Search results

This study aims to find technologically important patent identification methods and indicators early and efficiently to grasp the technical qualitative level of patents, which are output indicators of research and development (R&D) results.

This paper reports on two methods for distinguishing important patents and the indicators obtained from those methods. One of the discrimination methods is Heckman's two-step estimation procedure. The second method is to find the centrality of each patent by network analysis of the citation relationship between publications and to find the importance from the magnitude of the centrality value.

In Heckman's analysis, the number of citations within three years after publication and the applicant's right acquisition/maintenance motivation index had positive effects on patent importance. The discriminative indicators of important patents by network analysis were degree centrality, mediation centrality, proximity centrality and transit values in the aggregated subnetworks. These two analytical methods are in a relationship that can complement each other's shortcomings. To efficiently evaluate the qualitative importance of patents, it is recommended to use these two methods together.

The indicators of important technical patents might change depending on the technical field. Future studies can apply this research to multiple technical fields to improve robustness and to construct an algorithm that can efficiently evaluate the quality of patents.

This study's results can be useful for grasping the patent position of the company or competitors numerically and for quantitatively evaluating the quality of R&D activities. Furthermore, it is possible to streamline the routine for an exploratory search of a huge number of patents. For example, it could be useful for detecting changes in the paradigm of specific technical knowledge, evolving the genealogy of technical knowledge and creating patent maps for new R&D. These methods greatly increase the effectiveness of technical knowledge information, which is the basis of R&D. In addition, the results of this study can help in evaluating patented assets.

This study confirmed the development process of technical knowledge. It is a fact that sharing, sympathy and mutual trust for technical issues and technical values are created among professional engineers and researchers inside and outside the organization, and their preferences and interactions develop and expand technical knowledge. Understanding the process of development and the evolution of this technical knowledge gives hints, such as expanding the discretionary power of engineers and researchers regarding corporate secrets, or reviewing the balance between control and independence, to solve Japanese management problems, which are often closed and monetized in R&D activities.

This study presents a scoring of the technical significance of patents by combining the two analytical methods. In addition, there are proposals as a method for detecting changes in the genealogy and paradigm of technical knowledge. As an analysis method, it is a new proposal that has never existed before.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the connection between labour supply and the wages of married women of different ages in Toronto using data from the 2010 Labour Force Survey of Canada.

The authors employ three econometric techniques, ordinary least square, 2 stage least square and the Heckman two-step method to estimate the supply elasticities. The first two focus on the wage rate and hours conditional on the subjects being employed whereas the third method controls for sample selectivity bias by including the unemployed. Bootstrap test statistics are produced when the normality assumption for the error terms is found to be violated.

The aggregate labour supply elasticity for married women in Toronto is estimated to be 0.053 which similar to value found for Canada for a whole in a previous study even though Toronto is much more diverse culturally than average. The labour supply elasticities for 25-34 year old and 35-44 year old married are estimated to be 0.108 and 0.079, respectively. The supply elasticity for married women aged 45-59 is not significantly different from 0.

The paper shows that younger married women in Toronto are more responsive to an increase in wages than older women. The estimation procedure and the testing of the significance of coefficients are more rigorous than previous studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate antecedents of households' local demand for domestic tourism in Jordan.

A sample of 600 households is surveyed and a two‐stage demand model is estimated. Stage 1 identifies the antecedents of the probability of entering the domestic tourism market. Stage 2 identifies the antecedents of households' expenditures on domestic tourism. The Heckit method is used to estimate the first stage and the OLS is used to estimate the second stage.

Certain socio‐economic factors (household characteristics, individual characteristics and ability variables) impact the local demand for domestic tourism, as do price and income variables.

The generalizability of results to other countries is limited.

Identification of antecedents of local demand for domestic tourism helps governments to formulate and modify future tourism strategies.

This paper contributes to the literature by including socio‐economic variables in the domestic tourism demand model. Further, there is a dearth of studies in Jordan in general and regarding domestic tourism in particular.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the returns to rural schooling in China, addressing both endogeneity in rural individuals’ schooling and self-selection into off-farm work.

This paper exploits geographical proximity to rural secondary schools to create instrumental variables (IV) for individuals’ years of schooling. It addresses both endogenous schooling and self-selection using the two-step procedure developed in Wooldridge (2002, p. 586).

The preferred IV estimate of schooling returns, 7.6 percent, is considerably higher than most previous estimates found in rural China.

This paper is among the few papers that examine returns to rural schooling in China while simultaneously addressing both endogeneity in individuals’ schooling and self-selection into off-farm work. Its findings suggest that rural education in China is potentially able to generate a respectable level of economic returns if policies are designed to provide greater school accessibility to rural individuals.

Presents a brief overview of some recent analytical developments in the economic analysis of discrimination. Discusses a range of theoretical issues and reviews recent empirical evidence.

The purpose of this study is to examine the demand for credit and credit rationing conducted by formal, informal and emerging microfinance lenders in the four poor counties of China.

This paper extends the existing studies on credit rationing in rural China by comparing the determinants of credit rationing by three different lenders, the formal lenders rural credit cooperatives (RCCs), the informal lenders and the new microfinance institutions (MFIs).

MFIs are capable of reaching out to the even poorer households if they develop the loan products based on the income and expenditure flows of these households.

The determinants of credit rationing by three types of institutions are estimated separately.

RCCs in China shall change their policy of discrimination against female-headed households. RCCs shall also simplify the loan application procedures and assess the clients based on their repayment capacities rather than the age or assets alone. RCCs could learn from MFIs to use incomes from migrant workers as a criterion to assess the loan applicants.

gender equity for loan access.

This paper extends the existing studies on credit rationing in rural China by comparing the determinants of credit rationing by three different lenders, the formal lenders (RCCs), the informal lenders and the new MFIs.

The Heckman two-step estimator (Heckit) for the selectivity model is widely applied in Economics and other social sciences. In this model a non-zero outcome variable is observed only if a latent variable is positive. The asymptotic covariance matrix for a two-step estimation procedure must account for the estimation error introduced in the first stage. We examine the finite sample size of tests based on alternative covariance matrix estimators. We do so by using Monte Carlo experiments to evaluate bootstrap generated critical values and critical values based on asymptotic theory.

This study intends to decompose the tourist choice process into two stages (decision to take a holiday and tourist expenditure), and to propose and test various expectations on the dimensions which explain the above decisions.

In order to simultaneously model the two decisions, we use a system of equations based on the Heckit model.

The dimensions affecting the decision to go on holiday are income, household size, education, size of the city of origin and opinion of going on holiday. The determinant factors influencing the level of expenditure are distance between origin and destination, type of accommodation, income, household size, age, marital status and length of stay. An important finding of this analysis is the differentiated effect of a given dimension on each decision.

The lack of information on some explanatory dimensions. Joint modelling. The spending decision should be modelled jointly with the decision to go on holiday due to the dependency between them.

The promotion of destinations should be developed with special attention paid to some faraway markets of origin, due to the expected propensity for these tourists to spend longer periods at the destination. The specialisation of destinations in terms of accommodation type and length of stay. The design of holiday packages should be adapted to the needs of the tourists identified, as they represent the most profitable tourist profiles.

The particular findings, and the research and practical implications proposed show the relevance of the topic analysed. Also, these aspects are backed by a sample of 3,781 individuals, which assures the robustness of the results.

This paper empirically assesses energy efficiency (EE) adoption among firms by examining the factors that drive investment in EE in the Onitsha plastic cluster, South-East, Nigeria.

Self-administered questionnaires were delivered to the selected enterprises. A total of 450 questionnaires were administered of which 423 were certified valid and used for the analysis. A Heckit model was developed and estimated.

Gender, firm size, Joneses effect and expected cost reduction benefits are the significant determinants of EE investment. However, firm structure, government incentives, regulatory requirements and reduction of carbon emission are insignificant drivers of EE investment decisions in the Onitsha plastic cluster.

This paper presents a foremost attempt at analysing the determinants of energy investment in a cluster in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of credit access on income and multidimensional poverty by providing an econometric framework.

The study is conducted in Assam, India and uses a quasi-experiment design to gather primary data. Econometric tools like Heckit procedure, Tobit selection equation and probit model are used for empirical purpose.

The paper finds that the level of individual welfare is influenced by equivalent factors. In addition, the study observes a larger incidence of poverty among treatment households of semiformal and informal borrowers. The study argues that formal sources are more effective in reducing the number of poor households by lifting those who are closest to the poverty line.

The study indicates a vicious circle of income and multidimensional poverty among semiformal and informal borrowers. By tradition, as rural Assam gets a dominant role of traditional community-based financial institutions, we should develop the banking structure by involving these institutions. The study excludes other probable explanatory variables while evaluating the impact of credit access on income and multidimensional poverty, and this limitation is left to future research.

This is probably the first empirical paper in Assam showing the impact of credit access on multidimensional poverty by adjusting for endogeneity and selection bias.