Doctoral Theses

Heinz D. Kurz, University of Graz

Christian Gehrke, University of Graz

Heinz D. Kurz, University of Graz

Johann Kellerer, University of Graz

Schumpeter's perception that innovations are the impetus of economic change has set the milestone for the development of several modern innovation theories. Among them the 'systems of innovation' (SI) framework can be found, which considers innovation as a non-linear and interactive learning process. Rooted mainly in evolutionary economics, this framework has evolved into a popular one in innovation research. Still, there are several criticisms which are raised against the framework, such as (i) the missing linkage between SI and economic change as well as (ii) the insufficient study of SI within an analytical framework. Tying in with these research gaps, this dissertation answers questions at the crossroads of SI and economic change. To understand economic change as an evolutionary process, Chapter 2 provides a comparative review of literature on the history of economic thought. It discusses Schumpeter's and Veblen's ideas of evolutionary economic theorising. In Part I and II of this work a multisectoral analytical framework is developed. Chapter 3 studies economic change in an international setting. It collects empirical evidence on restructuring processes as exemplified by current developments in clothing & textile production. Building on the empirical evidence of Chapter 3, Chapter 4 focuses on national SI and for Italy and Portugal two types of interactive learning mechanisms are investigated. Chapter 5 addresses the spatial dimension of innovation. It explores for three Australian territories properties of their regional SI and relates them to their regional economic specifics. At the core of Chapter 6 are sectoral SI. Through studying the evolution of a multisectoral 'innovation flow network' this chapter finally sheds light on sectoral heterogeneity in innovation.

Heinz D. Kurz, University of Graz

Albert Steenge, University of Groningen/Netherlands

The present dissertation examines the impact of the diffusion of general purpose technologies (GPTs) on economic structure and long-term development. It is motivated by the fact that previous studies of GPTs do not consider the vertical integration of production sufficiently, and mostly revolve around innovational spillovers.In contrast, our focus lies on the pervasive character of GPTs as the crucial feature that distinguishes them from other radical innovations. The elaborated methods for tracing the trajectory of a GPT at a sector level are applied to the ICT sector in Denmark by using national account data spanning from 1966 until 2009.Over the course of three essays, technical complementarities between the GPT-producing sector and heterogeneous application sectors are studied within a multisectoral framework. The first essay analyzes the impact of GPTs on aggregate and sectoral labor productivity growth by means of a structural decomposition analysis. We study in particular the effects of skill-biased technological change and capital deepening, and the evolution of wage disparities during the rise of the IT-era. The second essay proposes an extended linkage indicator for measuring pervasive technological change that takes the structure of inter-industry relations into account. In the third essay, we analyze structural change by means of a social network approach where the production system is represented in a hierarchical order, as a so-called 'technical tree', and explore the characteristics and dynamics of this evolving technical tree over time. The empirical evidence further feeds an evolutionary multi-sector model that reconstructs the diffusion and major consequences of a GPT.Our findings underscore the suitability of the proposed methods for tracing a GPT by its locus of production. In particular, the notion of robust industries has proven to be a useful tool in uncovering pervasive technological change at the sector Level.  

Heinz D. Kurz, University of Graz

Ian Steedman, Manchester University/UK

Technological progress is one of the main driving forces of economic development and affects all sectors of production in terms of intersectoral spillovers, changes of relative prices and income distributions. Models in the literature on technical change do not take all these multi-sectoral interdependencies into account and focus on particular issues. The dissertation at hand attempts to narrow this gap by investigating innovations in large-scale multi-sectoral economies, both theoretically and empirically.The thesis develops a multi-sectoral, constant returns to scale Cobb-Douglas model and implements product, process, organizational, and social innovations in this framework. The main analytical findings are: (i) The wage-profit-distribution of any Cobb-Douglas economy is given by a simple hyperbola and depends negatively on the elasticities of capital inputs. (ii) Hicks-neutral technological progress is unlikely, but possible in multi-sectoral approaches. Harrod- and Solow-neutral change is generally ruled out. (iii) Ex ante, sectoral innovations can neither be classified as capital- nor labour-augmenting due to intersectoral spillovers. Hence, there are significant differences with respect to conventional one-sectoral models that are widely used in economics.The most important conclusions of the empirical analysis of ten different countries in the period 1995 to 2009 are: (i) Technological change does not cause a convergence of actual wages and profit rates between countries, but the underlying wage-profit-curves are becoming more similar. (ii) On average, a share of about 60% of total wage growth is driven by capital-augmenting innovations and a share of 40% is imputed to total factor productivity increases. Country results differ and geographical connectedness supports similar developments. (iii) Technological key parameters of the ten countries under consideration are strongly correlated, especially for sectors with tradable commodities. 

Heinz D. Kurz, University of Graz

Klemens Fellner, University of Graz

Part I of my doctoral thesis adds to the existing literature on economic causes and consequences of the diffusion of innovations by introducing a mathematical framework to study intra- and inter-sectoral feedback effects of the emergence of process innovations. The generation and introduction of innovations are excluded to focus on the diffusion process in isolation. The modeling framework connects the concept of a long-period position with evolutionary ideas provided by the concept of replicator dynamics as utilized by evolutionary game theory. The stated problem is closely related to Joseph A. Schumpeter's dynamic approach to economic development and is accomplished by a fusion of classical and evolutionary thinking. Results include uneven growth paths as the result of innovative activity as well as spillover effects between sectors. The respective spillover effects comprise changes of profitability of different processes due to technical change in related sectors. This demonstrates the Schumpeterian concepts of creative destruction, since hitherto profitable production processes in the long run loose market shares.Taken the mathematical nature of my approach, in Part II of my doctoral thesis I evaluate in which way mathematics provides concepts (respectively conceptual metaphors) to understand certain aspects of economic systems. Hence it makes sense to take a closer look at mathematics as a specific kind of language used for communication within the community of economists. Special emphasis is put on methodological issues concerning dynamic economic theorizing. This topic is discussed by comparing the respective ideas of Thorstein B. Veblen and Joseph A. Schumpeter. Both stressed the importance of dynamic economic theorizing in contrast to static economics, but they advocated different pathways towards dynamic economic theorizing.

Heinz D. Kurz, University of Graz

Henryk Gurgul, University of Krakow/Poland

This thesis deals with structural change and international economics, specifically with changes in the location patterns of industries and the specialization patterns of countries due to economic integration. This topic is of particular interest with regard to the economic developments in Europe since economic integration via the Single Market and the adoption of a single currency has led to a gradual removal of trade and production barriers. This is likely to have major effects on the relocation of industries and the competitiveness of countries, causing changes in specialization patterns.Chapter 2 is a literature review discussing intersectoral and inter-industrial patterns of economic development as well as factors driving (de )concentration and (de )specialization. Both empirical and theoretical findings are reported in order to understand the driving forces and to at the same time learn to what degree theoretical models hold in reality.Chapter 3 discusses the characteristics a measure of specialization ought to fulfill and gives advice on which index to use for which research question.In Chapter 4, we first provide a comprehensive view on both intersectoral and inter-industry convergence for manufacturing and service industries using time series and panel data methods instead of limiting ourselves to comparing employment at the beginning and at the end of the observation period as is the norm in this literature. Third, we distinguish between two forms of divergence (i.e. one-country specialization vs. general divergence), which is of great relevance particularly for economic policy in the Monetary Union.Chapter 5 focuses on similarities and differences among countries. We assign individual countries to clubs which share common features, and analyze the development of clubs and individual countries over time. Doing so, we can distinguish between economic late-comers and front-runners and reproduce the structural change which occurred in each sub-sample.