Domestic Capabilities Research Articles

Developing Capabilities in the Seed Industry: Which Direction to Follow?

Since the 1990s, many developing country policy makers have assumed that plant genetic engineering represents the only technological frontier in seed innovation; that it has been the leading technology for improving seeds and agricultural performance in those countries where it has been adopted; and that it is the area of biotechnology in which domestic capabilities in seed innovation should be accumulated. In this paper we challenge all those assumptions through an exploration of the role that both genetic engineering and other seed innovation techniques have played in explaining dynamism in the seed market, and wider agricultural economy, in Argentina, focusing on the case of soy. We argue that existing analyses of the impact of plant genetic engineering in Argentina either ignore the performance gains from seed innovations based on techniques other than genetic engineering or misattribute them to genetic engineering.Our analysis, based on data of registered plant varieties, evidence of agricultural performance in Argentina, and interviews with company managers and public sector researchers, seeks to distinguish between the impacts that different approaches to seed innovation have had on the soy sector. We argue that, from the data available, non-genetic engineering seed innovations appear to have had a very significant direct effect on farm-level soy productivity, much more so than those based on genetic engineering, and that they offer just as plausible a contributing explanation for indirect effects on productivity that are normally attributed to genetic engineering. Our findings are preliminary, but they stand in stark contrast to the very widely held view that genetic engineering has played a central, transformative role in the revitalisation and internationally competitive performance of soy production in Argentina over the last two decades. They also have a number of potential implications for the allocation of resources and policy support to the seed industry, and, more generally to how technological options should be considered and assessed in strategies for developing technological capabilities. Our analysis is framed by and contributes to an emerging body of research within the innovation literature that challenges deterministic, unidirectional approaches to analysing technological change in emerging economies.

The Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is facing daunting energy challenges. Security concerns over growing fuel imports, limited domestic energy resources for power generation, and projected demands for electricity that will exceed domestic supply capabilities within a few years. By acknowledging the potential of renewable energy resources, the country could possibly meet its unprecedented energy demand, thus increasing electricity accessibility all and enhancing energy security through their advancement. The integration of renewable energy technologies in the power sector through national energy planning would, therefore, is a step in the right direction, not only for sustainable development of the country but also as part of Bangladesh's responsibility toward the global common task of environmental protection. This research paperexamines the potential of renewable energy sources for power generation in Bangladesh from the viewpoint of different promising available technologies. The analysis shows a substantially higher implementation of renewable energy technologies compared to the base scenario. Renewable energy technologies, especially solar photovoltaic, play an important role in achieving acceptable energy security.

Leveraging existing information for use in a National Nuclear Forensics Library (NNFL)

A National Nuclear Forensics Library (NNFL) assists a State to assess whether nuclear material encountered out of regulatory control is of domestic or international origin. By leveraging nuclear material registries, nuclear enterprise records, and safeguards accountancy information, as well as existing domestic technical capability and subject-matter domain expertise, states can better assess the effort required for setting up an NNFL. States who are largely recipients of nuclear and radiological materials and have no internal production capabilities may create an NNFL that relies on existing information rather than carry out advanced analyses on domestic materials.

Lessons learned from international expansion failures and successes

Many retail and restaurant companies adopt international expansion as a strategy to take advantage of business opportunities presented by target markets. Common objectives include increasing revenue, escaping a hypercompetitive or saturated home market, entering an emerging or lucrative market, and leveraging domestic capabilities in a bordering country. Success in international expansion is not guaranteed, however; the business world is littered with failures. In this article, we examine the international expansion failures of five service companies that opened physical facilities in a foreign country: Target, Tim Hortons, Best Buy, Tesco, and Walmart. While a variety of factors led to these failures, some common causes have been identified. These include a lack of understanding of the purchasing characteristics of consumers, underestimation of the local competition, supply chain issues, and poor strategic decisions regarding facility location and the rate of expansion. Not all international expansions are failures, though, and herein we also present the success stories of Aldo, Carrefour, and Nordstrom. These companies understood customer preferences and focused on location issues and their supply chains. Based on the aforementioned failures and successes, we offer guidance for companies looking to expand their business operations via a physical presence in a foreign country.

Stock Index Arbitrage in the Turkish Market

For the first time in the Turkish stock market, the width of the zero arbitrage band for BIST 30 stock index arbitrage is measured and decomposed into distinct contributions arising from commissions, fees, bid/offer spreads and stock loan costs. This study also extends the literature of stock index arbitrage by utilizing intraday data to compute returns for forward and reverse BIST 30 arbitrage once per minute for 2014 and 2015 futures contracts. These returns enable identification of the frequency for profitable executions net of all costs. The absence of profitable trades and the unusual persistence of BIST 30 futures priced below their costless theoretical fair value are explained by their position within zero arbitrage band thresholds. Decomposition and measurement of arbitrage cost elements confirms the identification for regulators of the need for policies to encourage continuing development of domestic stock loan capabilities that ultimately should improve futures pricing efficiency. The relative attractiveness of present BIST 30 index arbitrage is compared with that occurring a decade ago thereby contributing to the growing literature on the evolution of futures pricing efficiency in global markets after introduction of index futures.

Global Health and the U.S. Department of Defense: A Call for an Evidence Base.

This first article is the launch of a monthly global health (GH) column for Military Medicine intended to catalyze thought and call for quantitative and qualitative analysis of defense and federal health engagement and its impact within the GH discipline. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) executes activities around the world that affect the health of United States and partner forces as well as civilian populations. More frequently the U.S. defense health community itself and others ask how these actions mitigate the global burden of disease, address complex GH issues, and meet the specific health sector needs of partner nations. U.S. defense capabilities have always been at the forefront of GH and preventive medicine issues such as vaccine development, tropical medicine, and water security. Some would express that although U.S. military health assets are employed internationally, they are only truly effective in combat casualty care and the acute phase of disaster response. Since U.S. defense global health engagement (GHE) has not employed the systematic approach expected in modern GH practice, it is challenged to prove positive impact in humanitarian assistance, health sector reconstruction, and peacetime development. DoD defines foreign humanitarian assistance in doctrine with good intentions, knowing that it cannot align fully with civilian humanitarian principles. DoD can add clarity to its role through improving strategic selection, intent, and planning of health engagement that could make measurement and sustainment more possible. Articles for this column will focus on tactical and operational level GHE. Purposefully designed activities should achieve long-term positive health and command objectives, but further objective analysis is needed to determine effects and validate processes. GH, as used by the development and academic communities, and GHE, as operationalized by DoD, are distinct concepts. GH is the modern version of the field of International Health with a definition that is accepted across academia, politics, and in the community of health experts. GHE, on the other hand, is a new term coined within the defense health community that encompasses the U.S. military activities that affect foreign health sectors. DoD is in the process of fielding an official policy definition of GHE but simple modification of the existing joint definition of military engagement will suffice for present discussion: “[Global health] engagement is the routine contact and interaction between individuals or elements of the joint [health] forces of the United States and those of another nation’s armed forces, foreign civilian authorities, or other agencies [with health sector impact] to build trust and confidence, share information, coordinate mutual activities, maintain influence, promote stability and security, and build partner capacity.” The most visible GHE is in international “disaster response” for either natural or manmade catastrophes when the civilian lead agency requests the military to participate in support. Military health assets are only requested in a small portion of declared emergencies, but these are usually large events with international attention, such that the DoD health response, positive or negative, gains significant visibility. DoD can benefit from a systematic, objective, approach to evaluation, continuous improvement, and the operationalization of lessons learned in disaster response. These efforts should be contemplated in the context of knowledge about disaster cycles, disaster epidemiologic data, the recipient nation health system, and geopolitical realities. Novel research needs to be conducted to produce evidence that helps support military decision makers in this endeavor. Likewise, the U.S. defense community has significant tools to assist a partnerati “disaster preparedness,” in military-tomilitary and military-to-civilian collaborations. State National Guard units and the Federal Emergency Management Agency provide deep domestic response experience that can be modeled and contextually adapted to assist a partner country in improving their domestic and regional capability. Validation of functional partner nation improvement in execution after U.S. preparedness assistance will be critical to determining how to proceed with future military humanitarian disaster preparedness programs. Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Uniformed Services University, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda MD 20814. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, The Department of Defense or the U. S. Government. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00252

Stock Index Arbitrage in the Turkish Market

For the first time in the Turkish stock market, the width of the zero arbitrage band for BIST 30 stock index arbitrage was measured and decomposed into distinct contributions arising from commissions, fees, bid/offer spreads, and stock loan costs. Intraday data was used to compute returns for forward and reverse BIST 30 arbitrage once per minute daily for 2014 and 2015 futures contracts. The absence of profitable trades and the unusual persistence of BIST 30 futures priced below the costless theoretical fair value were explained by their position within the zero arbitrage band. Measurement of arbitrage cost elements confirmed the need for regulatory policies to encourage development of domestic stock loan capabilities. The status of BIST 30 index arbitrage was compared with that occurring a decade ago, thereby contributing to the growing literature on the evolution of futures pricing efficiency in global markets after introduction of index futures.

Field configuring events shaping sustainability transitions? The case of solar PV in India

The sustainability transitions literature has emphasized the analytical challenges in understanding the trade-offs in protecting niche innovations. This paper builds on an emerging body of literature that argues that the concept of field-configuring events (FCE) is useful for understanding such trade-offs. We explore how this concept can be fruitful for analysis of niche protection in solar PV technology in India. The paper finds two important focal points of debate: (1) supporting domestic capabilities to improve competitiveness; and (2) using public financial mechanisms efficiently. Our research suggests that, whilst FCEs indeed seem an appropriate venue for investigating on-going debates in niche protection, it is challenging to develop causal relationships between these events and their wider, field-level influence. As such, the paper reflects conceptually on the usefulness of the notion of FCEs as temporally and spatially bounded venues for analysis of emerging niche trajectories and their politics.

More Love in the Time of Cholera: Staying Clear of Black Holes, Whirlpools, Vices and Other Sins in Offset Policy Design

This short academic paper, prepared for background study by senior civil servants in a forthcoming mid-career training course, looks at certain plausible elements of sound offset and counter-trade policy design, that are repeatedly noticed in important national jurisdictions that have successfully deployed such tools for fostering their domestic industrial base. It attempts to develop an objective framework for analysing and comparing national offset systems, as an alternative to anecdotal and responses-based systems presently employed for the purpose. The issues for offsets reforms discussed in this short paper could also provide useful pointers to developing countries in particular that may be serious in their intentions and efforts for smart leveraging of public procurement cases for fostering domestic industrial capabilities.

Глобальная конкурентоспособность обрабатывающей промышленности США

The article considers the current state and prospects of the US manufacturing sector. Economic and technologies reasons for weakening US positions in global manufacturing are discussed. It is shown that the USA is facing a long term global competitiveness problems in manufacturing, not just a cyclical downturn. A number of disturbing trends in USA manufacturing emerged well before the global crisis of 2008, pointing to its structural problems. During the recessions that began in 2001, and then with greater intensity in 2008, US manufacturing sector was dramatically affected, losing investment and millions of workplaces, facing greater import competition. Despite the rise in the value of US exports in recent decades, the US share of global exports of manufactured goods declined. Special attention is paid to the situation in the area of knowledge- and technology-intensive industries and advanced technology products. Mass migration of US manufacturing facilities to countries with lower taxes and wages has eroded the domestic capabilities of high-quality, cost-competitive production, damaging America’s ability to retain a lead in some hi-tech sectors. As shows in the article since 2000, the USA has fallen in many competitiveness and business world rankings, compared to other developed and developing countries. Anyway, the author’s conclusion is that, despite the existing problems, no sector of US economy creates more economic value or supports more additional jobs than manufacturing. The United States remains the world’s most productive large economy and the largest market for manufacturing and hi-tech goods and services, which stimulates innovation and investment.

Innovation System and Increasing Reformulation Practices in the Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical Sector of South India

This article emphasises the role of domestic knowledge capabilities and networks in shaping an incentive structure for innovation and research. I combine an analysis of in-house research activities by ayurvedic firms in South India with their inter-firm and inter-institutional relations in the establishment of a new innovation regime aiming to promote growth in the ayurvedic sector. The tensions typical of this competitive environment are discussed by paying attention to the absence of contingent regulatory practices and the recent efforts in this direction as illustrated by the use of the ‘Magical Remedies Act’ to curtail the claims of many firms in the market. The ayurvedic pharmaceutical company Oushadhi owned by the Government of Kerala as well as the private firmssnaOushadhasala Pvt. Ltd. and Vaidyaratnam Oushadhasala Pvt. Ltd. (all from Thrissur district of Kerala) are analysed to delineate their research priorities and bottlenecks for innovations. The data of this ayurvedic sector is contrasted with the case of the Kani tribe and the ways in which their traditional knowledge has been reformulated into an industrial ayurvedic product. Through this exploration, the paper attempts to offer an economic explanation for increasing reformulation practices in Ayurveda.

How Large or Small is the Policy Space? WTO Regime and Industrial Policy

The paper identifies the need for improvements in space for developing and least developed countries under the current world trading system by examining the use of WTO dispute settlement system with descriptive statistics and case studies. The paper shows an asymmetry in the utilization of the dispute settlement system and the consequence of using the system between developed and developing countries. For instance, the paper demonstrates that the United States and some other developed countries use WTO rules effectively, resulting in the defeat of developing countries in disputes. These developing countries are forced to abandon their measures. By contrast, the United States and the other developed countries continue to use WTO-inconsistent policies in need without being much effectively challenged. Based on our findings, we suggest what should be done within the practices of the current rules, what can be done to change the current global rules, and what developing countries can still try under the current rules.Keywords: Industrial Policy, WTO Dispute, Policy Space, WTO SCM Agreement. SubsidiesJEL Classification: F13, F53, K33, K41, O25I. IntroductionSince the past decade, renewed interest on has been observed by both developed and developing economies (OECD 2013), which reflect partly the disappointing economic performance under the Washington Consensus during the 1980s and 1990s and the effect of the 2008 global financial crisis (Lin and Stiglitz 2013; Lee 2013a; Lee and Mathews 2010). Although is often a broad concept, it is traditionally defined, according to early works such as that of Johnson (1982), as sector-specific policies that improve the structure of a domestic industry to enhance the international competitiveness of a countiy. New more recent literature on the subject includes the works of Cimoli, Dosi, and Stiglitz (2009), as well as those of Lin (2012), Lee (2013b), Lee and Mathews (2013), and Wade (2012). Two most recent works are that of Un and Stiglitz (2013) as well as a new flagship report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD 2013) that attempts to suggest new and broader uses of to include not only sector-specific (or vertical) interventions but also horizontal ones. Thus, the OECD (2013, p.102) defines as targeted government actions aimed at supporting production transformation that increases productivity, fosters the generation of backward and forward linkages, improves domestic capabilities, and creates more and better jobs.The revived interest in seems to reflect an emerging consensus that all the well-known experiences of successful economic development have not emerged spontaneously. Rather, these experiences have been achieved through strong policies that stimulate modem economic activity and creates a virtuous circle of rising productivity, technological upgrading, and social progress in low-income countries that would typically require assistance through a combination of public investment in infrastructure, human capital, and a set of incentives broadly labelled as industrial policy (Cornla and Vos 2014). In other words, is now to be understood not merely as promoting manufacturing industries, but also promoting modem production and service activities in general (Comia and Vos 2014). Empirical research, such as those by Aghion, Dewatripont, Du, Harrison, and Legros (2012) and Shin and Lee (2012), verify the positive effect of in contrast to earlier literature that found its effect to be insignificant, such as in the work of Beason and Weinstein (1996) or Lee (1996).One reason for the mixed outcome of may be the difficulty of verifying the average positive effect of because the effects tend to appear only under certain conditions, depending upon specific contexts (Shin and Lee 2012). …

It’s all about the data: Responding to international chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents

After digesting lessons from US operations during the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan, the White House National Security Council staff created several interagency working groups to examine procedural issues associated with responding to international chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) incidents. What emerged were best practices and lessons learned designed to transform data to decisions across the many levels of government during an international CBRN incident for those people making life-saving and life-sustaining choices. Actions at both the strategic and operational levels are needed to enable a country to more effectively transfer its domestic response capabilities and infrastructure to an international consequence management response. International complications include varying organizational relationships and legal authorities; resource limitations in overseas jurisdictions; nonstandard sources and formats of information; differing public health and protection standards; and language barriers. The technical data needed for emergency personnel to safely and effectively respond to CBRN incidents are especially difficult to obtain, require specialized analytical tools to process, and demand particular procedures for sharing in an international context. Without addressing these issues up front, any country responding to a CBRN event beyond its borders may struggle to effectively respond.

Foreign Direct Investment and Transnational Corporations

The chapter summarizes 40 years of UNCTAD’s research and analysis on the relationship between FDI and TNC activities and development. While during that period pros and cons of development strategies relying on inward FDI have oscillated in response to events in the world, it is now widely recognized that FDI, as a complement to domestic investment, can bring important development benefits for both host and home economies. It is also clear that makers should not rely on passive liberalization and market forces alone. UNCTAD’s analysis has underscored the crucial role of active government policies to help ensure that FDI brings development gains: policy matters has become a consistent message. On the other hand, FDI is no panacea for breaking out of underdevelopment. The scope for benefiting from inward FDI is closely linked to a country’s ability to foster its domestic capabilities, and under the right circumstances FDI can act as a catalyst for economic growth and development. In the area of FDI and development there are no clear-cut answers or one-size-fits-all solutions. UNCTAD has played its role in advancing the intellectual comprehension of the phenomenon of FDI and, over time, has developed policies to deal with it. The chapter reviews the evolution of research and work of UNCTAD and how it has interacted with technical assistance work as well as with national Governments through its intergovernmental machinery.

Multinationals and Economic Development in Italy during the Twentieth Century

As a host country for foreign direct investment, conventional measures suggest that Italy is not a very attractive location. However, based upon a new database of the one hundred largest multinationals in the country, this article shows that foreign firms consistently played a crucial role in Italy's industrial activities throughout the twentieth century. A detailed analysis of investment patterns, distribution across industries, and entry modes reveals that they concentrated their investment in sectors of high technological and scale intensity, such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, where domestic capabilities and competition remained weak during much of the period.

The shift from theory to innovation: the evolution of Brazilian research frontiers 2005–2011

Proliferation of emerging economies as significant sources of competitive knowledge is a key feature of globalisation, often driven by government policies fostering domestic research-based innovation capabilities. To cast light on this common emerging economy effort to move from catch-up towards the global innovation frontier, we analyse the evolution of the focus of Brazilian research frontiers 2005–2011 with bibliometric methods. Our results demonstrate a gradual and moderate shift from theoretical scientific knowledge to more innovation-centred knowledge in the most influential Brazilian research, indicating the increased prominence and quality of innovation focused efforts in country's knowledge system. Thus, the recent expansion of Brazil's innovation system is accompanied by qualitative transformations of the research system, in part driven by nationally emerging research fields and technologies. Conceptually, we consider the overall importance of scientific research for developing and emerging economy innovation system build-up.

Foreign Medical Teams: What Role Can They Play in Response to a Catastrophic Disaster in the US?

Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that a catastrophic event in the continental United States (US) can overwhelm domestic medical response capabilities. The recent focus on response planning for a catastrophic earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone and the detonation of an improvised nuclear device also underscore the need for improved plans. The purpose of this analysis is to identify the potential role of foreign medical teams (FMTs) in providing medical response to a catastrophic event in the US. We reviewed existing policies and frameworks that address medical response to catastrophic events and humanitarian emergencies and assess current response capabilities by a variety of FMTs. While several policies and plans outline the role of the US in providing medical assistance during foreign disasters, further planning is necessary to identify how the US will integrate foreign medical assistance during a domestic catastrophic event. We provide an overview of considerations related to federal roles and responsibilities for managing and integrating FMTs into the overarching domestic medical response to a catastrophic disaster occurring in the continental US.

Technological capability and transfer for achieving South Africa's development goals

Technological capability and technology transfer both play important roles in achieving low-carbon development targets and the concepts of both have appeared in national development and climate policy debates. Yet, they differ. Improving capabilities and transfer mechanisms are two differing approaches to technological development. Technology transfer is associated with a key political dynamic within international climate policy, in that developing countries request support from industrialised countries. Whereas technological capability focuses on building internal capabilities and is often framed in the context of national industrial policy plans rather than relying on external support. We argue that technology development, a combination of these approaches, can contribute to South Africa's low-carbon development through innovation and technology-based mitigation actions that increase domestic technological capabilities. Technological capability needs to become a determinant of mitigation action to effectively contribute to achieving South Africa's low-carbon development goals. International technology transfer and cooperation should contribute to boosting domestic capabilities to advance technological development. Technology transfer based on pure sales will not contribute to achieving long-term low-carbon development goals.

Analysis of Chinese Energy Security Based on Quantitative Evaluation Method

This paper by the following five areas: domestic resources and support capabilities, domestic production and supply capacity, international market ability to obtain national emergency regulation capacity, environmental security and ability to control to select the reserve-production ratio of the energy reserves replacement rate, the share of production, self-sufficiency ratethe share of imports, the price, the level of reserves, consumption intensity, carbon emissions, and clean energy proportion of 10 indicators, and finally design evaluation index system of energy security. It canbe description of the energy security overall situation by the energy safety index that calculated by weighted composite model.The results show that the energy security index the higher the value, the more secure the energy situation. The evaluation shows that under a realistic scenario, China's energy security degrees an average of 0.7125, which in the "basic security" state. If proper development planning, and effective measures, by the 2020, 2030, Energy Security degrees maybe to 0.8411,0.8477 into the "safe" range. Case of the international community for the implementation of energy blockade in China, China's energy security may be reduced to 0.5520 "unsafe" level.

The Impact of Patents on Innovation, Technology Transfer and Health: A Pre- and Post-TRIPs Analysis of India's Pharmaceutical Industry

The debate surrounding the World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement indicates that patents matter for development. Yet literature on the geography of knowledge transfer shows that knowledge is spatially sticky, suggesting that the impact of patents can be exaggerated. Using interview evidence, this paper explores how Indian pharmaceutical firms have responded to changes in patent law, including the introduction of more extensive patent protection in 2005 as a condition of TRIPs. A regime of limited patent protection for over three decades prior to TRIPs facilitated informal knowledge transfer and the emergence of a pharmaceutical industry with significant domestic capabilities. Contrary to some expectations, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has continued to grow post-TRIPs, with large domestic firms becoming involved in more formal technology transfer as part of an increasingly collaborative relationship with multinationals. This trend is also driven by a focus on the markets of developed countries, raising questions for the future sustainability of India's low-priced medicines. While changes in patent law can facilitate or inhibit a variety of aspects of development, the adaptation of the Indian pharmaceutical industry suggests that their impact must be related to the broader institutional setting, particularly the underlying domestic capabilities.