This paper applies New Growth Theory (NGT) to the economic development plan of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) for the Dan River region. New Growth Theory is summarized into five concepts: knowledge and human capital, technology, flexible production and innovation, and the institutional environment. The IALR program demonstrates this NGT framework. The IALR program seeks to promote growth by attracting exogenous demand for innovation and high tech. Endogenously, the program plans to create an institutional support environment and human capital infrastructure. The New Growth Theory supports the IALR in developing a knowledge based economy. However, the New Growth Theory has limitations in application for economic development. It assumes that the targeted economy has some physical and social infrastructure. The Dan River region lacks transportation infrastructure and a history of valuing higher education. The New Growth Theory assumes that using knowledge as a factor will insure against diminishing returns. However, growth from high tech is risky and uneven. The IALR program is an example of an under-educated region trying to transform its economy by using high tech. What may happen is an increased gap between the lower and higher income population, with skilled knowledge labor being recruited and the existing human capital not able to keep up with the new skill requirements. Finally, while the Dan River region has a need to work on quality of life aspects, such as living conditions, equity, the environment, health and civic infrastructure, New Growth Theory does not consider these aspects. / Master of Public and International Affairs

In economics, new growth theory suggests that knowledge creation and innovation are key drivers of growth. As a result, the ‘new economy’ is increasingly reliant upon the knowledge, skills, and abilities embodied in its workforce, also known as human capital, that facilitate the stimulation and generation of new ideas (Romer 1986, 1990 and Lucas 1988). This research contributes to the understanding of the relationship between stocks of human capital and economic output. I construct metrics to measure concentrations of basic worker skills using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Information Network (O*NET) and employment estimates for 353 US metropolitan areas. In general, I find that basic skills are positively correlated with higher productivity. Specifically, I find that higher levels of the skills math and critical thinking partially explain higher levels of regional productivity. Science, though not statistically significant, has a negative correlation between higher levels of skill and regional output.

Yes / Integrating and extending new growth theory and resource-based views, this paper provides a theoretical foundation for the catch-up hypothesis. It examines the role of technology gap, technological capability, and cultural proximity in local firms’ catch-up with MNEs. Hypotheses are developed and tested with a dynamic model on a large firm-level panel dataset from Chinese manufacturing. The results confirm that catch-up is positively related to technology gap and technological capability. Furthermore, in the presence of cultural proximity, the speed of local Chinese firms’ catch-up with MNEs from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan is not significantly lower than that with other MNEs. / The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC: 71302179 and 71240026); the Project of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ministry of Education, China (Project No. 11XJA630001), and the “211 project” of the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.

UNIVERZITA KARLOVA FAKULTA SOCIÁLNÍCH VĚD INSTITUT POLITOLOGICKÝCH STUDIÍ Vplyv implementácie práv duševného vlastníctva na rozvoj vnútorného trhu NAFTA Bc. Ivana Miková MAGISTERSKÁ DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCE Praha 2013 Abstract: The thesis discusses the impact of intellectual property rights on economic development of NAFTA. It is based on the theoretical assumptions of the new institutional economics and its notion of transaction costs and institutions and their impact on economic growth, in particular the impact of intellectual property rights, which are an important part of the NAFTA treaty and are contained in chapter 17. of the NAFTA Agreement. Their impact is connected with the new growth theory, which considers innovation and new technology as a major source of economic development. The empirical analysis has found that measures of IPRs contributed to transfer technologies and economic development. Mexico has become the main beneficiary. In the U.S., the situation in the field of innovation and economic development associated with IPRs has not changed significantly, compared with the period before the emergence of NAFTA.

Studi condotti sulla crisi finanziaria del 2007-09 e la recessione economica hanno evidenziato l’inadeguatezza delle teorie predominanti e la loro inefficacia nel proporre adeguate soluzioni di policy. La presenza di moneta bancaria nell’economia e di un sistema finanziario caratterizzato da innovazione finanziaria e speculazione modificano profondamente la natura stessa del processo di credit creation. Una nuova prospettiva sulla relazione tra finanza e crescita economica necessita essere sviluppata cercando di colmare le lacune esistenti tra New Growth Theory e Evolutionary Theory, come J.A. Schumpeter (1934) e altri studiosi hanno evidenziato. I fattori strutturali sono alla base della persistente instabilita` finanziaria nell’economia. Questo studio tenta di spiegare l’ipotesi che sta alla base dell’intera analisi circa il passaggio avutosi nell'impianto strutturale dell'economia da un virtuous cycle ad un bad cycle, e dimostrare l’esistenza di cio` che definiamo wealth trap, la quale e` ipotizzata essere conseguenza di un sistema finanziario tecnologicamente avanzato, ma non socialmente avanzato. Un modello non lineare ad Agenti (AMB) chiamato BFSE (Based-line Financial System Economy) mostra , tramite la sperimentazione sul modello ICEACE(Erlingsson et al., 2011), evidenze sulla centralita` del sistema finanziario e dell’esistenza del bad cycle. Una discussione sulle macroprudential policies e le politiche strutturali e` introdotta. / Studies of the 2007-09 credit crisis and the resulting recession have revealed the inadequacy of the predominant theoretical frameworks and their failure to propose adequate policy solutions. The presence in the economy of bank money and a financial system characterized by financial innovation and speculation changes the nature of credit creation. As J.A. Schumpeter (1934) and others scholars have recognized, a new perspective on the financial-growth relationship needs to be developed by filling the gaps in New Growth Theory and Evolutionary Theory - two Sons of Schumpeter - and in some way combining them. Structural factors are at the bottom of the persistence of the financial instability in the economy. The goal of this research is to explain the main hypothesis of the historical passage of the economy from a virtuous to a bad cycle and to show the existence of the wealth trap, which is a consequence of a high-technologically advanced financial system within the economic system. A non-linear ABM (Agent Based Model) called BFSE provides, through experimentation using ICEACE model (Erlingsson et al., 2011), interesting evidences of the centrality of the financial system and the bad cycle. Macroprudential and structural policies are introduced.