This paper analyses trade specialisation dynamics in two Eastern European countries (Romania and Bulgaria – EEC-2) vis-à-vis the core EU member states (EU-15) over the period 1990-2006. Specifically, we focus on whether there is a shift towards intraindustry trade leading to economic convergence and technological catch-up. We use recently developed static (FEM, REM and FEVD) and dynamic (GMM) p...

We examine micro-level channels of how financial development can affect macroeconomic outcomes like the level of income and export intensity. We investigate theoretically and empirically how financial constraints affect a firm’s innovation and export activities, using unique firm survey data which provides direct measures for innovations and firm-specific financial constraints. We find that fin...

This paper surveys the empirical evidence on the link between innovation and economic growth in the light of New Growth Theory. It considers a number of different measures of innovation, such as R&D spending, patenting, and innovation counts, as well as the pervasive effect of technological spillovers between firms, industries, and countries. There are three main conclusions. The first is that ...

We analyse cross-country trends in several aspects of technological progress during 1980-2011 by examining the US patent citations data. Our estimation results on patent quality and citation lags relative to the US reveal the following. The emerging Asian economies of Korea, Taiwan and China have achieved substantial catch-up. In the case of Korea and Taiwan, progress has been made in both pate...