This paper estimates the parameters of the ideas production function crucial to recent ideas-driven growth models. Using U. S. patents granted to residents in OECD countries to generate the stock of commercially used ideas, we provide evidence for two main findings. First, at the level of the production of ideas, we find evidence of increasing returns to scale in the stock of ideas and number of researchers, but marginal decreasing returns in each one of these factors. Second, we provide evidence of the association between ideas growth and economic growth for the OECD as a whole in the long run. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg 2005Innovation, spillovers, ideas-driven growth, patents, public intervention,

Abstract:The developing world needs far more financing for infrastructure than can be provided by domestic public finances alone and through Official Development Aid (ODA). Around middle 1980s a new strategy based on the use of public-private agreements, relying on ODA to enhance the quality of projects, reduce risks and raise profitability was gradually implemented for the provision of infrastructures and public utilities. This paper evaluates the more typical forms of private sector involvement (PSI) and its actual importance (by type of public utility and by region) and shows that the new strategy has failed in improving the provision of infrastructures in the developing world.

No abstract

In this paper we examine the relationship between inward FDI and total factor productivity (TFP) in a framework motivated by the OLI paradigm. A panel data approach is used to study the effects of FDI and payments of royalties and license fees (R&L) on aggregate TFP in a sample of 16 OECD countries, between 1985 and 2002. Our empirical tests show that FDI and R&L have a positive impact on host-country TFP, and also suggest that the amount of positive effects of FDI and R&L is dependent on the level of development of the receiving country. Additionally, our data show that, when other factors remain constant, inward FDI and R&L payments are substitutes in positively influencing TFP of the host country.

No abstract