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Schlagworte
- Nanotechnologie (2)
- New Economic Geography (2)
- Risiko (2)
- Vertical Linkages (2)
- Wertschöpfungskette (2)
- Wirtschaftsgeographie (2)
- adjustment costs (2)
- congested public inputs (2)
- nanotechnologies (2)
- Anpassungskosten (1)
Recent discussions about the evolvement of nanotechnologies criticize that the notion ‘risk’ is too abstract and an all-inclusive category. Moreover, the concept of risk is not precise enough to describe the potential issues related to the development of nanotechnologies. Instead, experts of technological development speak more about risk communication. Within the field of nanotechnologies, they even redefined this expression in February 2005 and related it to the question of the societal acceptance of nanotechnologies. Risk communication is about to gain stakeholder acceptance of policy decisions, whereas public and stakeholders are encouraged to participate actively in the communication process through public consultations, hearings, etc. Thus on the one hand, the category of risk has been pragmatically nuanced in order to better highlight the vulnerability of the communication on nanotechnologies. On the other hand, this vulnerable communication is not the result of a deficit of information. It is based on the idea of participation, where the vulnerability relies on the social groups specialized in the design, the application, and the diffusion of nanotechnologies within society. How is this participation possible, and what does it mean? We develop this question in the framework of a comparative survey on experts that are involved in the deployment of nanotechnologies in Grenoble (France) and Hamburg (Germany).
This paper analyzes, within a regional growth model, the impact of productive governmental policy and integration on the spatial distribution of economic activity. Integration is understood as enhancing territorial cooperation between the regions, and it describes the extent to which one region may benefit from the other region’s public input, e.g. the extent to which regional road networks are connected. Both integration and the characteristics of the public input crucially affect whether agglomeration arises and if so to which extent economic activity is concentrated: As a consequence of enhanced integration, agglomeration is less likely to arise and concentration will be lower. Relative congestion reinforces agglomeration, thereby increasing equilibrium concentration. Due to the congestion externalities, the market outcome ends up in suboptimally high concentration.
Die Biotechnologie, identifiziert als eine der strategischen Zukunftstechnologien, ist gekennzeichnet durch eine hohe Forschungsintensität mit breiten Anwendungsfeldern. Nach einer seit 2001 andauernden Konsolidierungsphase steht die Branche gegenwärtig vor neuen Herausforderungen: der EU-Osterweiterung sowie der massiv vorangetriebenen Technologiepolitik in den Schwellenländer Indien und China. Einerseits entstehen durch die Integration dieser Wachstumsmärkte neue Forschungs-, Produktions- und Absatzmöglichkeiten, andererseits birgt der steigende Wettbewerbsdruck ein nicht unwesentliches Risiko für die junge deutsche Branche. Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt die Ergebnisse einer 2006 durchgeführten Online-Befragung deutscher BT-Unternehmen in direkten Bezug zur niedersächsischen BT-Industrie. Im zweiten Schritt wird die Analyse durch numerische Simulationen der EU-Erweiterung 2004 im Rahmen der so genannten New Economic Geography ergänzt. Die Analysen zeigen eine Verlagerungstendenz der Biotechnologiebranche in die europäische Peripherie. Diese Tendenz wird jedoch aufgrund von Infrastruktur- und Faktormarktrestriktionen gravierend gedämpft.
Converging institutions: Shaping the relationships between nanotechnologies, economy and society
(2006)
This paper develops the concept of converging institutions and applies it to nanotechnologies. Starting point are economic and sociological perspectives. We focus on the entire innovation process of nanotechnologies beginning with research and development over di_usion via downstream sectors until implementation in final goods. The concept is applied to the nano–cluster in the metropolitan region of Grenoble and a possible converging institution is identified.
This paper analyzes the growth impact of fiscal and institutional governmental policies in a regional context. The government provides a productive input that is complementary to private capital. Institutional policies include the decision about the type of public input as well as on the size of the region as determined by the number of firms. Fiscal policies decide on the extent of the public input. Private capital accumulation incurs adjustment costs that depend upon the ratio between private and public investment. After deriving the decentralized equilibrium, fiscal and institutional policies as well as their interdependencies and welfare implications are discussed. Due to the feedback effects both policies may not be determined independently. It is also shown that depending on the region’s size different types of the public input maximize growth.
Die ökonomischen Implikationen einer verstärkten Migration deutscher Unternehmen nach Osteuropa und Asien werden derzeit intensiv diskutiert. Wichtige wirtschaftliche Akteure sind KMU des verarbeitenden Gewerbes, die zum einen Elemente komplexer Wertschöpfungsketten bilden, zum anderen häufig durch Produktdifferenzierung die Märkte jeder Lieferstufe gestalten. Das vorliegende Papier soll in dieser Diskussion einen Beitrag aus Sicht der Neuen Ökonomischen Geographie leisten. In einem partialanalytischen Modell wird untersucht, welchen Einfluss das Spannungsfeld von Produktions- und Transportkosten auf die Standortwahl der Unternehmen ausübt und welche Parameterkonstellationen industrielle Agglomeration fördern bzw. behindern. In diesem Zuge wird das Modell von Venables (1996) um standortdifferenzierte Technologien erweitert und im Rahmen einer Simulation auf Unternehmen des metallerzeugenden und -verarbeitenden Gewerbes übertragen.
Many public goods are characterized by rivalry and/or excludability. This paper introduces both non-excludable and excludable public inputs into a simple endogenous growth model. We derive the equilibrium growth rate and design the optimal tax and user-cost structure. Our results emphasize the role of congestion in determining this optimal financing structure and the consequences this has in turn for the government’s budget. The latter consists of fee and tax revenues that are used to finance the entire public production input and that may or may not suffice to finance the entire public input, depending upon the degree of congestion. We extend the model to allow for monopoly pricing of the user fee by the government. Most of the analysis is conducted for general production functions consistent with endogenous growth, although the case of CES technology is also considered.