ESSAYS ON INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SPILLOVERS

The dissertation consists of three essays on international research and development spillovers. In the first essay, I investigate the degree to which differences in institutional arrangements among Sub-Saharan African countries determine the extent of benefits they derive from foreign research and development spillovers. In particular, I compare the international research and development spillovers for English common law and French civil law Sub-Saharan African countries. I show that differences in the legal origin of the company law or commercial codes in these countries may reflect the extent of barriers they place in the paths of firms that engage in the investment process. To tests this hypothesis, I constructed foreign R&D spillovers variable using imports as weights and employed the endogenous growth framework to estimate elasticities of productivity with respect to foreign R&D spillovers for a sample of 17 English common law and French Civil law Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1980-2004. My results find support for the hypothesis. In particular, foreign R&D spillovers were higher in the English common law countries than in the French civil law countries. In the second essay, I examine the question of whether technical cooperation grants and overseas development assistance grants induce R&D knowledge spillovers in Sub-Saharan African countries. I test this hypothesis using data for 11 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1980-2004. I constructed foreign R&D spillovers using the technical cooperation grants and overseas development assistance grants as weights and employed the endogenous growth framework to provide quantitative estimates of foreign R&D spillover effects in 11 Sub-Saharan African countries. I find that technical cooperation grants and overseas development assistance grants are major mechanisms through which returns to R&D investments in G7 countries flows to Sub-Saharan African countries. However, their influence has declined over the years. Finally, the third essay tests the hypothesis that the relationship between a country's exporters and their foreign purchasing agents may lead to the exchange of ideas and thereby improve the manufacturing process and productivity in the exporting country. I test this hypothesis using disaggregated export data from OECD countries. The foreign R&D capital stock in this essay was constructed as exports weighted average of domestic R&D capital stock. I find empirical support for the hypothesis. In particular, capital goods exports generate more learning effects and therefore best explain productivity in OECD countries than non-capital goods exports.

A prospective cohort study evaluating the state of medical readiness in the United States Air Force and risk factors to improve the medical readiness posture

A cohort of 418 United States Air Force (USAF) personnel from over 15 different bases deployed to Morocco in 1994. This was the first study of its kind and was designed with two primary goals: to determine if the USAF was medically prepared to deploy with its changing mission in the new world order, and to evaluate factors that might improve or degrade USAF medical readiness. The mean length of deployment was 21 days. The cohort was 95% male, 86% enlisted, 65% married, and 78% white.^ This study shows major deficiencies indicating the USAF medical readiness posture has not fully responded to meet its new mission requirements. Lack of required logistical items (e.g., mosquito nets, rainboots, DEET insecticide cream, etc.) revealed a low state of preparedness. The most notable deficiency was that 82.5% (95% CI = 78.4, 85.9) did not have permethrin pretreated mosquito nets and 81.0% (95% CI = 76.8, 84.6) lacked mosquito net poles. Additionally, 18% were deficient on vaccinations and 36% had not received a tuberculin skin test. Excluding injections, the overall compliance for preventive medicine requirements had a mean frequency of only 50.6% (95% CI = 45.36, 55.90).^ Several factors had a positive impact on compliance with logistical requirements. The most prominent was "receiving a medical intelligence briefing" from the USAF Public Health. After adjustment for mobility and age, individuals who underwent a briefing were 17.2 (95% CI = 4.37, 67.99) times more likely to have received an immunoglobulin shot and 4.2 (95% CI = 1.84, 9.45) times more likely to start their antimalarial prophylaxsis at the proper time. "Personnel on mobility" had the second strongest positive effect on medical readiness. When mobility and briefing were included in models, "personnel on mobility" were 2.6 (95% CI = 1.19, 5.53) times as likely to have DEET insecticide and 2.2 (95% CI = 1.16, 4.16) times as likely to have had a TB skin test.^ Five recommendations to improve the medical readiness of the USAF were outlined: upgrade base level logistical support, improve medical intelligence messages, include medical requirements on travel orders, place more personnel on mobility or only deploy personnel on mobility, and conduct research dedicated to capitalize on the powerful effect from predeployment briefings.^ Since this is the first study of its kind, more studies should be performed in different geographic theaters to assess medical readiness and establish acceptable compliance levels for the USAF. ^

Basic statistics of the Community. Comparison with some European countries, Canada, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1965. Sixth edition

Population; labour force; national product; agriculture; energy; industry; transport; external trade; social statistics; standard of living; trends of major economic indicators in the countries of the Community; supplementary statistics on iron and steel-trends from 1959-64.

Basic Statistics for Fifteen European Countries. Comparison with the United States of America and with the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. 3rd Edition, November 1961

Population; national product; agriculture; energy; industry; transport; external trade; standard of living; trends of major economic indicators in the six

Basic Statistics of the Community. Comparison with some European countries, the United States of America and with the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Fourth Edition. November 1963

Population; national product; agriculture; energy; industry; transport; external trade; standard of living; trends of major economic indicators in the six; supplementary statistics on iron and steel-trends from 1952-62; supplementary statistics in an social field-employment, earnings, expenditure, social security

Basic Statistics of the Community. Comparison with some European countries, the United States of America and with the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Fifth Edition. November 1964

Population; labour force; national product; agriculture; energy; industry; transport; external trade; social statistics; standar5d of living; trends of major economic indicators in the countries of the community; supplementary statistics on iron and steel-trends from 1956-63

UMTA's research and development program should pay closer attention to transit industry needs.

Mode of access: Internet.

Annotated bibliography of rail transit safety, 1975-1980, with emphasis on safety research and development. Final report.

Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Washington, D.C.

Research and development in progress : biology and medicine /

"TID-4500 ; Biology and Medicine."

Research and development in progress : biomedical and environmental research program /

"Issuance Date: December 1972."

Nominations of D. James Baker, Douglas K. Hall, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Arati Prabhakar, and Clarence L. Irving : hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, first session, May 24, 1993.

Shipping list no.: 95-0007-P.

Nomination of Arnold G. Holz to be chief financial officer of NASA : hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Tranpsortation, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, second session, April 13, 1994.

Shipping list no.: 94-0395-P.

So many, so much, so far, so fast : United States Transportation Command and strategic deployment for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm /

Mode of access: Internet.