Micro-based evidence of EU competitiveness: The CompNet Database. National Bank of Belgium Working Paper No. 253, March 2014

Drawing from confidential firm-level balance sheets in 11 European countries, the paper presents a novel sectoral database of comparable productivity indicators built by members of the Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) using a newly developed research infrastructure. Beyond aggregate information available from industry statistics of Eurostat or EU KLEMS, the paper provides information on the distribution of firms across several dimensions related to competitiveness, e.g. productivity and size. The database comprises so far 11 countries, with information for 58 sectors over the period 1995-2011. The paper documents the development of the new research infrastructure, the construction of the database, and shows some preliminary results. Among them, it shows that there is large heterogeneity in terms of firm productivity or size within narrowly defined industries in all countries. Productivity, and above all, size distribution are very skewed across countries, with a thick left-tail of low productive firms. Moreover, firms at both ends of the distribution show very different dynamics in terms of productivity and unit labour costs. Within-sector heterogeneity and productivity dispersion are positively correlated to aggregate productivity given the possibility of reallocating resources from less to more productive firms. To this extent, we show how allocative efficiency varies across countries, and more interestingly, over different periods of time. Finally, we apply the new database to illustrate the importance of productivity dispersion to explain aggregate trade results.

Giovanni Costa : his life, work, & times /

Includes index.

Silent noon /

For medium voice and piano (key of E♭).

Transportation safety information report. First 6 months, 1987.

Transportation Department, Washington, D.C.

Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1868 /

Mode of access: Internet.

Commonplace, and other short stories.

Commonplace.--The lost Titian.--Nick.--Hero.--Vanna's twins.--A safe investment.--Pros and cons.--The waves of this troublesome world.

Systema novum mechanico hippocraticum de morbis fluidorum & solidorum ac de singulis ipsorum curationibus : opus theorico-practicum /

Mode of access: Internet.

Il mondo ingannato da falsi medici e disingannato /

Mode of access: Internet.

Essays in literary interpretation,/

Some aspects of modern literature -- Personality in literary work -- The significance of modern criticism -- The poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti -- Robert Browning -- John Keats : poet and man -- Some modern readings from Dante -- A word about humour.

The blessed damozel /

Turnbull & Spears, printers, Edinburgh.

The dwale bluth, Hebditch's legacy, and other literary remains

Contents.--I Memoir. A lament, by Philip Bourke Marston. Dwale Bluth. Hebditch's legacy.--II Hebditch's legacy [contd.] The black swan. The yeth hounds. Dismal Jemmy. Note of the plot of an Irish story. To all eternity, and other stanzas and verses. The last story.

Poems /

Mode of access: Internet.