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This thesis consists of four self-contained essays in the sociology of educational stratification. Study I draws on newly collected survey data to assess the biases that arise in estimating socioeconomic differences in achievement when relying on parent and student reported data on social background. The main finding is that student reports on parental occupation overcome both the problem of misreporting that plagues other data collected from children, and the equally damaging problem of selective nonresponse among parents. Conditional estimates of ethnic disparities are relatively unaffected by these issues. Study II deals with student survey reports on the number of books in the home. A prominent string of authors has favoured this variable as a social background proxy over parental occupation or education based on its strong associations with educational outcomes. The paper applies various methods to large-scale student assessment data to show that these associations rest not on higher reliability as commonly assumed, but rather on two types of endogeneity. Low achievers accumulate less books and are also prone to underestimate their number. Study III uses survey and register data to study immigrant parents' education and its associations with children's achievement in recent Swedish cohorts. Two aspects of parental education are distinguished: the absolute years of schooling and a relative place in the source country's educational distribution. Parents' absolute education turns out to predict children's test scores and grades, whereas relative education is a better predictor of their educational aspirations. The result is of some consequence for studies seeking to assess ethnic disparities net of observed parental characteristics. Study IV extends the positional approach of Study III to understand immigrants' self-perceived social status and income satisfaction in European countries. Those higher educated by origin country than host country standards make more dismal assessments of their current situation than do other immigrants in otherwise similar circumstances. This is attributed to a social contrast mechanism and argued to be of relevance in understanding longer-term patterns of social and economic integration, including educational decisions made by the second generation. / Avhandlingen består av fyra fristående studier som alla berör utbildning och social stratifiering. Studie I undersöker med nyinsamlade enkätdata hur sociala skillnader i skolprestation riskerar att felskattas med bakgrundsuppgifter inhämtade från föräldrar respektive elever. Den viktigaste slutsatsen är att elevuppgifter om föräldrars yrke undviker mycket av den felrapportering som behäftar andra elevsvar, liksom det utbredda problemet med selektivt bortfall bland föräldrar. Villkorliga skattningar av etniska skillnader är relativt opåverkade av dessa metodproblem. Studie II granskar elevers uppgifter om antalet böcker i hemmet. En betydande litteratur har förespråkat denna variabel som ett mått på klasstillhörighet framför föräldrars yrke eller utbildning på grundval av starka samband med elevers studieresultat. Uppsatsen tillämpar en rad metoder på data från en internationell kunskapsutvärdering och finner att sambandens styrka inte vilar på högre tillförlitlighet som tidigare förmodats, utan på endogenitetsproblem av två slag. Lågpresterande elever ackumulerar färre böcker och är dessutom benägna att underskatta deras antal. Studie III använder enkät- och registerdata för att belysa utlandsfödda föräldrars utbildning och dess samband med prestationer bland svenska skolbarn. Två aspekter av utbildningsbakgrund särskiljs: föräldrars utbildningsår samt deras relativa placering i ursprungslandets fördelning. Absolut utbildning visar sig predicera elevers testresultat och betyg, medan relativ utbildning är en bättre prediktor för barns aspirationer. Resultatet är av betydelse för studier av etniska skillnader där statistisk kontroll görs för observerbara föräldraegenskaper. Studie IV tillämpar den positionella ansatsen från Studie III för att förstå utlandsföddas självupplevda status och inkomsttillfredsställelse i europeiska länder. Migranter som är mer högutbildade med ursprungslandets mått mätt än värdlandets tenderar att ha en mer negativ bild av sin nuvarande situation än andra i objektivt liknande omständigheter. Detta kan förstås i termer av sociala referensramar och framhålls som relevant i tolkningen av långsiktiga sociala och ekonomiska integrationsmönster, inklusive de utbildningsval som efterföljande generationer gör. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / Education researchers are frequently interested in examining the causal impact of academic services and interventions; however, it is often not feasible to randomly assign study elements to treatment conditions in the field of education (Adelson, 2013). When assignment to treatment conditions is non-random, the omission of any variables relevant to treatment selection creates a correlation between the treatment variable and the error in regression models. This is termed endogeneity (Ebbes, 2004). In the presence of endogeneity, treatment effect estimates from traditionally used regression approaches may be biased. The purpose of this study was to investigate the causal impact of an integrated student support model, namely City Connects, on student academic achievement. Given that students are not randomly assigned to the City Connects intervention, endogeneity bias may be present. To address this issue, two novel and underused statistical approaches were used with school admissions lottery data, namely Gaussian copula regression developed by Park and Gupta (2012), and Latent Instrumental Variable (LIV) regression developed by Peter Ebbes (2004). The use of real-world school admissions lottery data allowed the first-ever comparison of the two proposed methods with Instrumental Variable (IV) regression under a large-scale randomized control (RCT) trial. Additionally, the researcher used simulation data to investigate both the performance and boundaries of the two proposed methods compared with that of OLS and IV regression. Simulation study findings suggest that both Gaussian copula and LIV regression are useful approaches for addressing endogeneity bias across a range of research conditions. Furthermore, simulation findings suggest that the two proposed methods have important differences in their set of identifying assumptions, and that some assumptions are more crucial than others. Results from the application of the Gaussian copula and LIV regression in the City Connects school lottery admissions study demonstrated that receiving the City Connects model of integrated student support during elementary school has a positive impact on mathematics achievement. Such findings underscore the importance of addressing out-of-school barriers to learning. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

This dissertation contributes to the emerging empirical literature on the developmental impact of international migration in the source developing economy. Given the policy priority placed on job creation and the emphasis on wage impacts in recent work, the focus here is on the consequences of emigration on the extent of employment and the nature of that employment of those left behind. In particular, our questions are (i) does international migration and remittances have an impact on unemployment rates in the source country? and (ii) do remittances encourage entrepreneurship, as reflected by the share of workers classified as self-employed? We investigate these questions using census data from Mexico, unlike much of previous work that has relied on household survey data. Our empirical strategy attempts to address the typical issues of self-selection and endogeneity that migration impact studies encounter. We classify workers into skill groups and employ the Borjas (2003) empirical strategy, carrying out our analysis at the national level. We also introduce the fractional logit estimator (Papke and Wooldridge (1996)), unused in this field before, to address the fact that the dependent variables of concern are both proportions, and thus avoid the flaws in typical studies that investigate the impact of selected variables on the conditional expectation of a proportion or vector of proportions. Our results show that (i) emigration and remittances decrease native unemployment rates, and (ii) remittances intensify self-employment activities among the receivers. These results are even stronger once we control for sample bias and endogeneity. In terms of economic policy, we therefore provide indirect evidence that migration and remittances could be growth enhancing through their effects on employment in the source country. / Cette dissertation contribue à la littérature empirique naissante sur l'impact développemental de la migration internationale dans le pays source. Etant donné la priorité de politique placée sur la création d'emplois, l’analyse est ici portée sur les conséquences de l'émigration sur l'emploi et la nature de cet emploi. En particulier, nos questions sont les suivantes, d’une part, (i) est-ce que la migration internationale et les transferts de fonds des travailleurs migrants ont un impact sur le taux de chômage dans le pays de source? D’autre part, (ii) les transferts de fonds des travailleurs migrants encouragent-ils l'esprit d'entreprise, comme reflété par la proportion de travailleurs indépendants du pays source? Nous étudions ces questions en utilisant des données de recensement du Mexique et des Etats-Unis, à la différence de beaucoup des travaux précédents qui se sont fondés sur des données d'enquête de ménage. Notre stratégie empirique essaye d'adresser les problèmes de biais de sélection et d’endogénéite, problèmes que les études précédentes ont rencontrés. Nous classifions les travailleurs dans différents groupes de compétence et utilisons la stratégie empirique dévelopée par Borjas (2003), effectuant ainsi notre analyse au niveau national. Nous introduisons également l'estimateur partiel de logit (développé par Papke et Wooldridge (1996)). Nos résultants montrent que (i) l'émigration et les transferts de fonds de travailleurs migrants diminuent le taux de chômage du pays source, et par ailleurs (ii) les transferts de fonds de travailleurs migrants augmentent le taux de travailleurs indépendants dans le pays source. Ces résultats sont encore plus significatifs une fois que nous prenons en considération les problèmes économétriques liés aux biais de sélection et d’endogénéité. En termes de politique économique, nous fournissons donc des preuves empiriques quant aux effets de la migration internationale et des transferts de fonds migrants sur la croissance économique du pays de source.

As Instituições Fiscais Independentes (ou Conselhos Fiscais - CFs) e as Regras Fiscais (RFs) são modelos de instituições que ganharam relevância teórica e política após a constatação de que os governos raramente conseguem comportar-se como planejadores centrais. Ou seja, são incapazes de conduzir a política fiscal de modo a atender o socialmente ótimo no longo prazo. Em geral, a existência de incentivos políticos distorcidos em conjunto com racionalidade limitada dos eleitores e governantes gera déficits excessivos - o chamado viés deficitário da política fiscal - os quais reduzem gradativamente o bem-estar social. A crise fiscal europeia de 2008-2009, em especial, expôs com dramaticidade inédita a profundidade desse viés deficitário na região. Diante da insuficiência dos mecanismos usuais de mercado em corrigir problema, os organismos internacionais e formuladores de política passaram a recomendar veementemente a adoção de CFs, no intuito de reforçar a aplicabilidade das RFs e realinhar os incentivos na direção da disciplina fiscal. Alguns anos após a implementação dessas instituições, estudos quantitativos buscaram avaliar o impacto de sua atuação na trajetória do resultado primário estrutural, principal medida de ativismo fiscal do governo. Os resultados mostraram-se ambíguos e sujeitos a importantes críticas quanto ao controle da endogeneidade. A presente tese busca colaborar com a literatura de reformas institucionais ao abarcar de forma ampla o problema da endogeneidade nessa questão, tanto na investigação de suas origens como no emprego de desenvolvimentos recentes da teoria econométrica para atenuar suas distorções nas estimativas. No primeiro capítulo, definimos o conceito de CF e apresentamos um panorama geral dessas instituições no mundo. Ademais, também expomos as diversas teorias, mormente no campo da economia política, que buscam justificar a presença do viés deficitário da política fiscal, bem como algumas propostas de melhorias do quadro de incentivos através de reformas institucionais, de forma e minimizar esse viés. O segundo capítulo busca investigar avaliar as condições fiscais que antecederam a grande leva de reformas que na última década deram origem aos CFs. Encontramos evidência de que a implementação do CF é precedida por um recuo de aproximadamente 2,59 p.p. do resultado primário efetivo no segundo ano anterior ao tratamento, relativamente aos países não adotantes ou ainda sem adoção no período. No ano da adoção e no anterior, essa diferença deixa de ser significante. Tais achados apontam para uma segunda fonte de endogeneidade nas mensurações da efetividade dos CFs, na qual os países fiscalmente instáveis reagiriam com mais vigor ao advento de crises nas contas públicas, inclusive com a promoção de reformas institucionais. Na literatura institucional, o tipo de endogeneidade mais comumente assinalado é o de causalidade reversa, em que, contrariamente ao tipo anterior, são os países mais austeros que tendem a exibir maior probabilidade de realização de reformas. No terceiro capítulo, a efetividade dos CFs em alterar a trajetória do resultado estrutural é avaliada por meio da metodologia do controle sintético, numa tentativa de controle mais rigoroso da endogeneidade, de nosso conhecimento inédita até então na literatura. Os resultados encontrados indicam a inexistência de um efeito significativo dos CFs sobre aquela variável, em contraste com os obtidos em avaliações anteriores. O último capítulo da tese traça considerações a respeito da Instituição Fiscal Independente (IFI) brasileira, criada em 2016, à luz de recentes avaliações empíricas sobre o novo papel dessas instituições no contexto internacional. / The Independent Fiscal Institutions (or Fiscal Councils - FCs) and Fiscal Rules (FRs) have gained theoretical and political relevance after realizing that governments rarely manage to behave as central planners. That is, they are unable to conduct fiscal policy in order to meet the socially optimal in the long run. In general, the existence of distorted political incentives coupled with the limited rationality of voters and rulers generates excessive deficits - the so-called deficit bias of fiscal policy - which gradually reduce social welfare. The European fiscal crisis of 2008-2009, in particular, dramatically exposed the depth of this deficit bias in the region. Given the inadequacy of the usual market mechanisms to correct the problem, international organizations and policy makers began to strongly recommend the adoption of FCs in order to strengthen the applicability of FRs and realign incentives in the direction of fiscal discipline. Some years after the implementation of these institutions, quantitative studies sought to evaluate the impact of their performance on the trajectory of the primary structural result, the main measure of government fiscal activism. The results were ambiguous and subject to important criticisms regarding the control of endogeneity. The present thesis seeks to collaborate with the literature on institutional reforms by comprehensively covering the problem of endogeneity in this question, both in the investigation of its origins and in the use of recent developments in econometric theory to attenuate its distortions in the estimates. In the first chapter, we define the concept of CF and present an overview of these institutions in the world. In addition, we also present the various theories, especially in the field of political economy, which seek to justify the presence of the deficit bias of fiscal policy, as well as some proposals for improvements in the incentives framework through institutional reforms, in order to minimize this bias. The second chapter seeks to investigate the fiscal conditions that preceded the great series of reforms that in the last decade gave rise to the FCs. We found evidence that the implementation of FCs is preceded by a decrease of approximately 2.59 p.p. in the primary balance in the second year prior to treatment, in relation to non adoption or non-adopters in the period. In the year of adoption and in the previous year, this difference is no longer significant. These findings point to a second source of endogeneity in the measurement of CF effectiveness, in which fiscally unstable countries would react more vigorously to the advent of public account crises, including the promotion of institutional reforms. In the institutional literature, the type of endogeneity most commonly reported is that of reverse causality, in which, contrary to the previous type, the more austere countries tend to be more likely to carry out reforms. In the third chapter, the effectiveness of CFs in altering the trajectory of the structural balance is evaluated through the methodology of the synthetic control, in an attempt to control more strictly the endogeneity problem, of our knowledge a novelty in the literature. The results indicate that there is no significant effect of FCs on that variable, in contrast to those obtained in previous evaluations. The last chapter of the thesis outlines considerations regarding the Brazilian Independent Fiscal Institution (IFI), created in 2016, in the light of recent empirical assessments of the new role of these institutions in the international context.

The main goal of this thesis is to analyze the topic of the endogeneity of OCA criteria with the focus on the Euro area and simulate the adoption of Euro in Czech Republic. The paper is organized as follows. Firstly the theory of the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) and the comparison of the costs and benefits of currency union are explained. In next chapter the literature review is given. The most important and most recent studies dealing with the shock asymmetry and integration, eastern enlargement of European Union and the endogeneity hypothesis are presented. In the fourth chapter the Euro adoption in Czech Republic is simulated. According to studies handling with the Euro introduction the expectations of the impact of Euro adoption in the Czech economy are presented. The fourth chapter includes the description of the data, the model and results.

As Instituições Fiscais Independentes (ou Conselhos Fiscais - CFs) e as Regras Fiscais (RFs) são modelos de instituições que ganharam relevância teórica e política após a constatação de que os governos raramente conseguem comportar-se como planejadores centrais. Ou seja, são incapazes de conduzir a política fiscal de modo a atender o socialmente ótimo no longo prazo. Em geral, a existência de incentivos políticos distorcidos em conjunto com racionalidade limitada dos eleitores e governantes gera déficits excessivos - o chamado viés deficitário da política fiscal - os quais reduzem gradativamente o bem-estar social. A crise fiscal europeia de 2008-2009, em especial, expôs com dramaticidade inédita a profundidade desse viés deficitário na região. Diante da insuficiência dos mecanismos usuais de mercado em corrigir problema, os organismos internacionais e formuladores de política passaram a recomendar veementemente a adoção de CFs, no intuito de reforçar a aplicabilidade das RFs e realinhar os incentivos na direção da disciplina fiscal. Alguns anos após a implementação dessas instituições, estudos quantitativos buscaram avaliar o impacto de sua atuação na trajetória do resultado primário estrutural, principal medida de ativismo fiscal do governo. Os resultados mostraram-se ambíguos e sujeitos a importantes críticas quanto ao controle da endogeneidade. A presente tese busca colaborar com a literatura de reformas institucionais ao abarcar de forma ampla o problema da endogeneidade nessa questão, tanto na investigação de suas origens como no emprego de desenvolvimentos recentes da teoria econométrica para atenuar suas distorções nas estimativas. No primeiro capítulo, definimos o conceito de CF e apresentamos um panorama geral dessas instituições no mundo. Ademais, também expomos as diversas teorias, mormente no campo da economia política, que buscam justificar a presença do viés deficitário da política fiscal, bem como algumas propostas de melhorias do quadro de incentivos através de reformas institucionais, de forma e minimizar esse viés. O segundo capítulo busca investigar avaliar as condições fiscais que antecederam a grande leva de reformas que na última década deram origem aos CFs. Encontramos evidência de que a implementação do CF é precedida por um recuo de aproximadamente 2,59 p.p. do resultado primário efetivo no segundo ano anterior ao tratamento, relativamente aos países não adotantes ou ainda sem adoção no período. No ano da adoção e no anterior, essa diferença deixa de ser significante. Tais achados apontam para uma segunda fonte de endogeneidade nas mensurações da efetividade dos CFs, na qual os países fiscalmente instáveis reagiriam com mais vigor ao advento de crises nas contas públicas, inclusive com a promoção de reformas institucionais. Na literatura institucional, o tipo de endogeneidade mais comumente assinalado é o de causalidade reversa, em que, contrariamente ao tipo anterior, são os países mais austeros que tendem a exibir maior probabilidade de realização de reformas. No terceiro capítulo, a efetividade dos CFs em alterar a trajetória do resultado estrutural é avaliada por meio da metodologia do controle sintético, numa tentativa de controle mais rigoroso da endogeneidade, de nosso conhecimento inédita até então na literatura. Os resultados encontrados indicam a inexistência de um efeito significativo dos CFs sobre aquela variável, em contraste com os obtidos em avaliações anteriores. O último capítulo da tese traça considerações a respeito da Instituição Fiscal Independente (IFI) brasileira, criada em 2016, à luz de recentes avaliações empíricas sobre o novo papel dessas instituições no contexto internacional. / The Independent Fiscal Institutions (or Fiscal Councils - FCs) and Fiscal Rules (FRs) have gained theoretical and political relevance after realizing that governments rarely manage to behave as central planners. That is, they are unable to conduct fiscal policy in order to meet the socially optimal in the long run. In general, the existence of distorted political incentives coupled with the limited rationality of voters and rulers generates excessive deficits - the so-called deficit bias of fiscal policy - which gradually reduce social welfare. The European fiscal crisis of 2008-2009, in particular, dramatically exposed the depth of this deficit bias in the region. Given the inadequacy of the usual market mechanisms to correct the problem, international organizations and policy makers began to strongly recommend the adoption of FCs in order to strengthen the applicability of FRs and realign incentives in the direction of fiscal discipline. Some years after the implementation of these institutions, quantitative studies sought to evaluate the impact of their performance on the trajectory of the primary structural result, the main measure of government fiscal activism. The results were ambiguous and subject to important criticisms regarding the control of endogeneity. The present thesis seeks to collaborate with the literature on institutional reforms by comprehensively covering the problem of endogeneity in this question, both in the investigation of its origins and in the use of recent developments in econometric theory to attenuate its distortions in the estimates. In the first chapter, we define the concept of CF and present an overview of these institutions in the world. In addition, we also present the various theories, especially in the field of political economy, which seek to justify the presence of the deficit bias of fiscal policy, as well as some proposals for improvements in the incentives framework through institutional reforms, in order to minimize this bias. The second chapter seeks to investigate the fiscal conditions that preceded the great series of reforms that in the last decade gave rise to the FCs. We found evidence that the implementation of FCs is preceded by a decrease of approximately 2.59 p.p. in the primary balance in the second year prior to treatment, in relation to non adoption or non-adopters in the period. In the year of adoption and in the previous year, this difference is no longer significant. These findings point to a second source of endogeneity in the measurement of CF effectiveness, in which fiscally unstable countries would react more vigorously to the advent of public account crises, including the promotion of institutional reforms. In the institutional literature, the type of endogeneity most commonly reported is that of reverse causality, in which, contrary to the previous type, the more austere countries tend to be more likely to carry out reforms. In the third chapter, the effectiveness of CFs in altering the trajectory of the structural balance is evaluated through the methodology of the synthetic control, in an attempt to control more strictly the endogeneity problem, of our knowledge a novelty in the literature. The results indicate that there is no significant effect of FCs on that variable, in contrast to those obtained in previous evaluations. The last chapter of the thesis outlines considerations regarding the Brazilian Independent Fiscal Institution (IFI), created in 2016, in the light of recent empirical assessments of the new role of these institutions in the international context.

Firms of European small open peripheral economies face an increasing globalization of markets, a strengthening of global value chains, a well documented knowledge and technological gap and these in conjunction to the current crisis at least in the southern part of Europe. These conditions compose a demanding and complex environment within which firms must cope and survive. In this direction, analyzing first and improving in turn competitiveness and productivity of European firms’ has become a primary policy objective of the EU at the national, regional, sectoral and firm level in an attempt to close the growth gap with the United States (Aghion et al., 2008). In this mission, boosting exporting activities and investments in Innovation, R&D and knowledge intensity is of the outmost importance since they are seen as drivers of productivity, growth and competitiveness (EU, 2012). Especially with respect to Greece’s economic outlook and as it has been documented in several European policy documents and analyses, the country’s innovation performance has been consistently characterized as “moderately following” (IUS, 2013) the EU’s innovation leaders. The same picture is sketched with Greek firms’ export performance as a crucial component of its overall competitiveness (European Competitiveness Report, 2012). Examining more closely the relationship between firms’ exporting activities and innovation dynamism, the theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that firms which are presenting innovation activities are more likely to export, more likely to export successfully, and more likely to generate growth from exporting than non-innovating firms (Golovko and Valentini, 2011; Love and Roper, 2013). In other words, innovation and export performance are directly linked with the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage and are considered as a primary precondition for economic growth (Piercy et al., 1998; EU, 2012). More specifically, exporting activities are considered as the primary internationalization mode (Johanson and Valhne, 1977; 2009) and firms’ knowledge and learning processes are expected to play a pivotal part in the internationalization process; firms need to be in a position to apprehend and assimilate new knowledge in order to compete and grow in markets in which they have little or no previous experience (Autio et al. 2000). In this direction, the relationship between the degree of internationalization and the intensity of the production of technological knowledge remains under examination, since the significant heterogeneity in terms of country, industrial distribution, firm size, and other factors has lead to contradictory results (Harris and Li, 2009). In addition, the differential effects of the firms’ environment which in turn can be further specified in various dimensions –such as business culture, organizational characteristics, strategic orientation, national and regional systems of innovation- introduce a significant amount of unobserved heterogeneity in the employed methodological frameworks. At the same time, the causality direction, too closely related to endogeneity issues, between exporting and R&D activities has not been yet addressed adequately. The relevant literature has documented two theoretical strands, the Product Life Cycle and Endogenous Growth theory, which hypothesize on causality direction between exports and R&D activities. More specifically, the Product life cycle theory argues that innovation eventually leads to exporting (Posner, 1961; Vernon, 1966; Krugman, 1979; Dollar, 1986) and this theoretical strand is strongly interrelated with the Market Selection Hypothesis (MSH; Wagner 2007) which favours the argument that exporters have superior performance characteristics than non-exporters. On the other hand, the Endogenous growth models (Grossman and Helpman, 1989, 1990, 1991a; Segerstrom et al., 1990; Young, 1991; Aghion and Howitt, 1998, ch. 11) argue on the reverse direction of causality. The notion behind this is that exporting firms access to foreign markets provides them with feedback from their suppliers and/or customers, which gives them the opportunity to transform this knowledge into innovation. This theoretical strand has been recorded as opposite to the market selection hypothesis and is named Learning by Exporting Hypothesis (LEH; Clerides et al., 1998; Salomon and Shaver, 2005) Both the above hypotheses seem plausible and have been empirically but the relevant literature has provided contradictory results. However, it would only make sense to assume that this causality direction may be not so straightforward since causality may run in both directions that is a two-way linkage between a firm’s exporting and innovating activities may exist (Filipescu et al. 2013). The starting point of this PhD thesis lies on the idea that both these activities may influence each other and therefore, is focused on the investigation of the endogeneity between established knowledge creation processes (R&D activities) and internationalization activities as they are depicted in exporting activities. It is worth mentioning that towards the direction of seeking proof for the existence of an endogenous relationship between R&D activities and exports different methodological approaches have been employed. All of them however, examine the existence of endogeneity between the two main firm activities as well as identifying the appropriate set of determinants for each one of the firms’ activities as the relevant literature dictates. In order to (i) sufficiently address the abovementioned multiple heterogeneity, and (ii) be able to compare them, the present research investigates the interrelationship between R&D and exporting activities on two distinctively different groups of firms. More specifically, two different contextual frameworks are employed, one International and one National. The first group of firms focuses on those firms that are considered to be leaders with respect to R&D investments at a global level. The second group of firms under investigation, concerns the Greek firms which are in turn considered leaders within the national system of innovation they operate but have been consistently characterized as moderately followers within the European context (IUS, 2013). Information for the investigation of the international context was provided by the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS, 2007; 2008). Yet, regarding the national context, a profound lack of information exists both with respect to exporting activities but also with respect to R&D activities at the firm level, which inevitably led to the conducting of a field research at the National Level targeting the Manufacturing Sector. In this line, and in order for the gathered information to be comparable with other European surveys on Innovation and in particular with Community Innovation Survey (CIS), the design of the questionnaire was primarily based on the CIS standards. In addition to the data provided by the National survey, all the financial and other information, including annual expenditures on R&D, for the period 2001-2010 was provided by the electronic database “i-mentor”. Based on this information, a better approximation of R&D performance has become feasible through the construction of Greek R&D active manufacturing firms’ R&D stock (Kumbhakar et al., 2012). The main argument supporting this transformation is that fluctuations in R&D investment flows are more volatile than the knowledge stock acquired from such investments (Dierickx and Cool, 1989). The third chapter of this PhD thesis is devoted in presenting the specificities of the field research, the adopted methodology for the construction of firms’ knowledge stock, along with primary descriptive results sketching the outlook of Greek R&D manufacturing firms. The rest of this PhD thesis involves three essays each one of them examining research questions arising from the endogenous relationship between R&D and export activities. / Η ενίσχυση της δυναμικότητας και του ανταγωνιστικού πλεονεκτήματος των επιχειρήσεων με βάση την καινοτομία και την εξωστρέφεια έχουν απασχολήσει τόσο την ακαδημαϊκή έρευνα όσο και την πολιτική. Ειδικότερα η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση στήριξε την πολιτική της για την κάλυψη του χάσματος, σε σχέση με τους κύριους ανταγωνιστές της, σε αυτούς τους δυο πυλώνες (Lisbon strategy, ….) τουλάχιστον από τις αρχές του 2000. Αναγνωρίζεται ευρύτατα ότι οι πολιτικές αυτές δεν είχαν τα αναμενόμενα αποτελέσματα όχι γιατί στους δυο παραπάνω πυλώνες αποδόθηκε δυναμική που στην πραγματικότητα δεν είχαν αλλά γιατί οι επιμέρους πολιτικές που σχεδιάσθηκαν και εφαρμόσθηκαν δεν κατάφεραν αφενός να ενισχύσουν κάθε πυλώνα χωριστά και δεν αναγνώρισαν τις μεταξύ τους αλληλεξαρτήσεις. Έτσι, τα ζητήματα τόσο του τεχνολογικού πλεονεκτήματος όπως αυτό αποτυπώνεται στην καινοτομία όσο και της εξωστρέφειας παραμένουν ιδιαίτερα επίκαιρα ειδικά στο πλαίσιο της οικονομικής κρίσης που είναι κυρίαρχη, αν και ασύμμετρα, στο σύνολο της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Ειδικά για την Ελλάδα, την περισσότερο πληττόμενη από την κρίση Ευρωπαϊκή οικονομία, αν και έχει αναγνωρισθεί τόσο η υστέρηση των επιχειρήσεων σε όρους καινοτομίας και εξαγωγικού προσανατολισμού και αν και έχουν υλοποιηθεί μια σειρά από παρεμβάσεις σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση, το χάσμα τόσο ως προς το μέσο Ευρωπαϊκό αλλά και ως προς τον μέσο όρο των χωρών του ΟΟΣΑ παραμένει ιδιαίτερα μεγάλο. Η παρούσα Διδακτορική Διατριβή εστιάζει σε ζητήματα που προκύπτουν από την αλληλεπίδραση των δραστηριοτήτων παραγωγής γνώσης και καινοτομίας από την μια και των δραστηριοτήτων διεθνοποίησης των επιχειρήσεων από την άλλη. Πιο συγκεκριμένα διερευνώνται θέματα που προκύπτουν από την ενδογένεια των διαδικασιών παραγωγής γνώσης που αποτυπώνονται σε διαδικασίες Έρευνας και Τεχνολογικής Ανάπτυξης (ΕΤΑ) και δραστηριότητες διεθνοποίησης (internationalization) που με τη σειρά τους αποτυπώνονται σε εξαγωγικές δραστηριότητες. Οι μεθοδολογικές προσεγγίσεις που χρησιμοποιούνται προσαρμόζονται κάθε φορά αφενός στα ιδιαίτερα ερευνητικά ερωτήματα που τίθενται και αφετέρου στην πολλαπλή ετερογένεια που χαρακτηρίζει τις επιχειρήσεις σε μικρή ανοικτή οικονομία, όπως η Ελλάδα, σε σύγκριση με τις ηγέτιδες σε όρους ΕΤΑ επιχειρήσεις διεθνώς. Σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση, διερευνώνται δύο διαφορετικά συστήματα καινοτομίας-διεθνοποίησης, και συγκεκριμένα το Διεθνές και το Εθνικό, που αναφέρονται αντίστοιχα σε δύο διακριτές ομάδες επιχειρήσεων. Η πρώτη ομάδα επιχειρήσεων επικεντρώνεται σε εκείνες που θεωρούνται πρωτοπόροι σε επενδύσεις σε ΕΤΑ σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο. Η δεύτερη ομάδα επιχειρήσεων που διερευνάται αφορά τις Ελληνικές επιχειρήσεις οι οποίες με τη σειρά τους θεωρούνται πρωτοπόροι εντός του εθνικού συστήματος καινοτομίας στο οποίο δραστηριοποιούνται αλλά ταυτόχρονα έχουν επανειλημμένως χαρακτηριστεί ως «μέτριοι ακόλουθοι» (moderately following) σε όρους καινοτομικής δραστηριότητας εντός της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης (IUS, 2013). Ενώ η διαθεσιμότητα των πληροφοριών για τις επιχειρήσεις που αναγνωρίζονται σε διεθνές επίπεδο ως πρωτοπόρες σε επενδύσεις ΕΤΑ προέκυψε από ανοικτής πρόσβασης βάσεις δεδομένων, για την ελληνική περίπτωση παρατηρήθηκε παντελής έλλειψη σχετικών πληροφοριών τόσο όσον αφορά τις δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ όσο και τις εξαγωγικές δραστηριότητες των ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων. Η έλλειψη αυτή οδήγησε στην διενέργεια έρευνας πεδίου σε Πανελλαδικό επίπεδο στον τομέα της Μεταποίησης. Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή αποτελείται από έξι κεφάλαια. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο πραγματοποιείται επισκόπηση της βιβλιογραφίας πάνω στη σχέση των εξαγωγικών δραστηριοτήτων και των δραστηριοτήτων ΕΤΑ τόσο σε θεωρητικό όσο και σε εμπειρικό επίπεδο και τίθεται το γενικό πλαίσιο της ανάλυσης. Σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση, αναδεικνύεται η συμβολή της παρούσας Διατριβής. Το δεύτερο κεφάλαιο αναφέρεται στο διεθνές σύστημα καινοτομίας όπου οι επιχειρήσεις, ανεξαρτήτως χώρας προέλευσης, ανταγωνίζονται σε όρους παραγωγής γνώσης. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, διερευνάται η ύπαρξη ενδογένειας ανάμεσα στην εξαγωγική ένταση από την μια και την ένταση των δραστηριοτήτων ΕΤΑ από την άλλη στη βάση του επιχειρήματος ότι η γνωσιακή βάση (knowledge base) των ηγέτιδων επιχειρήσεων, σε όρους ΕΤΑ, μεγεθύνεται από ροές γνώσης που προκύπτουν τόσο από τις δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ όσο και από τις εξαγωγικές δραστηριότητες. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται τα βήματα που ακολουθήθηκαν σε σχέση με τον εντοπισμό του πληθυσμού των επιχειρήσεων που καταγράφουν δαπάνες ΕΤΑ στους ετήσιες δημοσιευμένες χρηματοοικονομικές τους καταστάσεις τους, τα κριτήρια που ακολουθήθηκαν για τον «καθαρισμό» των δεδομένων (data cleaning) καθώς και αναλυτική περιγραφή της έρευνας πεδίου. Επιπλέον, παρουσιάζεται η μεθοδολογία που ακολουθήθηκε για την κατασκευή του αποθέματος γνώσης (knowledge stock) των ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων που παρουσιάζουν δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ καθώς και βασικά περιγραφικά στατιστικά που προέκυψαν από την πληροφορία που συνελέγη από την έρευνα πεδίου. Στη συνέχεια, το τέταρτο κεφάλαιο της παρούσας διδακτορικής διατριβής τοποθετείται εντός του Ελληνικού Συστήματος και αφορά ελληνικές μεταποιητικές επιχειρήσεις που παρουσιάζουν δαπάνες σε ΕΤΑ και ανήκουν σε κλάδους χαμηλής έντασης τεχνολογίας. Συγκεκριμένα, τα ερευνητικά ερωτήματα επικεντρώνονται τόσο στην διερεύνηση ύπαρξης όσο και εκδήλωσης διαφορικών επιδράσεων στο ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα (competitive advantage) των επιχειρήσεων αυτών που προκύπτει από την απόφαση τους να (μην) εξάγουν. Το ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα προσεγγίζεται από την εκτίμηση της τεχνικής αποτελεσματικότητας (technical efficiency) όπου το απόθεμα γνώσης αποτελεί την τρίτη εισροή μαζί με τις εισροές του κεφαλαίου και της εργασίας. Έτσι δημιουργείται θεωρητικό υπόδειγμα στο πλαίσιο του οποίου η τεχνική αποτελεσματικότητα, μέσω της διαδικασίας μετατροπής δεξιοτήτων (competences) σε ικανοτήτων (capabilities), αποτυπώνει το ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα. Σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση υποστηρίζεται ότι το ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα που βασίζεται στις δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ των ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων προσδιορίζει ενδογενώς της απόφαση τους να συμμετέχουν στις ξένες αγορές. Το επιχείρημα αυτό στηρίζεται στο ότι οι επιχειρήσεις που καλούνται να αποφασίζουν εάν θα εξάγουν στην πραγματικότητα προεξοφλούν τα αναμενόμενα οφέλη και τα κόστη από τη συγκεκριμένη δραστηριότητα σε σχέση με τη διατήρηση του ανταγωνιστικού πλεονεκτήματος που κατέχουν. Με άλλα λόγια, διερευνάται αν το επιχειρηματικό μοντέλο που έχει υιοθετηθεί από τις εξεταζόμενες επιχειρήσεις, και μετατρέπει τις δεξιότητες σε ικανότητες, στην ουσία προσδιορίζει και την απόφαση για εξαγωγές. Το πέμπτο κεφάλαιο της παρούσας Διδακτορικής Διατριβής διερευνά την ύπαρξη ενδογένειας ανάμεσα στις εξαγωγικές δραστηριότητες και τις διαδικασίες παραγωγής γνώσης των ελληνικών μεταποιητικών επιχειρήσεων που παρουσιάζουν δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ εντός ενός διευρυμένου θεωρητικού πλαισίου όπου συν-θεωρούνται και άλλες στρατηγικές παράμετροι που είναι πιθανό να επηρεάζουν αυτή τη σχέση. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, οι διαδικασίες παραγωγής γνώσης, όπως έχουν αποτυπωθεί στα επιμέρους συστατικά της γνωσιακής βάσης των επιχειρήσεων αλλά και στην στρατηγική διερεύνησης εξωτερικών συνεργασιών για συνεργασίες στις δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ, συνδέονται με την εξαγωγική και καινοτομική αποδοτικότητα (export and innovation performance). Ένα επιπλέον επίπεδο πολυπλοκότητας προστίθεται όταν ο διττός χαρακτήρας της έντασης των εξωτερικών συνεργασιών σε ΕΤΑ λαμβάνεται υπόψη. Δηλαδή, διερευνάται σε ποιο βαθμό η ένταση των εξωτερικών συνεργασιών για δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ συνδέεται με την αποδοτικότητα της διεθνοποίησης των ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων καθώς μπορεί να θεωρηθεί ως εναλλακτικός δρόμος διεθνοποίησης τους. Από την άλλη μεριά η διαδικασίες που συγκροτούν το γνωσιακό απόθεμα των επιχειρήσεων μπορεί να συνδέονται και με την καινοτομική τους απόδοση. Τέλος στο έκτο κεφάλαιο συνθέτονται τα συμπεράσματα από το σύνολο της Διατριβής, διατυπώνονται προτάσεις πολιτικής και καταγράφονται αφενός οι ερευνητικοί περιορισμοί αλλά και αφετέρου τα μελλοντικά ερευνητικά σχέδια.

Although the airline industry has drastically changed since its deregulation in 1978, publically available sources of data have remained nearly the same. In the U.S., most researchers and decision-makers rely on government data that contains highly aggregated price information (e.g., average quarterly prices). However, aggregate data can hide important market behavior. With the emergence of online distribution channels, there is a new opportunity to model air travel demand using detailed price information. This dissertation uses online prices and seat maps to build a dataset of daily prices and bookings at the flight-level. Several research contributions are made, all related to leveraging online data to better understand airline pricing and product strategies, and how these strategies impact customers, as well as the industry in general. One major contribution is the finding that the recent product debundling trend in the U.S. airline industry has diluted revenues to the U.S. Airport and Airways Trust Fund by at least five percent. Additionally, several new behavioral insights are found for one debundling trend that has been widely adopted by U.S. airlines: seat reservation fees. Customers are found to be between 2 and 3.3 times more likely to purchase premium coach seats (with extra legroom and early boarding privileges) when there are no regular coach window or aisle seats that can be reserved for free, suggesting that the ability of airlines to charge seat fees is strongly tied to load factors. Model results are used to explore optimal seat fees and find that an optimal static fee could increase revenues by 8 percent, whereas optimal dynamic fees could increase revenues by 10.2 percent. Another major contribution is in modeling daily bookings and estimating price elasticities using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression without correcting for price endogeneity and two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression, which corrects for endogeneity. Results highlight the importance of correcting for price endogeneity (which is not often done in air travel applications). In particular, models that do not correct for endogeneity find inelastic demand estimates whereas models that do correct for endogeneity find elastic demand estimates. This is important, as pricing recommendations differ for inelastic and elastic models. A set of instrumental variables are found to pass validity tests and can be used to correct for price endogeneity in future models of daily flight-level demand.