New Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs Phase 2 Update Report (March 2013) (PDF 652KB)

Update Report on NSD for Alcohol and Drugs Phase 2 - March 2013

New Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs Phase 2 (2011-2016) - (December 2011) (PDF 886 KB)

New Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs Phase 2 (2011-2016) - A framework for Reducing Alcohol and Drug Related Harm in Northern Ireland (December 2011)

Strategic Resources Framework 2011/2012 (944 KB)

2011/12

Strategic Resource Framework 2010/2011 (PDF 854 KB)

2010/11

New Strategic Direction for Alcohol & Drugs 2006-2011- NSD Update (April 2010) (PDF 611KB)

An update on the implementation and delivery of the New Strategic Direction on Alcohol and Drugs 2006-2011 (NSD)

Addressing Young People's Drinking in Northern Ireland: Action to Support the New Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs

This action plan focuses on three main areas: • reducing young people’s demand for alcohol by providing information, education and training to young people and their parents; •restricting the supply of alcohol via measures to reduce accessibility to alcohol (including how alcohol is priced, marketed, and promoted); and • providing treatment and support for those who require additional help. While the emphasis of this action plan is on young people, it recognises that their drinking patterns are very much influenced by modelling the drinking patterns of adults in our society, and it therefore contains actions that will impact on the entire population. Alcohol misuse - however you measure the cost, whether to the individual, the family, the community, the health service, or society as a whole - is one of the biggest public health issues facing Northern Ireland.

Strategic Resources Framework Report 2008/09 (PDF 532KB)

Strategic Resources Framework Report for 2008/09

Strategic Resources Framework Report 2008/09 - Appendices (PDF 892KB)

Appendices to the Strategic Resources Framework Report for 2008/09

Strategic Resources Framework Report 2007/08 (PDF 455 KB)

Strategic Resources Framework Report for 2007/08

Strategic Resources Framework 2007-08 Appendices (PDF 594 KB)

Appendices to the Strategic Resources Framework Report for 2007/08

Strategic Resources Framework Report for 2006-2007 (PDF 694 KB)

Strategic Resources Framework Report for 2006/07.

Strategic Resources Framework 2006-2007 Appendices (PDF 4056 KB)

Appendices to the Strategic Resources Framework Report for 2006/07.

Innovation and absorptive capacity: What is the role of technological frontier?

This paper explores how absorptive capacity affects the innovative performance and productivity dynamics of Spanish firms. A firm’s efficiency levels are measured using two variables: the labour productivity and the Total Factor Productivity (TFP). The theoretical framework is based on the seminal contributions of Cohen and Levinthal (1989, 1990) regarding absorptive capacity; and the applied framework is based on the four-stage structural model proposed by Crépon, Duguet and Mairesse (1998) for setting the determinants of R&D, the effects of R&D activities on innovation outputs, and the impacts of innovation on firm productivity. The present study uses a twostage structural model. In the first stage, a probit estimation is used to investigate how the sources of R&D, the absorptive capacity and a vector of the firm’s individual features influence the firm’s likelihood of developing innovations in products or processes. In the second phase, a quantile regression is used to analyze the effect of R&D sources, absorptive capacity and firm characteristics on productivity. This method shows the elasticity of each exogenous variable on productivity according to the firms’ levels of efficiency, and thus allows us to distinguish between firms that are close to the technological frontier and those that are further away from it. We used extensive firm-level panel data from 5,575 firms for the 2004-2009 period. The results show that the internal absorptive capacity has a strong impact on the productivity of firms, whereas the role of external absorptive capacity differs according to nature of the each industry and according the distance of firms from the technological frontier. Key words: R&D sources, innovation strategies, absorptive capacity, technological distance, quantile regression.