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隨著全球化的發展，對外投資不僅在國際經貿中所扮演的角色愈來愈重要，型態也愈來愈多元，呈現出與過去大不相同的特性與風貌。這樣的發展趨勢，再度引起學者對廠商對外投資的影響效果產生興趣。過去有關對外投資影響效果的文獻，主要是以探討對外投資對地主國經濟發展的影響為主，探討對母國或母公司影響的文獻則不多，特別是開發中國家的廠商對外投資對母國影響的研究更是付之闕如。為了彌補此方面文獻之不足，本研究利用台灣製造業1987-2003年的廠商資料來探討廠商對外投資對其技術升級之影響。 廠商對外投資對母國經濟影響的相關議題在台灣一直受到持續的關注，1991年政府開放廠商赴大陸投資之後，該議題更是引發熱切的討論。部分學者擔憂廠商對外投資後將造成國內產業的空洞化；但有另一部分的學者則主張，台灣只要持續技術升級及產業升級就可避免空洞化的危機。有鑑於此，本研究利用三個經濟指標，研發支出、生產力與效率，及技能提升(skill-upgrading)來檢驗不具競爭優勢的產業或附加價值鏈外移，是否有利於台灣進行技術升級。 本研究首先建立了一個理論模型來探討廠商對外投資對其國內研發活動的影響。研究結果顯示，廠商對外投資對其國內的研發支出可能同時產生兩個相反的影響效果，即互補效果及替代效果。互補效果主要來自於廠商對外投資後的「規模擴大效果」，而替代效果的發生則會因廠商對外投資動機之不同，而有不同的來源管道。 本研究實證模型的創新之處在於利用propensity score matching的配對方式搭配difference-in-differences的估計方法來控制實證研究中常會出現的自我選擇誤差(self-selection bias)及互為因果(causality)的問題。本研究採用了四種不同的配對方式來建構對外投資廠商的配對樣本，並發現Nearest available matching within calipers的配對方式可以產生最佳的配對效果，在不犧牲太多樣本數的情況下，顯著縮小對外投資廠商在對外投資前與無對外投資廠商的特性差距。 本研究的實證結果發現，僅管對外投資廠商，特別是赴開發中國家投資的廠商可能對母國的就業造成不利的衝擊，但卻能夠顯著提高母國的研發支出、技術效率及勞工技能，顯示廠商對外投資確實有助於台灣的技術升級。研究結果認為台灣政府應重新思考產業政策及社會福利政策的制定方向，以解決這些新的經濟議題。 / Foreign direct investment has played an increasingly important role in the world economy and, as a consequence, an immense amount of research has investigated its determinants and effects. However, while previous studies have focused on the impact of inward FDI on the host countries, there has been relatively little research on the impact of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on the home countries in general, and on developing economies (LDCs) in particular. To fill this gap in the literature, this thesis investigates the home-country effects of the OFDI activity of Taiwanese manufacturing firms. To be specific, the impact of OFDI on the investing firms’ domestic R&D spending, productivity and efficiency, employment and skill-upgrading is examined. A theoretical model is developed to examine the relationship between OFDI and domestic R&D activity. It is shown that OFDI could induce two opposing effects on domestic R&D spending, namely, a complementary effect and a substitution effect. The complementary effect arises mainly due to the “sales-increasing effect” of overseas investment. Substitution effects might arise from different channels depending on FDI motives. Firm-level panel data covering the period 1987-2003 are used in the empirical analysis. The novelty in this thesis is the application of a propensity score matching approach combined with the difference-in-differences method to control for the possible selection bias related to the empirical analysis. Four different matching methods are used to construct matched samples of Taiwan’s OFDI firms. The empirical results reveal that, although Taiwanese overseas investment, especially the investment in LDCs, reduces domestic employment, it stimulates investing firms’ domestic R&D spending, technology efficiency and skill intensity. This implies that while the OFDI activity of Taiwanese firms has brought about a positive effect on their technological upgrading, which is beneficial to the industrial development and resource allocation of the economy, the recent increase in the unemployment in Taiwan could to some extent be attributed to the OFDI activity. It also suggests that the Taiwanese government might need to reconsider its industrial policy as well as social welfare policy in order to deal with these new economic issues.

La présente thèse a pour objectif d'analyser le rôle des institutions sur la croissance économique, et notamment sur l'attractivité et l'effet des investissements directs étrangers (IDE). Pour cela, nous avons utilisé douze indicateurs de mesure de la qualité des institutions et testé leurs effets en retenant un échantillon important de pays développés, en voie de développement et en transition. Notre démarche se décline en trois chapitres. Le chapitre 1 est consacré à l'évaluation de l'effet direct des institutions sur la croissance économique en fonction du niveau de développement des pays étudiés. Les résultats montrent que la qualité des institutions a un effet plus important sur la croissance dans les pays à revenu intermédiaire, en particulier la stabilité politique et la lutte contre la corruption. Pour les pays à revenu élevé le facteur le plus déterminant est le respect des lois et des contrats. Le chapitre 2 analyse l'effet indirect des institutions sur la croissance à travers les IDE. Les résultats mettent en évidence l'existence des seuils institutionnels qui conditionnent l'effet des IDE sur la croissance selon la situation géographique et le niveau de développement des pays. Il ressort notamment que la lutte contre la corruption et l'amélioration de la démocratie sont les canaux travers lesquels les IDE favorisent la croissance dans les pays d'Afrique du Nord et du Moyen-Orient et d'Asie, la stabilité d gouvernement et le respect des contrats étant les plus importants dans les pays d'Europe et d'Amérique. Le chapitre 3 s'intéresse à l'effet de l'ouverture financière et du développement financier sur l'attractivité des IDE en mettant e évidence le rôle des institutions. Les résultats montrent que pour les pays qui ont libéralisé leur compte de capital, l'entrée d'IDE est plus importante lorsqu'ils disposent d'une bonne qualité institutionnelle. De la même manière, l'attractivité des IDE est favorisée par 1 passif liquide des banques et les crédits au secteur privé, mais il est moindre pour les pays dotés d'importantes ressources naturelle: Les résultats soulignent l'existence d'un seuil institutionnel à partir duquel le poids de la capitalisation boursière et des litres échangé en bourse favorisent l'attractivité des IDE. La confrontation des résultats des chapitres 2 et 3 permet d'avancer que le seuil institutionnel à travers lequel le développement financier améliore l'attractivité des IDE est plus élevé que le seuil à travers lequel les IDE impactent la croissance. Dans les pays e développement en particulier, la qualité des institutions constitue une contrainte plus sévère en termes d'attractivité qu'en termes d'effet des IDE sur la croissance. / This thesis aims to investigate the role of institutions on economic growth, specifically through the attractiveness and the impact of Foreign Direct lnvestment. For this, we use twelve measures of the institutional quality and we test their effects using a set of developed, developing and transition countries. Our approach is divided into three parts. Chapter 1 analyzes the direct effect of institutions on economic growth by level of development of countries. Results show that the quality of institutions has a greater effect on growth in middle-income countries, particularly the effects of political stability and fightinç against corruption. For high-income countries, the most important factors are respect of laws and contracts. Chapter 2 examines the indirect effect of institutions on growth through FDI. Results highlight the existence of institutional thresholds that condition the effect of FDI on economic growth by countries and by level of incarne. It appears that fighting against corruption an improving democracy are the mechanisms through which FDI promotes growth in the MENA and the Asia group, and through the respect of contracts and government stability in the Europe and the America group. Chapter 3 assesses the effect of financial openness and financial development on the attractiveness of FDI by highlighting the role o institutions. Results indicate that countries that have opened their capital account have received more FDI inflows and the effect is higher in countries with good institutional quality. Similarly, FDI attractiveness is enhanced by liquid liabilities and credit to the private sector but is lower in natural resouce endowed countries. The results highlight that countries are able to attract FDI through stock market capitalization and traded only above an institutional threshold. We highlight in this thesis that the institutional level through which financial development impact the attractiveness of FDI is higher than the institutional level through which FDI contributes to growth. ln the developing group, the quality of institutions is an important constraint in term of attractiveness than in terms of the effect of FDI on GDP growth.

Submitted by PPG Economia do desenvolvimento (economia-pg@pucrs.br) on 2018-01-19T12:58:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LUIZ_FELIPE_CAMPOS_FONTES_DIS.pdf: 1157438 bytes, checksum: 5c0dc0f464a309e26c0d2b33d1a2d147 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2018-01-29T12:05:27Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 LUIZ_FELIPE_CAMPOS_FONTES_DIS.pdf: 1157438 bytes, checksum: 5c0dc0f464a309e26c0d2b33d1a2d147 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-29T12:10:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LUIZ_FELIPE_CAMPOS_FONTES_DIS.pdf: 1157438 bytes, checksum: 5c0dc0f464a309e26c0d2b33d1a2d147 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-20 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / The present dissertation consists of two independent essays in public policy evaluation, which estimates the causal effects of two major Brazilian policies, the Mais M?dicos Program (PMM) and the Bolsa Fam?lia Program (PBF). The first essay aims to evaluate the PMM in terms of the provision of physicians, presenting estimates of its impact on hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSH). The differences-in-differences method was used with propensity score matching (double difference matching), using three specifications, a falsification test and also a dynamic endogeneity test to confirm the robustness of the results. For the application of this methodology, a panel of municipal data was constructed covering several variables related to socioeconomic, demographic and public health infrastructure characteristics in the cities for the period from 2010 to 2016. First, it is shown that the program had an effect on increasing the density of physicians. Then, the main results show a significant reduction in hospital admissions in treated municipalities with an increasing and perceptible effect in the second year of the program. The second essay aims to analyze the impact of PBF in Brazilian intern migration. The Average Treatment Effect on Treated (ATT) was estimated through Propensity Score Matching (PSM) using microdata from Brazilian Census 2010. The results show that the program stimulates recipients? remigration to their home states and retain those already established in a locality. The estimates are robust in the possible presence of omitted variables and in different matching specifications. By exploring regional heterogeneity, we have shown that the impacts on return and retention are greater for the Northeast, the concentrating region of return migrations and Program beneficiaries. Through Dose Response Function it is also shown that the results are positively correlated with the monetary values transfer by the Bolsa Fam?lia, which may indicate a channel for the empirical results. / A presente disserta??o consiste em dois ensaios independentes em avalia??o de pol?ticas p?blicas, os quais estimam efeitos causais de duas pol?ticas brasileiras de grande apelo, o Programa Mais M?dicos (PMM) e o Programa Bolsa Fam?lia (PBF). O primeiro ensaio objetiva avaliar o PMM no que se refere ao provimento de m?dicos, apresentando estimativas de seu impacto nas interna??es por condi??es sens?veis ? aten??o prim?ria (ICSAP). Foi empregado o m?todo de diferen?as-em-diferen?as com pareamento por escore de propens?o (double difference matching). Para a aplica??o desta metodologia, foi constru?do um painel de dados municipais abrangendo diversas vari?veis relativas ?s caracter?sticas socioecon?micas, demogr?ficas e de infraestrutura p?blica de sa?de nas cidades para o per?odo de 2010 a 2016. Como um primeiro est?gio da an?lise, apresenta-se o impacto do programa sobre o n?mero de m?dicos nos munic?pios benefici?rios. As estimativas sugerem que houve aumento significativo na oferta de m?dicos por conta do PMM. Em um segundo est?gio mostra-se que o programa teve impacto na redu??o de interna??es hospitalares evit?veis nos munic?pios mais carentes em termos de oferta de sa?de, com um efeito crescente e percept?vel a partir do segundo ano da pol?tica. Al?m disso, algumas estrat?gias adotadas garantiram a robustez dos resultados como um teste de endogeneidade din?mica, estima??es para anos anteriores ao programa, e regress?es a partir de diferentes especifica??es. O segundo ensaio estima o impacto do PBF sobre a migra??o inter-estadual brasileira. A estima??o do efeito do tratamento m?dio sobre os tratados (Average Treatment Effect on Treated ? ATT) foi feita por meio do Propensity Score Matching (PSM) a partir dos microdados do Censo Demogr?fico de 2010, em que foi poss?vel analisar indiv?duos migrantes, migrantes retornados e n?o retornados. As estima??es apontam que o PBF estimula a remigra??o dos benefici?rios aos seus estados de origem, al?m de manter aqueles que j? est?o fixos em uma localidade, mesmo que essa n?o seja a sua de nascimento. Os resultados n?o se mostraram sens?veis ? poss?vel presen?a de vari?veis omitidas e as demais especifica??es utilizadas nas estima??es. Ao explorar a heterogeneidade regional, mostramos que os impactos sobre remigra??o e reten??o s?o maiores para regi?o Nordeste, a qual concentra grande parte dos remigrados e benefici?rios do PBF. Ainda, por meio da Fun??o Dose Resposta (FDR), mostra-se que os resultados s?o positivamente correlacionados com os valores monet?rios pagos pelo programa, o que pode indicar um mecanismo para os resultados.

我國自1996年起開始試辦綜合高中，迄今已有十餘年。試辦綜合高中的目的在於促使我國後期中等教育能在高中、高職之外，提供另一條不同的選擇進路，俾使學生得以適性發展，學得多方面的知識，達到適性教育的目標。過去國內關於綜合高中分流政策的研究，大都集中在探討綜合高中的辦學績效和實施困難，而非該政策對學生學習成就的影響之探討。有鑑於此，本研究進一步探討：（1）哪些因素會影響國中畢業生選擇就讀普通高中和綜合高中學術導向組；（2）就讀綜合高中的學生，其學生學習成就是否優於就讀一般高中或高職；（3）綜合高中的課程分流政策是否能減少教育階層化的產生。 原始資料取自臺灣教育長期追蹤資料庫（Taiwan Education Panel Survey）公開使用版中的第一波到第四波國中追蹤樣本資料，並使用傾向分數配對法（Propensity Score Matching）探討上述三個研究目的。研究結果發現：(1)控制其它相關因素之後，過去學習成就和家庭社經背景愈佳者，愈有可能就讀普通高中及綜合高中學術導向組；(2)在學生學習成就表現上，就讀綜合高中的學生並不比就讀一般高中或高職的學生來得好；(3)綜合高中分流政策和制度性分流一樣，都會產生教育階層化現象。最後，本研究說明本研究結果對綜合高中分流政策的意涵，及提出研究建議供後續研究之用。 / Since 1996, Taiwan government launched the policy of Comprehensive High School (CHS) to relax the traditional system of curriculum tracking at the level of the senior secondary education. A number of studies and on-site evaluation reports on CHS have been made. So far, these studies and reports focused on exploring the performance of comprehensive high schools and difficulties in implementation of the policy. No evaluation of the impacts of the CHS policy on student achievement has yet been done. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the CHS policy on students’ achievement in the upper secondary education in Taiwan. This study attempts to answer the following research questions: (1) What factors influence junior-high school graduates’ decision on attending general high schools, and the academic track in comprehensive high schools? (2) Do students enrolling in comprehensive high schools perform better academically than those enrolling in general or vocational high schools? (3) Do curriculum tracking in comprehensive high schools enhance or reduce inequality in educational achievement? Using the data from the public released core panel data of the Taiwan Education Panel Survey (TEPS) in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007, this study employs the method of propensity score matching (PSM) to estimate the average treatment effect of CHS policy on student achievement. All results of PSM analysis indicate that (1) all else being equal, students with higher prior student achievement and better socio-economic backgrounds have more opportunities to enroll in an academic track, including senior high schools and the academic track in comprehensive high schools, than those with lower level of prior achievement or socio-economic backgrounds; (2) for those enrolled in comprehensive high schools, there is virtually no gain in student achievement from the CHS policy; and (3) tracking in comprehensive high schools produce inequality in educational achievement, which is similar to tracking between general and vocational high schools. Finally, the present study discusses the implications of the CHS policy and suggests directions for future research.

自1990年代中期，隨著環保、消費者權利、童工…等這些議題被廣泛檢討，越來越多人同意各別公司與整個社會是價值共享且相互依存的，若要達到共存共榮的理想，則公司必定要將社會責任融入其自身追求競爭力和商業策略的核心架構中。企業社會責任(Corporate Social Responsibility)並無公認標準，但一般泛指企業除了追求股東的利益極大化外，還必須兼顧員工、顧客、供應商、合作夥伴、社區團體、環境…等。 道瓊永續性指數(Dow Jones Sustainability Index)為現今資本市場衡量企業社會責任的標竿指數，而企業名列在被大眾認可的永續性指數上，就是企業可以傳達給利益相關者(stakeholders)，表明他們注重企業社會責任的訊號之一。藉由研究企業被涵蓋在聲譽卓著的永續性指數之內是否能為股東創造價值，本論文將探討企業永續發展和企業價值之間的複雜關係。 本研究利用傾向分數配對法(Propensity Score Matching)，降低進入與退出道瓊永續性指數這兩組公司間的異質性，以求得出的結果較不受公司規模、財務槓桿、產業等外在其他因素干擾。將2002至2009年間的樣本數配對後，以道瓊永續性指數作為企業社會責任之代理變數，以累積異常報酬率(Cumulative abnormal return)代表為股東創造之財富，我們追蹤資本市場對於企業進入和退出道瓊永續性指數的反應，來探討股東是否認同公司參與企業社會責任是創造價值之行為。 本研究結果顯示如下: 第一、當企業被加入道瓊永續性指數時，該企業之股東將獲得正向且顯著性的累積異常報酬率，這代表名列著名的的永續性指數是一個股東認可，且企業應追尋的目標。第二、當企業被道瓊永續性指數剔除時，該企業之股東將獲得負向但不顯著的累積異常報酬率。因此我們至少可以推論，從事企業社會責任活動，並不會破壞企業整體之價值。 / Corporate social responsibility (CSR) gradually becomes an important corporate strategy to every company in the worldwide economy. The social performance of a firm can shape the images to key stakeholders, no matter they are employees, suppliers, customers or investors, and influence decision making and relationships with the firm in the later stage. While corporations are busy engaging and enhancing CSR practices, there are few established empirical research on CSR effects and relevance in the capital markets. Hence, my thesis explores the relationship between corporate sustainability and firm value by asking whether membership on a recognized sustainability index is value generating. As stakeholders are urging that firms demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, one signal that companies can send to stakeholders to indicate that they are sustainable is membership on a recognized sustainability index. My research investigates this issue by tracing the market reaction to corporate entries and exits from Dow Jones Sustainability Index, recognized as a CSR benchmark, between 2002 and 2009. Instead of using regression models, I employ a propensity score matching (PSM) pairs design to overcome heterogeneity between different firms. My thesis highlights two main findings: a significant share price rising trend in cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) of the samples under the addition situation, suggesting that inclusion on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) is a goal that firms should pursue. Another is an insignificant negative stock market reaction while firms are removed from the DJSI, and I can draw from the results that, at the very least, adopting CSR doesn’t deteriorate the value of the firms. Our results suggest that the benefits of being included on the DJSI outweigh or equal to the costs associated with applying a membership on DJSI.

This dissertation examines the role of public investments in inducing small firms to develop risky, early-stage technologies. It contributes to expanding our understanding of the consequences of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship policies and programs by investigating in more depth the effect of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program on the innovation effort, ability to attract external capital, and other metrics of post-entry performance of small business start-ups using a new sample and estimation approach. Unlike prior R&D subsidy studies that concentrated almost exclusively on European countries, this dissertation focused on small business start-ups in the United States using a new scientific survey of new firms. It integrated the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation with the SBIR recipient dataset from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and used advances in statistical matching to achieve better comparability between the treated and control groups of small business start-ups. The integrated KFS-SBA dataset, which contains both recipient and non-recipient small firms, and statistical matching allowed us to empirically construct the counterfactual outcomes of SBIR recipients. This dissertation balanced the pre-treatment characteristics of SBIR recipients and non-recipients through propensity score matching (PSM). It constructed the comparison sample by identifying non-recipients with nearly identical propensity scores as those of SBIR recipients. Consistent with the propensity score theorem, observations with the same distribution of propensity scores have the same distribution of observable characteristics. PSM made the comparison and treatment samples homogenous except in SBIR program exposure, making the fundamental assumption of ignorability of treatment assignment more plausible. Using the realized outcomes of observationally similar non-recipient start-ups as the counterfactual outcomes of SBIR recipients, we found empirical evidence of the input additionality effect of the SBIR program. Had they not applied for and granted SBIR R&D subsidies, recipient start-ups would have spent only $185,000 in R&D, but with SBIR their R&D effort was significantly increased to $663,000, on average. The treatment effects analyses also found a significant positive effect of SBIR on innovation propensity and employment. However, it appears that public co-financing of commercial R&D has crowded-out privately financed R&D of small business start-ups in the United States. A dollar of SBIR subsidy decreased firm-financed R&D by about $0.16. Contrary to prior SBIR studies, we did not find any significant "halo effect" or "certification effect" of receiving an SBIR award on attracting external capital. However, we discovered a different certification effect of the SBIR program: SBIR grantees are more likely to attract external patents. This finding also confirms that innovation requires a portfolio of internal and external knowledge assets as theorized by David Teece and his colleagues. This dissertation's empirical results may be relevant to the Small Business Administration, SBIR participating agencies, the U.S. Congress, other federal, state and local policymakers, small high-tech start-ups, and scholars in the field of science, technology, and innovation policy.

El aumento del uso de internet en educación superior plantea una serie de retos para conseguir que esta tecnología contribuya, de una forma óptima, a la mejora del aprendizaje de los estudiantes. La teoría económica de la producción educativa destaca la importancia de incorporar internet como input productivo de la forma más eficaz y eficiente. La teoría sociológica de la brecha digital destaca la importancia de incorporarlo de forma que no excluya a ningún colectivo de alumnos. Partiendo de estas dos perspectivas, esta tesis tiene como objetivo principal identificar elementos llevan a una incorporación eficaz y no excluyente de internet en educación superior. Este objetivo general se ha dividido en 4 sub-objetivos: - Comparar la eficacia del uso de internet en educación para el aprendizaje interactivo con la del uso de internet en educación para el aprendizaje individual. - Estudiar la variación de los beneficios del uso de internet para la interacción en el aprendizaje según el grado de intensidad de dicha interacción. - Estudiar los efectos diferenciados del uso de internet para la interacción en el aprendizaje. - Estudiar cuáles son los determinantes del uso de internet para la interacción en el aprendizaje. Para cumplir con los objetivos se han utilizado datos de una muestra de algo más de 17.000 alumnos de tres universidades catalanas (una virtual y dos presenciales). Para ello, se han utilizado técnicas de reducción de la información para preparar las variables y, en la parte más analítica, se han estimado modelos de regresión, corrigiendo el sesgo de selección y la correlación intra-clase. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que: - Utilizar internet para llevar a cabo un aprendizaje interactivo es eficaz a la hora de mejorar el rendimiento académico. Sin embargo, utilizarlo para un aprendizaje expositivo no tiene ningún impacto en los resultados académicos. - La productividad de la interacción online en el aprendizaje sigue pautas diferentes en la universidad online y en la presencial. En la primera sigue la primera la ley de rendimientos decrecientes mientras que en la segunda no, debido a una fase inicial de adaptación al medio. - Existen condicionantes del éxito del uso de internet para interactuar en el aprendizaje. Entre ellos destaca el elemento organizativo y las habilidades de uso de los estudiantes. - Pese a ser detectado como un uso positivo para mejorar el rendimiento académico, no todos los alumnos utilizan internet para la interacción con la misma intensidad. La utilidad es una variable explicativa del uso, pero más allá de ésta existen otras variables como la motivación por la que se estudia, los usos previos de internet fuera del contexto educativo o características sociodemográficas que dibujan el mapa de causas de la desigualdad de uso existente. En la tesis se discuten las implicaciones que estos resultados tienen para las políticas educativas y se proponen estrategias para incorporar internet en educación de una manera eficaz e igualitaria. / The wide incorporation of the Internet in higher education institutions raises some challenges about best uses of this technology. The economic theory of educational production highlights the importance of incorporating the Internet as a productive input, in the most effective and efficient way. The sociological theory of the digital divide highlights the importance of incorporating it in a non-exclusive way. Based in these two perspectives the main objective of this thesis is to identify elements that lead to an inclusive and effective incorporation of the Internet in higher education. This objective can be divided into four sub-objectives: • Compare the effectiveness of Internet use in education for interactive learning with the effectiveness of internet use in education for individual learning. • Study the variation of the benefits of using Internet for interactive learning according to the intensity of this interaction. • Study the different effects and the conditions that can enhance the benefits of Internet use for interactive learning. • Study the determinants of Internet use for interactive learning. To achieve this goal we have used data from a sample of over 17,000 students from three Catalan universities (one online and two). In order to analyze the data information reduction techniques have been used to prepare the variables and, in the analytical part, we have estimated regression models, correcting for selection bias and intra-class correlation. The results show: • The use of Internet to conduct interactive learning is an effective way to improve the academic performance. However, using it to conduct expository learning has no impact on academic outcomes. • The productivity of online interaction follows different patterns comparing online and face-to-face universities. In the first case the productivity is consistent with the diminishing returns law, while in the second case it is not true, due to an initial phase of adaptation to this internet use. • There are conditions for the success of using the Internet to interact in learning. These include the organizational elements and the student’s technological skills. • Despite being detected as a positive use to improve academic performance, not all students use the Internet for interactive learning with the same intensity. The utility is an explanatory variable of the variation of use but, beyond this, there are other variables (such as the motivation for the courses studied, the previous uses of the Internet, in a non-educational context, and some socio-demographic characteristics) that draw the map of causes of the inequality in the intensity of use. The thesis discusses the implications of these findings for educational policy and proposes some strategies to incorporate the Internet in an efficient and equal education.

This dissertation examines the role of public investments in inducing small firms to develop risky, early-stage technologies. It contributes to expanding our understanding of the consequences of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship policies and programs by investigating in more depth the effect of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program on the innovation effort, ability to attract external capital, and other metrics of post-entry performance of small business start-ups using a new sample and estimation approach. This study integrated the Kauffman Firm Survey from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation with the SBIR recipient dataset from the U.S. Small Business Administration and used advances in the micro-econometrics of program evaluation to empirically construct the counterfactual outcomes of SBIR recipients. We found empirical evidence of the input additionality effect of the SBIR program. The treatment effects analyses also found a significant positive effect of SBIR on innovation propensity and employment. However, it appears that public co-financing of commercial R&D has crowded-out privately financed R&D of small business start-ups in the United States. A dollar of SBIR subsidy decreased firm-financed R&D by about $0.16. Contrary to prior SBIR studies, we did not find any significant “halo effect” or “certification effect” of receiving an SBIR award on attracting external capital. What we discovered is a different certification effect of the SBIR program: SBIR grantees are more likely to attract external patents. This finding confirms that innovation requires a portfolio of internal and external knowledge assets as theorized by David Teece and his colleagues.