Search

AbstractThe rise of the knowledge economy has placed innovation at the center of models of competitive advantage. Access to more valuable forms of knowledge remains contested as the geography of its production is uneven and as some knowledge assets are relatively immobile. Within this fractured knowledge landscape multilocational firms have clear advantages. They can exploit numerous localized pools of knowledge, they can shape the character of knowledge development in different places, and they have some control over who can tap local knowledge assets. Surprisingly, we still have little detailed knowledge of the technologies developed by multilocational firms across the sites where they are active. We augment the literature on multiunit firms on three fronts. First, we make use of the rich, technological information in patent data to show that multilocational firms operating research and development (R&D) units across US metropolitan areas produce different kinds of technological knowledge over space. Second, we provide quantitative evidence of geographic knowledge sourcing by linking the technologies produced within the R&D units of these firms to the knowledge stocks generated within the cities where they are located. Third, we report that as the number of R&D units within multilocational firms increase, so, up to a limit, the complexity of the knowledge those firms generate also increases. We show that these complexity gains are linked to the volume of knowledge sourced from local partners and to the integration of knowledge across units of the multilocational firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on geographies of knowledge sourcing examines the organizational structure of innovation activities within the firm, the mechanisms by which knowledge is extracted from various external sources and the geography of these different activities. We augment this literature by exploring knowledge sourcing within multi-plant firms operating in Europe. Analysis makes use of linked patent-firm data recording the location of knowledge production and its ownership. The results add value to existing research in three ways. First, the establishments of multi-plant firms are shown to produce different kinds of knowledge in different locations. Second, the patents generated within a firm's establishments are linked to the knowledge stocks of the regions where they operate, supporting a vision of geographical knowledge sourcing. Third, the complexity of knowledge produced within firms is positively related to the number of plants in which they innovate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional resilience is high on the scientific and policy agenda. An essential feature of resilience is diversifying into new activities but little is known about whether major economic crises accelerate or decelerate regional diversification. This article shows how crises impact the development of new technological capabilities within U.S. metropolitan areas by examining three of the largest downturns in U.S. history, the Long Depression (1873–1879), the Great Depression (1929–1934) and the 1970s recession (1973–1975). We find that crises (i) reduce the pace of diversification in cities and (ii) narrow the scope of diversification to more closely related activities. This pattern seems general as it also holds for smaller, local crises. Evidence is presented that this general pattern of technological diversification strongly hampers employment growth. Additionally, we find that diverse cities generally diversify more strongly during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dense concentrations of economic activity are generally seen as giving rise to increasing returns that may be shared by business units that cluster in particular locations. What are the sources of these increasing returns and do they benefit all businesses or only some? Theories of the firm and strategic management argue that competitive advantage originates in the development and exploitation of firm-specific assets or capabilities that may be internal or external to the firm. The extent of firm heterogeneity suggests that businesses search for profit in many different ways. We might anticipate that older, larger, foreign-owned and multi-plant firms draw upon internal resources more readily than young, small, domestic, single-plant firms. Do the benefits of agglomeration vary among business establishments according to these characteristics? We examine this question using plant-level longitudinal micro-data from the Canadian manufacturing sector. We show that most manufacturing plants benefit from co-location, but that plants with different characteristics benefit in different ways.

Over the past twenty-five years, earnings inequality has risen dramatically in the US, reversing trends of the preceding half-century. Growing inequality is closely tied to globalization and trade through the arguments of Heckscher-Ohlin. However, with few exceptions, empirical studies fail to show that trade is the primary determinant of shifts in relative wages. We argue that lack of empirical support for the trade-inequality connection results from the use of poor proxies for worker skill and the failure to control for other worker characteristics and plant characteristics that impact wages. We remedy these problems by developing a matched employee-employer database linking the Decennial Household Census (individual worker records) and the Longitudinal Research Database (individual manufacturing establishment records) for the Los Angeles CMSA in 1990 and 2000. Our results show that trade has a significant impact on wage inequality, pushing down the wages of the less-skilled while allowing more highly skilled workers to benefit from exports. That impact has increased through the 1990s, swamping the influence of skill-biased technical change in 2000. Further, the negative effect of trade on the wages of the less-skilled has moved up the skill distribution over time. This suggests that over the long-run, increasing levels of education may not insulate more skilled workers within developed economies from the impacts of trade.

This paper investigates the effects of exporting on wages, specifically the claim that workers are paid higher wages if they are employed in manufacturing plants that export vis-à-vis plants that do not export. Past research on US plants has supported the existence of an export wage premium, though European studies dispute those results calling for more care in econometric investigation to control for worker characteristics. We answer this call developing a matched employee-employer data set linking worker characteristics from the one-in-six long form of the Decennial Household Census to manufacturing establishment data from the Longitudinal Research Database. Analysis focuses on 1990 and 2000 data for the Los Angeles Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area. Our results confirm that the average wage in manufacturing plants that export is greater than that in manufacturing plants that do not export. However, after controlling for worker characteristics such as age, gender, education, race and nationality, the export wage premium vanishes. That is, when comparing workers with similar characteristics, there is no wage difference between exporting and non-exporting plants. These results concord with recent findings from Europe and elsewhere.

This paper investigates the relationship between plant productivity and export market participation in the greater Los Angeles area using unpublished plant-level data from the US Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Research Database. Two key questions are examined: (i) do plants that export learn in foreign markets and become more efficient and/or (ii) do more efficient plants self-select into export markets. Analytical results support previous claims that more productive plants tend to self-select into export markets. Little support is found for the learning-by-exporting argument.

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2010.00675.x Byline: John R. Baldwin (1), W. Mark Brown (2), David L. Rigby (3) Abstract: ABSTRACT. This paper identifies the main sources of urban increasing returns, after Marshall. The geographical distance across which externalities flow is also examined. We bring to bear on these questions plant-level data organized in the form of a panel across the years 1989 and 1999. Plant-level production functions are estimated across the Canadian manufacturing sector as a whole and for five broad industry groups, each characterized by the nature of its output. The panel data overcome selection bias resulting from unobserved plant-level heterogeneity that is constant over time. A related set of estimates using instrumental variables allay persistent concerns with endogeneity. Results provide strong support for Marshall's claims about the importance of buyer-supplier networks, labor market matching and spillovers. We show that spillovers enhance plant productivity within industries rather than between them and that these spillovers are highly localized. Author Affiliation: (1)Economic Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, R.H. Coats Building, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0T6. E-mail:john.baldwin@statcan.gc.ca (2)Economic Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, R.H. Coats Building, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0T6. E-mail:mark.brown@statcan.gc.ca (3)Department of Geography, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095. E-mail:rigby@geog.ucla.edu Article History: Received: August 2008; revised: July 2009; accepted: August 2009.

The effect of the upstream wake on the time averaged rotor blade heat transfer was numerically investigated. The geometry and flow conditions of the first stage turbine blade of GE's [E.sup.3] engine with a tip clearance equal to 2% of the span were utilized. The upstream wake had both a total pressure and temperature deficit. The rotor inlet conditions were determined from a steady analysis of the cooled upstream vane. Comparisons between the time average of the unsteady rotor blade heat transfer and the steady analysis, which used the average inlet conditions of unsteady cases, are made to illuminate the differences between the steady and unsteady calculations. To help in the understanding of the differences between steady and unsteady results on one hand and to evaluate the effect of the total temperature wake on the other, separate calculations were performed to obtain the rotor heat transfer and adiabatic wall temperatures. It was found that the Nusselt number distribution for the time average of unsteady heat transfer is invariant if normalized by the difference in the adiabatic and wall temperatures. It appeared though that near the endwalls the Nusselt number distribution did depend on the thermal wake strength. Differences between steady and time averaged unsteady heat transfer results of up to 20% were seen on the blade surface. Differences were less on the blade tip surface. [DOI: 10.1115/1.3213549]

Do capabilities reside in firms, in regions, or in both? Within economic geography, most contemporary research on diversification examines how local structures condition regional development possibilities. The underlying logic is that capabilities are generated within regions and sometimes shared between them. We challenge that logic, exploring whether capabilities are more likely to emerge within the firm and to flow across spatial boundaries than they are to be built within the region flowing across firm boundaries. Analysis focuses on technological diversification within the establishments of multilocational firms operating across Chinese cities. Overall, the results demonstrate that the knowledge structure of firms is more important than the knowledge structure of cities in shaping diversification within establishments. We show that rates of technological diversification vary according to plant status (headquarters or not), location (core or peripheral city), and on whether plants are introducing more or less complex knowledge. The influence of plant, firm, and regional characteristics on diversification vary markedly across the analytical samples examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison is presented between two specific eras of the women's clothing industry in the US. While the 1960s were dominated by domestic plant relocations and technological advances, the period from the 1970s on has been characterized by organizational structure and externalizing labor-intensive work.