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This work provides a new empirical assessment of global economic hierarchies and the associated unequal distribution of value between core and peripheral economies. This is accomplished by looking at the functional division of labour induced by the international fragmentation of production and the related value capture dynamics in global value chains (GVCs). To this aim, we introduce and compute an indicator of 'functional specialization' of economies based on their ability to attract Foreign Direct Investment, which allows us to detect the value adding activities in which more than 100 countries have specialized from 2003 to 2018. We show that the most intangible-intensive activities are concentrated in core capitalist economies, while production operations at the lower end of the value chain are mainly the prerogative of low- and middle-income countries. Although China and India have emerged as partial but significant outliers, a substantial persistence of this functional division of labour across world macro-regions is also observed over the period. Most notably, we find that a higher specialization in the most intangible-intensive functions allows countries to capture a greater amount of value from trade in GVCs, thus providing novel empirical support to the 'Smile curve' hypotheses and the underlying 'intellectual monopoly' perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Public e-services are a broad and growing research field in which scholars and practitioners from different domains are involved. However, the increasing attention devoted to public e-services only partially captures the extreme variety of aspects and implications of the diffusion of information and communication technologies at all levels of public administrations. The paper aims to develop a meta-analysis of the literature on the delivery, diffusion, adoption and impact of public e-services and examines differences in methodologies, approaches and key indicators across five service categories: e-government, e-education, e-health, Infomobility and e-procurement. We examined 751 articles appeared in 2000–2010 in the top international academic journals listed in the SSCI-ISI, as classified in the following fields: Communication, Economics, Education, Environmental Studies, Geography, Health Policy and Services, Information Science and Library Science, Law, Management, Planning and Development, Public Administration, Transportation and Urban Studies. We highlight a significant heterogeneity in scientific production across service categories, indicators used, and affiliation of authors. We also show an increasing diffusion of quantitative methods applied to different research fields which still appears to be constrained by data limitations. The overall picture emerging from the analysis is one characterized by largely unexplored domains as well as scarcely analyzed issues both across and within individual service categories. Thus many research opportunities seem to emerge and need to be exploited from different disciplinary perspectives in this field of analysis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Exploring complementarities between ICT, human capital and organizational change, and how these affect performance of public administrations. [•] Tackling the issue of how to measure output level and quality of non defense public sector. [•] Developing an index-based approach to the analysis of PA performance relying on the use of public e-services as a proxy of revealed output quality. [•] Econometric analysis of how the co-evolution of ICT, skills and organizational factors affect performance in PAs across 15 European countries. [•] ICT alone does not significantly impact on PA performance, while it does when combined with human capital and organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examined the impact of foreign direct investments on host economies which has been noted for its divergent effects, particularly on the presence of multinational companies over domestics firms. It highlighted the corrections referring to the model of productivity spillovers. Suggested is a more radical view stressing more focus on the concept of externality based on definition entailing the idea of not-paid-for advantages/disadvantages.

This paper examines how different aspects of multinational experience affect the choice of international linkage strategy. Integrating transaction cost and dynamic efficiency considerations, we empirically test the determinants of the choice between acquisitions, joint ventures (JV), and strategic alliances (SA) for the world’s largest electronics corporations in 1993–1997. We show that “country specific experience” increases the probability of commitment intensive linkage modes (such as acquisitions and joint ventures), while a positive effect on strategic alliances is caused by “variety experience”, deriving from the heterogeneity of international contexts, and by “internationalisation experience” reflecting overall involvement in international markets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Temperature and precipitation anomalies are key drivers of within-country inequality. • Agriculture is a fundamental channel in the climate change-inequality nexus. • Warmer temperatures have a stronger impact on income disparities in rural countries. • Urban areas are more exposed to income disparities induced by extreme precipitations. • Inward FDI diversification enhances resilience, moderating climate-induced inequality. This paper investigates the impact of climate change on within-country income inequality for more than 150 nations over the period 2003–2017. Specifically, we control for a large number of determinants of income disparities detected by extant literature and focus on agriculture as one of the most crucial channels in the climate change-inequality nexus. We find that temperature increases and precipitation anomalies have significant adverse effects on within-country inequality, especially in the presence of larger shares of population in rural areas and of workers in agriculture. We also provide evidence on the lower distributional impact of climate change in economies that are more diversified across value chain activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data on 5,102 subsidiaries established in the period 1991–1999, we examine the location choice of multinational firms of different nationalities in 47 regions of five EU countries. In particular we estimate a nested logit model and find that European multinationals consider regions across different countries as relatively closer substitutes than regions within national borders. This is consistent with the hypothesis that European regions compete to attract foreign direct investments relatively more across than within countries. However, in line with previous studies, we also find that national boundaries still play some role in choices made by non-European multinationals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper applies an open and transparent methodology to construct a composite indicator for the analysis of the diffusion of ICT in the public sector and the development of public e-services across Italian regions. This methodology, based on OECD/EC-JRC Handbook and incorporating experts′ opinion into a Data Envelopment Analysis, will allow us to define a ranking of Italian regions in terms of ICT adoption and of e-service development. Data are obtained by merging four different surveys carried out by Between Co. (2010–2011) and Istat – Italy′s National Bureau of Statistics (2009). We add to extant empirical literature in three ways. First, we offer a comprehensive measurement of advances in digital government that is not circumscribed to a single domain (e.g. administrative procedures of public administrations) but is rather aimed to capture a wide spectrum of public e-services (e-government, e-education, Intelligent Transport Systems, e-health). Second, we tackle a major drawback of existing statistics and benchmarking studies which are largely based on the count of services provided online, by including more sophisticated indicators on the quality of services offered and on back office changes. The results – both in terms of scores and regional rankings – highlight the presence of different patterns of adoption and use of public e-services at the local level. Third, we offer a rich account of the extreme heterogeneity of public e-service development and of the underlying technological and organizational change at the sub-national level, and hence provide a basis for the differentiating policy measures across regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] The paper studies how technological, organizational and contextual factors are correlated to the development of e-Government, as a case of new technology “enactment”. [•] We develop a quantitative analysis of factors affecting e-Government adoption, using data at the municipality level for Italy in 2007 and 2009. [•] We find that e-Government is associated with both outsourcing and in-house accumulation of ICT competencies and activities, but the latter has twice as high a correlation. [•] Advanced e-services are less likely to be offered in the case of small municipalities, in sparsely populated areas and in the presence of higher rates of growth of the elder population. [•] e-Government development is more likely in areas with more intense patenting activities, which in turn favour a dynamic and sophisticated demand for new services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]