Posts
Although EUROPA news feed figure quite extensively on my basic skills blog
(Metallurgy,Materials Science and Technology_specifically process reseach and development in the fields of special steels and and alloys-esp. Nickel based refractory and superalloys.)
I believe this FEED could be of use to readers involved in innovation and perhaps to those tackling Innovation Challenges whose feed also figures on the header pages of my innovation orientated blog
Conversations-on-Innovations. Looking forward to learning of readers own sucess stories on these themes.
REFERENCE: Here is the link to the full list of EU-EUROPA's RSS feed and
PS. I have just downloaded the free report entitled Frugal Innovation (pdf) in the Theme Headed, Key Enabling Technologies.
ALL THEMES eg.
EROSION AND (ABRASION) OF QUALIFICATIONS.
Constraints due to globalisation are claimed to be under-estimated whereas the violence of the shocks taken require longer recovery times.
Employment has dropped continuously over the last 24 months. In the last 6 months, INSEE - National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies. indicates that unemployment has lowered on only 8 occasions while the level of economic activity has remained inferior to the level in 2008.
Constraints due to globalisation are claimed to be under-estimated whereas the violence of the shocks taken require longer recovery times.
Employment has dropped continuously over the last 24 months. In the last 6 months, INSEE - National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies. indicates that unemployment has lowered on only 8 occasions while the level of economic activity has remained inferior to the level in 2008.
NB-REM:There are 4 levels of economic activity (link) the main reference used by INSEE in France is GDP.
This unemployment produces an erosion of qualifications and tacit or "hands-on" knowledge of the the work-force, a disapprenticeship due to lack of practise, somewhat in contradiction with the basic building block of an economy supposed to be based on knowledge, in this case "Learning by Doing". This loss of substance in the industrial sector not only deepens foreign debt but does so by replacing industrial work by lower paid work in the service sector.
R and D policies,(presumably government policies) Guilhon claims, are inappropriate to aim to support companies most exposed to international competition ie. small to middle sized companies are the ones that loose out, while the large companies preoccupied by rationalisation (presumably to increase efficiency and profit ) and implantation close to large attractive markets allocate increasing investment R and D out with Europe (I suppose this means truly democratic Europe, the European Union)
(NB. including cheaper, equally qualified and maybe less industrially wise although my latter comment may just be wishful thinking).
In this context R & D spending (investment) by industry represents 63% of total R & D spending.
Such weakening of industrial activities and accompanying delocalisation has, according to the US economist Gregory Tassey, a devastating effect on the R and D capacity of the (national) economy which in turn weakens the (Nations) global innovation infrastructure.
Education and training
Guilhon criticises Education and training. He claims that under investment in Western Europe leads to a penury of qualified work, evident in many sectors (the book review does not say which sectors nor other evidence).
Delocalisation he qualifies as "shadow migration" allowing the "home" country to benefit from qualified productive factors while renumerating them at (lower) welcoming rates.
A LOOSER-LOOSER GAME (A FOOLS GAME when we know the high quality of education and the positions of those targeted,! Strong words indeed )
R and D policies,(presumably government policies) Guilhon claims, are inappropriate to aim to support companies most exposed to international competition ie. small to middle sized companies are the ones that loose out, while the large companies preoccupied by rationalisation (presumably to increase efficiency and profit ) and implantation close to large attractive markets allocate increasing investment R and D out with Europe (I suppose this means truly democratic Europe, the European Union)
(NB. including cheaper, equally qualified and maybe less industrially wise although my latter comment may just be wishful thinking).
In this context R & D spending (investment) by industry represents 63% of total R & D spending.
Such weakening of industrial activities and accompanying delocalisation has, according to the US economist Gregory Tassey, a devastating effect on the R and D capacity of the (national) economy which in turn weakens the (Nations) global innovation infrastructure.
Education and training
Guilhon criticises Education and training. He claims that under investment in Western Europe leads to a penury of qualified work, evident in many sectors (the book review does not say which sectors nor other evidence).
Delocalisation he qualifies as "shadow migration" allowing the "home" country to benefit from qualified productive factors while renumerating them at (lower) welcoming rates.
A LOOSER-LOOSER GAME (A FOOLS GAME when we know the high quality of education and the positions of those targeted,! Strong words indeed )
When qualified work moves the European schema appears to reproduce some aspects a Looser-Loser (L-L) Game as opposed to Win-Win (W-W) play. This L-L game appears to characterise the relationship between the developed countries and the developing countries
Countries that export qualified labour (southern Europe) are expected to invest less in education whereas qualified labour importer countries would tend to do the same thing, not invest in education since they can depend on the investment of other countries.
Thus globalisation requires a systems vision of innovation, which requires simultaneous investments in strongly related complimentary actives: new technologies, human capitol, communication technologies, intellectual property legislation, valorisation structures.(I guess this specialist & many others do not follow this blog -I have only 2 followers to date- other wise Innovative issues such as Innocentive incredibly instructive Prof Guilhon.)
On a global scale, identification of winners and losers depends on a much more detailed classification of the type of tasks done and it is difficult to predict what will be the exact consequences produced.
When the price of certain tasks is no longer set by a local market but by the global market ie. when the service given becomes interchangeable, the ratio salary/productivity (for equal skills) risks to sway in favour of geographical delocalisation of such tasks on an international scale. In this context, the most highly qualified tasks are not necessarily protected! (eg Innocentive's global approach to highly skilled Innovation)
Innovation remains handicapped by the "bonus of the existing product or service" which applies to the already installed productive base. Such down-grading produces losses and makes productivity gains uncertain. Added this innovation handicap Guilhon invokes a certain conservatism in economic judgements, preferring the existing or known to the unknown.
Many (economists) diagnose the end of the the current energy (production and consumption) model
Whether this pleases them or not, he says, the current upturn of the american economy is not related to the production of new knowledge but a regain of competitvity by a falling dollar and a substantial reduction in the cost of (NB. dirty energy production & consumption) obtained by applying the (most modern) technologies of shale gas and oil extraction already ancient (1948! (NB 1. The USA is not an example to follow in all things far from it, eg home arms control, the cowboy, hit it see if its still standing mentalities, arguably still pervades at least some of strates of american life and attitudes. 2. The technology: Guihon is refering to has known much and improved knowlegde and much improved techniques (innovations) but is truely a technology fraught with risk and in no way responds in a responsible way to counter the now well known effects of GHG-CC. One would expect economists not only to understand and decipher not only current economic result and deviation from prevision, but also,to plan with financial backing, for the future. A great start was made several years ago by the Stern Report "long since forgotten?
Bernard Guilhon (Skema Business Schooll)
COMMENT:
In many ways an approach such as the above makes me think our national ecomomic analysis and battles are like the Nuclear Arms Esclation of the cold war period, When one side ups the threat the other responds, based upon fear (and at what a cost, for peace) cf. Peter Senge's book "The Fifth Discipline". Whatever short term action put into practise to increase the established measured economic performance eg Fracking-the shale gas and oil extraction process, (usually not concerted action to master GHG-CC consensius among all the most highly reputable scientific experts brought together by the IPCC-Intergovernmental panel for Climate Change -climatologist-meteorologists supported warning, not blind fear. The battle appears to have been lost, since more and more and more talk of adaptation.
FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AND WEDGE A WAR.(Pacala-Socolow Wedges to mitigate global climate warming)
COMMENT:
In many ways an approach such as the above makes me think our national ecomomic analysis and battles are like the Nuclear Arms Esclation of the cold war period, When one side ups the threat the other responds, based upon fear (and at what a cost, for peace) cf. Peter Senge's book "The Fifth Discipline". Whatever short term action put into practise to increase the established measured economic performance eg Fracking-the shale gas and oil extraction process, (usually not concerted action to master GHG-CC consensius among all the most highly reputable scientific experts brought together by the IPCC-Intergovernmental panel for Climate Change -climatologist-meteorologists supported warning, not blind fear. The battle appears to have been lost, since more and more and more talk of adaptation.
FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AND WEDGE A WAR.(Pacala-Socolow Wedges to mitigate global climate warming)
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