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This work proposes a new measure of the routine content of occupations and sectors for 20 OECD countries, based on information about the sequence and flexibility of the tasks performed on the job. A negative but weak association emerges between routineness and skill intensity, which suggests the importance of both technological and organizational considerations in the measure of routine intensity. Between 2000 and 2010, employment mainly grew in non-routine occupations, especially in market services, while manufacturing shed routine and non-routine jobs. Changes in shares of employment by routine quartile are dominated by within-effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys several strands of the economics literature focusing on the international mobility of FDI in general, and the offshoring and outsourcing of R&D activities in particular. The paper outlines key findings, identifies common features and existing divergences and addresses the relevant research gaps emerging from the R&D offshoring and outsourcing literatures. The aim is to investigate the main drivers of R&D (re)location and the possible impact that the offshoring and outsourcing of R&D activities might have on the competitiveness and growth of both firms and countries. Factor price differences, trading costs, countries' size and openness, relative skill endowments, productivity differentials, completeness and enforceability of contracts, knowledge production and spillovers and IPR regimes all shape foreign sourcing and the specific R&D location patterns that emerge. The overall impact of offshoring and outsourcing in general-and of R&D in particular-cannot be seen in isolation, as it is part of more complex globalisation dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic institutions may register trademarks (TMs) to protect and exploit key intangible assets (e.g. reputation), to better market current and prospective initiatives, and to better appropriate the output of innovative activities. TM registration by academic institutions – so far overlooked by the literature addressing the third function of universities – is investigated here. The analysis relies on a novel panel data set containing information about US universities, their main characteristics, and their TM and patent activities over the period 1997–2007. Our contribution is exploratory in nature and descriptive in aim and uncovers a number of relationships worth being investigated further, among them are the persistence of Intellectual Property Rights activities by academic institutions and the existence of positive and significant relationships between TM registration and universities’ characteristics such as being private institutions, the number of students enrolled and the share of graduate students, the share of federal funds received, and the presence of medical schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews and systematizes the management literature directly and indirectly related to (re)location of research and development (R&D), in the form of both insourcing and outsourcing. The focus in particular is on R&D offshore outsourcing and its main drivers, including locational constraints and opportunities, motives, strategic decisions and managerial challenges. The analysis synthesizes and links the main propositions and findings of the theoretical and empirical work to build an original management and strategy centred framework which looks at R&D (re)location from a client-vendor perspective. In this case, the client is the offshoring company, and the vendors are the firms located in the host country. The characteristics of the firms and locations considered vis-à-vis the offshoring firm's goals are examined, the strategies implemented, the management and organizational challenges that R&D offshore outsourcing entails, and the ways in which offshoring impacts on both home and host locations are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing statistical analyses often fail to capture the true scope of the economic impact of the construction sector. They account for the construction of buildings, civil engineering, and construction specialized activities, as defined by Section F of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities (or NACE) used in the European Community, but overlook related activities such as the manufacture of construction products and architectural and engineering services. This shortcoming is addressed and a wider definition of the construction sector is proposed that encompasses the whole value chain of the industry. Going beyond the ‘core’ construction sector section (Section F), activities from other NACE sectors that fully or principally depend upon or are functional to core construction activities are considered. These ‘non-core’ classes relate to ‘pre-production’ activities, such as the provision of intermediate goods and services; various ‘support’ activities and ‘post-production’ functions such as maintenance and management services. Equivalent broad definitions of the construction sector based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) are also developed to allow for optimum comparisons across countries and over time. Using detailed data from Finland and the Community Innovation Survey 4 (CIS4), core and non-core activities are characterized and quantified. Evidence suggests that indicators measuring the composition, structure, value added, skills, and R&D input and output of the construction sector change substantially when a broader definition of the sector is applied. Policies targeting the ‘wide’ construction sector, and exploiting the innovation, growth and productivity leverage potential of non-core activities are thus advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]