporter and vice versa. We find that either the use of finance for innovation or undertaking product innovation increases the likelihood of starting to export and lowers the likelihood of stopping exporting. Although SMEs’ financial frictions are negligible for foreign market entry, they matter for increasing the probability of exiting. We also document that a friendly regulatory environment is conducive to start—but not to stop—exporting. Our findings provide empirical support for the recent European Commission policies on both SMEs’ internationalization and access to finance.

This paper compares six alternative methods of computing the import demand function. We use a sample of 33 countries from 1995:1 to 2016:3 and brand new information on import contents made available by WIOD. Preferred models take into account the separate effects of each final demand component. Contrary to some recent studies, we observe that private expenditure is the main driver of import variations.

The article illustrates the results of a research project aimed at identifying the main economic and industrial characteristics of the port system of the Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) Region, Italy, and the role it plays within the economy. Combining a top-down and bottom-up approach, based on interviews and detailed data at firm level, a bi-regional input-output (I-O) table is built with a special disaggregation of the 12 port-related sectors of the FVG region. The I-O table provides the basis for the estimation of a bi-regional I-O model. Drawing from the I-O literature, the article also implements two methodologies to estimate: (a) the level of self-sufficiency of the port system and (b) its degree of substitutability, that is, what would happen if the FVG port system closes down, completely or partially.

Asymmetric wars of attrition between speculators and a Central Bank can provide a useful framework to address currency crisis length and explain why a speculative attack can fail after some time. Interest rate defence can be analysed too. A non-linear relationship between interest rates and peg defence emerges, as a rate upsurge can reduce both concession times. With some welfare loss functions, increasing the domestic rate too much is a self-defeating policy as the Central Bank will opt out before speculators concede, but the reverse holds for lower rates. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In 1992, Ranko Bon argued that in highly developed countries the relatively declining economic importance of the construction industry is followed by the absolute decline of its output. The shrinking volume has implications with production capacity that, at a certain point of economic maturity, tends to be added at a slower rate than in the past. By using statistical data of the Danish construction industry, this study attempts to verify Bon’s proposition. The absolute decline of housing investments partially supports such a proposition. What is more, since the peak of the mid-1970s, the addition rate to the capacity of the Danish economy has slowed down.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the evolution of Italian aggregate structural change over the years 1965–85. We use annual input–output (IO) tables in current and constant prices to derive an aggregate index of structural change. We adopt several techniques for such an explorative analysis. First, we borrow from qualitative matrix analysis and graph theory some basic concepts to assess direct and indirect links among sectors, and interrelatedness measures are derived in a straightforward way. However, qualitative analysis of indirect links may be flawed, since it can establish a path that is quantitatively negligible. Then, we turn our attention to a non-standard quantitative index derived from structural path analysis, expressed by a simple function of the input matrix determinant. Since empirical findings indicate a structural break in 1975, we derive another measure of technical change: the dominant eigenvalue. Such an index has several interesting properties but no clear relationship to the ci...

Using OECD input/output tables at current and constant prices, this paper analyses the performance of the construction sector of eight highly industrialized countries - Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan and the USA - in the 1970s and 1980s. First, the main characteristics of the data set with country and time coverage are briefly introduced. Then, a set of simple indicators is used for comparative purposes, namely to assess the construction sector's diminishing role in terms of share in gross output, value added and GNP. Analysis focuses also on technologies, with emphasis on the relative role of manufacturing and services inputs. Lastly, standard measures of linkages are used to determine the main sources of induced output that are created by the push and pull effects of the construction sector on the rest of the economy.