nep-ino New Economics Papers
on Innovation
Issue of 2019‒01‒28
twenty-two papers chosen by
Uwe Cantner
University of Jena

  1. Advancing the Innovation Radar - Enhancing Innovation Radar data with financial, patent and Venture Capital data By Vincent Van Roy; Tom Magerman; Daniel Nepelski
  2. Do Innovation Subsidies Make Chinese Firms More Innovative? Evidence from the China Employer Employee Survey By Hong Cheng; Hanbing Fan; Takeo Hoshi; Dezhuang Hu
  3. Do Tax Cuts Produce More Einsteins? The Impacts of Financial Incentives vs. Exposure to Innovation on the Supply of Inventors By Alex Bell; Raj Chetty; Xavier Jaravel; Neviana Petkova; John Van Reenen
  4. Knowledge Remittances: Does Emigration Foster Innovation? By Thomas Fackler; Yvonne Giesing; Nadzeya Laurentsyeva
  5. International Knowledge Spillovers By Johannes Eugster; Giang Ho; Florence Jaumotte; Roberto Piazza
  6. Financial Systems and Private Innovation Activity. A Research for OECD Countries By Alberto Mendez-Morales; Carlos Yanes-Guerra
  7. Does sequential decision-making trigger collective investment in automobile R&D? Experimental evidence By Buchmann, Tobias; Haering, Alexander; Kudic, Muhamed; Rothgang, Michael
  8. Knowledge-intensive sectors and the role of collective performance-related pay By Stefania, Cardinaleschi; Mirella, Damiani; Fabrizio, Pompei
  9. The effect of intellectual property boxes on innovative activity & effective tax rates By Bornemann, Tobias; Laplante, Stacie K.; Osswald, Benjamin
  10. A taxonomy of firm-level IPR application practices to inform policy debates By Marcel Seip; Carolina Castaldi; Meindert Flikkema; Ard-Pieter de Man
  11. Where Did Good Jobs Go? Acemoglu and Marx on Induced (Skill Replacing) Technical Change By Korkut Alp Erturk
  12. Identifying cooperation for innovation: A comparison of data sources By Fritsch, Michael; Piontek, Matthias; Titze, Mirko
  13. A Survey of Empirical Evidence on Patents and Innovation By Bhaven N. Sampat
  14. Invisible Geniuses: Could the Knowledge Frontier Advance Faster? By Agarwal, Ruchir; Gaule, Patrick
  15. How to Set Budget Caps for Competitive Grants By Alessandro De Chiaraa; Elisabetta Iossa
  16. Patent Pools, Vertical Integration, and Downstream Competition By Markus Reisinger; Emanuele Tarantino
  17. An analytical approach to crowdinvesting: The impact of marketing and idea stealing on the entrepreneur's decision making By Bethmann, Nicola; Frieden, Matthias
  18. Employer-Employee Profit-Sharing and the Incentives to Innovate when the Dismissal Regulation Matters By Filippo Belloc
  19. International Technology Transfer Policies By Andrea Andrenelli; Julien Gourdon; Evdokia Moïsé
  20. The landscape of corporate venturing in Germany: Insights on corporate venture capitals and corporate accelerators By Haslanger, Patrick
  21. Concordance and complementarity in Intellectual Property instruments By M. Grazzi; C. Piccardo; C. Vergari
  22. Whither the evolution of the contemporary social fabric? New technologies and old socio-economic trends By Giovanni Dosi; Maria Enrico Virgillito

  1. By: Vincent Van Roy (European Commission - JRC); Tom Magerman (Xinfor – Scientific Information Systems); Daniel Nepelski (European Commission - JRC)
    Abstract: The Innovation Radar (IR) is a European Commission (EC) initiative to identify high-potential innovations and innovators in EC-funded Framework Programme (FP) research and innovation projects and guide project consortia in terms of the appropriate steps to reach the market. This report presents the process and results of linking the IR data with third-party databases to obtain performance information about the key innovators in FP projects identified by the IR. In particular, IR participants identified between March 2014 and January 2018 are enriched with financial information from ORBIS, patent information from PATSTAT and private funding information from Dealroom. This enriched data warehouse aims to facilitate the profilation of IR participants in terms of performance, which can subsequently provide guidance for hands-on policy support initiatives. It creates foundation for future analysis of the determinants and barriers of innovation in EU-funded collaborative projects.
    Keywords: Financial and economic analysis; Composite indicators; ICT R & D and Innovation; Industrial research and innovation; Research and innovation policies; Digital Economy
    Date: 2018–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc114418&r=all
  2. By: Hong Cheng; Hanbing Fan; Takeo Hoshi; Dezhuang Hu
    Abstract: The Chinese government has been using various subsidies to encourage innovations by Chinese firms. This paper examines the allocation and impacts of innovation subsidies, using the data from the China Employer Employee Survey (CEES). We find that the innovation subsidies are preferentially allocated to state owned firms and politically connected firms. Of these two (state ownership and political connection), political connection is more important in determining the allocation. We also find that the firms that receive innovation subsidies file and receive more patents, are more likely to introduce new products, but do not necessarily file and receive more patents abroad. Finally, the firms that receive innovation subsidies do not have higher productivity, more profits, or larger market shares. Overall, the results point to inefficiency of allocation of innovation subsidies and show that the subsidies encourage only incremental innovations and not radical ones.
    JEL: O25 O38 P48
    Date: 2019–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25432&r=all
  3. By: Alex Bell; Raj Chetty; Xavier Jaravel; Neviana Petkova; John Van Reenen
    Abstract: Many countries provide financial incentives to spur innovation, ranging from tax incentives to research and development grants. In this paper, we study how such financial incentives affect individuals' decisions to pursue careers in innovation. We _first present empirical evidence on inventors' career trajectories and income distributions using de-identified data on 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records in the U.S. We find that the private returns to innovation are extremely skewed - with the top 1% of inventors collecting more than 22% of total inventors' income - and are highly correlated with their social impact, as measured by citations. Inventors tend to have their most impactful innovations around age 40 and their incomes rise rapidly just before they have high-impact patents. We then build a stylized model of inventor career choice that matches these facts as well as recent evidence that childhood exposure to innovation plays a critical role in determining whether individuals become inventors. The model predicts that financial incentives, such as top income tax reductions, have limited potential to increase aggregate innovation because they only affect individuals who are exposed to innovation and have no impact on the decisions of star inventors, who matter most for aggregate innovation. Importantly, these results hold regardless of whether the private returns to innovation are known at the time of career choice. In contrast, increasing exposure to innovation (e.g., through mentorship programs) could have substantial impacts on innovation by drawing individuals who produce high-impact inventions into the innovation pipeline. Although we do not present direct evidence supporting these model-based predictions, our results call for a more careful assessment of the impacts of financial incentives and a greater focus on alternative policies to increase the supply of inventors.
    Keywords: inventors, innovation, tax policy
    JEL: L2 M2 O32 O33
    Date: 2019–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1597&r=all
  4. By: Thomas Fackler; Yvonne Giesing; Nadzeya Laurentsyeva
    Abstract: Does the emigration of skilled individuals necessarily result in losses for source countries due to the brain drain? Combining industry-level patenting and migration data from 32 European countries, we show that emigration in fact positively contributes to innovation in source countries. We use changes in the labour mobility legislation within Europe as exogenous variation to establish causality. By analysing patent citation data, we further provide evidence that these positive effects are driven by knowledge flows that are triggered by emigrants. While skilled migrants are not inventing in their home country anymore, they contribute to cross-border knowledge and technology diffusion and thus help less advanced countries to catch up to the technology frontier.
    Keywords: migration, innovation, knowledge spillovers, patent citations, EU enlargement
    JEL: F22 J61 O33 O31 O52
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7420&r=all
  5. By: Johannes Eugster; Giang Ho; Florence Jaumotte; Roberto Piazza
    Abstract: How important is foreign knowledge for domestic innovation outcomes? How is this relation shaped by globalization and the attendant intensification of international competition? Our empirical approach extends the previous literature by analyzing a large panel comprising industries in both advanced and emerging economies over the past two decades. We find that barriers to the domestic diffusion of foreign knowledge have fallen significantly for emerging economies. For all countries, and especially for emerging economies, inflows of foreign knowledge have a growing and quantitatively important impact on domestic innovation. Controlling for the amount of domestic R&D, we find evidence that increases in international competitive pressure at the industry level had a positive effect on domestic innovation outcomes
    Date: 2018–12–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:18/269&r=all
  6. By: Alberto Mendez-Morales (Universidad Militar Nueva Granada); Carlos Yanes-Guerra (Universidad Militar Nueva Granada)
    Abstract: This research shows the effect that financial markets development has on R and D private investment of OECD countries. The main porpoise of this research is to help policy makers to generate effective policies to spur innovation, especially in underdeveloped countries. Data used on this research comes from World Bank and Unesco for the period 2000-2016. Used methodology is a dynamic panel data in which macroeconomic, financial, innovation and structural variables are included. It was found that stock markets development is positively related with private expenditure on R and D, but bond markets are negatively related with it. Simultaneously, low inflation and stable exchange rates are positively related with R and D. This is a novel research given that we show that an effective innovation policy for private firms, should be accompanied of policies aimed to deepening financial markets as a way to spur investments on R and D.
    Keywords: Financial systems, stock markets, credit markets, R and D, innovation
    Date: 2018–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:jpaper:02am&r=all
  7. By: Buchmann, Tobias; Haering, Alexander; Kudic, Muhamed; Rothgang, Michael
    Abstract: We conduct a framed laboratory experiment to gain in-depth insights on factors that drive collective research and development efforts among firms located along the automotive value chain. In particular, we employ a public goods experiment and analyze the influence of sequential decision-making on the willingness to engage in cooperation and on economic welfare. By using a linear value chain setting with three suppliers and one OEM, we analyze vertical R&D cooperation. Our results reveal that contributions increase in situations with sequential decision-making and that sequential decisions increase the overall welfare, even in case of unequally distributed R&D budgets.
    Keywords: public goods experiment,collective innovation,automobile industry,value chain,innovation barriers,sequential decision making
    JEL: C92 D79 O31
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:785&r=all
  8. By: Stefania, Cardinaleschi; Mirella, Damiani; Fabrizio, Pompei
    Abstract: The main contribution of this study is showing that the efficiency effects of collective performance-related pay (CPRP) are more pronounced in knowledge-intensive service sectors (KISs) than in other sectors. The hypothesis is that human resource practices such as CPRP are particularly useful for enhancing firm performance when innovation-supporting knowledge is distributed among multiple skill sets and employee creativity, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing are key success factors for the firm. Cross-sectional estimates obtained for a national sample of approximately 3,800 Italian firms confirm this prediction. These results are validated by adopting a treatment effect approach to solve the self-selection problem.
    Keywords: Collective bargaining, performance-related pay, firm performance
    JEL: D23 J33
    Date: 2018–12–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:91302&r=all
  9. By: Bornemann, Tobias; Laplante, Stacie K.; Osswald, Benjamin
    Abstract: We investigate whether the adoption of an intellectual property box increases innovative activity and what type of firms benefit. We examine the adoption of the intellectual property box in Belgium because it allows us to cleanly identify the impact on innovative activity and effective tax rates. Our results indicate an overall increase in innovative activity as proxied by patent grants, the efficiency with which firms apply for and receive patents, and employment. We also provide evidence that, while firms with patents on average enjoy lower effective tax rates, the greatest financial benefits accrue to multinational firms without income shifting opportunities, followed by domestic firms. Multinational firms with income shifting opportunities do not significantly benefit from the intellectual property box.
    Keywords: IP boxes,tax incentive,tax avoidance,income shifting
    JEL: H21 H25
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:arqudp:234&r=all
  10. By: Marcel Seip; Carolina Castaldi; Meindert Flikkema; Ard-Pieter de Man
    Abstract: Current debates on the social returns of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) systems deal with the presumed negative effects of two practices: IPR bundling and the strong concentration of IPRs in certain firms and industries. These debates are hampered by the lack of empirical evidence on IPR application practices. This study presents unique and comprehensive data about firm-level IPR application practices in the Netherlands. We develop a taxonomy based on the firm-level variety and intensity of IPR applications. We identify five archetypes of IPR applicants: patent rookies, trademark rookies, IPR strategists, IPR specialists and IPR generalists. Our findings show that a few large firms in high-tech industries combine high IPR application variety and high IPR application intensity. However, high variety is also associated with low intensity and low variety with high intensity. For a large majority of the firms, IPR application is equivalent to single trademark application or the ad hoc application of another IPR. We discuss the implications of our findings for current IPR debates and for further research
    Keywords: Intellectual property rights; taxonomy; policy
    Date: 2019–01–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2019/03&r=all
  11. By: Korkut Alp Erturk
    Abstract: The paper lays out a hypothesis about the effect global oversupply of labor had on induced technological change, clarifying how it might have contributed to the demand reversal for high skill workers and other recent observed trends in technological change in the US. The argument considers the effect of market friendly political/institutional transformations of the 1980s on technology as they created a potential for an integrated global labor market. The innovations induced by the promise of this potential eventually culminated in the creation of global value chains and production networks. These required large set up costs and skill enhancing innovations, but once in place they reduced the dependence of expanding low skill employment around the globe on skill intensive inputs from advanced countries, giving rise to the wellobserved high skill demand reversal and sputtering of IT investment.
    Keywords: Income inequality, job polarization, skill downgrading, induced technological change, organization of work, craft economy, global production networks JEL Classification: F60, F15, 030, E10, B51
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uta:papers:2019_02&r=all
  12. By: Fritsch, Michael; Piontek, Matthias; Titze, Mirko
    Abstract: The value of social network analysis is critically dependent on the comprehensive and reliable identification of actors and their relationships. We compare regional knowledge networks based on different types of data sources, namely, co-patents, co-publications, and publicly subsidised collaborative Research and Development projects. Moreover, by combining these three data sources, we construct a multilayer network that provides a comprehensive picture of intraregional interactions. By comparing the networks based on the data sources, we address the problems of coverage and selection bias. We observe that using only one data source leads to a severe underestimation of regional knowledge interactions, especially those of private sector firms and independent researchers. The key role of universities that connect many regional actors is identified in all three types of data.
    Keywords: knowledge interactions,social network analysis,regional innovation systems,data sources
    JEL: O30 R12 R30
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:12019&r=all
  13. By: Bhaven N. Sampat
    Abstract: This report surveys the empirical literature from economics and related fields on patents and innovation. In particular, it reviews and synthesizes the empirical evidence on patents and first-generation innovation, the disclosure function of patents, and patents and follow-on innovation. The main results are summarized in fifteen charts.
    JEL: O34
    Date: 2018–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25383&r=all
  14. By: Agarwal, Ruchir (International Monetary Fund); Gaule, Patrick
    Abstract: The advancement of the knowledge frontier is crucial for technological innovation and human progress. Using novel data from the setting of mathematics, this paper establishes two results. First, we document that individuals who demonstrate exceptional talent in their teenage years have an irreplaceable ability to create new ideas over their lifetime, suggesting that talent is a central ingredient for the production of knowledge. Second, such talented individuals born in low- or middle-income countries are systematically less likely to become knowledge producers. Our findings suggest that policies to encourage exceptionally-talented youth to pursue scientific careers - especially those from lower income countries - could accelerate the advancement of the knowledge frontier.
    Keywords: talent, knowledge frontier, innovation, IMO, mathematics
    JEL: O31 J24 I25
    Date: 2018–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11977&r=all
  15. By: Alessandro De Chiaraa; Elisabetta Iossa
    Abstract: We study how funding agencies should set budget caps for competitive grants. We show that budget caps influence the researchers’ submission strategy and, in particular, whether they steer their project choice towards the agencies’ favorite projects, and the level of funds they request. The welfare impact of alternative approaches depends on the level of competition, the cost of public funds and the social value of project implementation.
    Keywords: Competitive Grants, Procurement of Innovation, Project Choice, Research Funding, Research Tournament
    JEL: D8 O25 O30 O31 O38 L2
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcu:iefewp:iefewp108&r=all
  16. By: Markus Reisinger; Emanuele Tarantino
    Abstract: Patent pools are commonly used to license technologies to manufacturers. Whereas previous studies focused on manufacturers active in independent markets, we analyze pools licensing to competing manufacturers, allowing for multiple licensors and non-linear tariffs. We find that the impact of pools on welfare depends on the industry structure: Whereas they are procompetitive when no manufacturer is integrated with a licensor, the presence of vertically integrated manufacturers triggers a novel trade-off between horizontal and vertical price coordination. Specifically, pools are anticompetitive if the share of integrated firms is large, procompetitive otherwise. We then formulate information-free policies to screen anticompetitive pools.
    Keywords: patent pools and horizontal pricing agreements, complementary patents, vertical integration and restraints, antitrust policy
    JEL: K11 L41 L42 O34
    Date: 2018–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2018_057&r=all
  17. By: Bethmann, Nicola; Frieden, Matthias
    Abstract: In a game theoretical setting, this paper studies the entrepreneur's decision making by using a new financing opportunity referred to as crowdinvesting. In this model, the entrepreneur can collect money and advertise his innovative idea. However, crowdinvesting carries the risk of being copied by a potential competitor. Faced with this trade-off, the entrepreneur strategically diminishes his marketing activity under certain circumstances to remain the monopolist in the market. In the second part, we compare crowdinvesting with two alternative financing opportunities, banks and venture capital. We show that crowdinvesting, often mentioned as a financing instrument for drastic innovations, is generally not appropriate for these ideas because the danger of being copied is too high for the entrepreneur.
    Keywords: Crowdinvesting; equity crowdfunding; entrepreneurship; advertising; idea stealing
    JEL: D21 G32 L26 M13 O13
    Date: 2019–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-649&r=all
  18. By: Filippo Belloc
    Abstract: We develop a simple incomplete-contract model of the relationship between worker participation to revenue sharing and innovation performance of firms, under firing regimes with different stringency. Stronger worker participation to profits is shown to increase innovation probability when employer-side hold-up is prevented by stringent layoff regulation and the human capital matters signicantly. Vice-versa, under a strict layoff regulation, when the financial capital is relatively more important, the effects of worker participation devices may be reduced or inverted. Our results may help in understanding why there is no one-size-fits-all optimal strategy in the design of worker financial participation mechanisms for knowledge-intensive productions
    Keywords: prot-sharing, dismissal regulation, hold-up, innovation.
    JEL: J54 K31 O31
    Date: 2019–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:799&r=all
  19. By: Andrea Andrenelli (OECD); Julien Gourdon (OECD); Evdokia Moïsé (OECD)
    Abstract: Concerns are growing about policies and measures that restrict market access with the effect of “forcing” technology transfer. Efforts to target forced technology transfer are complicated by the sometimes blurred line between voluntary and mutually agreed upon technology transfers and that which is perceived to be, or is in fact, compelled. This study presents a discussion of the continuum of measures related to international technology transfer (ITT) and aims to identify those measures that pose the greatest concern over their potential to compel disclosure of commercially valuable and sensitive technology. It then briefly presents information on provisions in international trade and investment agreements that are relevant to ITT. The last section presents the perspective from the private sector in order to better understand how firms engage in technology transfers through research collaboration, licensing, joint ventures, and equity investments. The analysis in this report indicates that involuntary technology transfer is a complex issue, and it aims to provide a way for policy makers to think through the issues, to apply a systematic and analytical approach to assessing which policies are of the greatest concern.
    Keywords: competition, FDI, innovation, intellectual property, International trade
    JEL: F1 F13 F15 F23 O3
    Date: 2019–01–24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:traaab:222-en&r=all
  20. By: Haslanger, Patrick
    Abstract: This paper adds to the literature of external corporate venturing, especially corporate venture capitals (CVCs) and corporate accelerators (CAs) by providing an overview of the German corporate venturing market and by offering first intriguing findings based on a novel and unique hand-collected dataset. It presents insights regarding the set-up, organization and staffing of corporate venturing units, as well as characteristics of start-ups under management. This study distinguishes between the corporate venturing unit's mission, organization, governance and network as well as vehicle leads. Moreover, differences in the characteristics of start-ups supported by corporate venturing units are detected. This work offers unique insights on the German corporate venturing landscape and thereby serves as starting point for future and more elaborate research.
    Keywords: corporate venturing,entrepreneurship,corporate venture capital (CVC),corporate accelerator (CA),Germany
    JEL: G24 L26 M13 O3
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:auguow:0119&r=all
  21. By: M. Grazzi; C. Piccardo; C. Vergari
    Abstract: This work investigates the relationship between proxies of innovation activities, such as patents and trademarks, and firm performance in terms of revenues and growth. By resorting to the virtual universe of Italian manufacturing firms we provide a rather complete picture of the innovation activities of Italian firms, in terms of patents and trademarks, and we study whether the two instruments for protecting Intellectual Property (IP) exhibit complementarity or substitutability. In addition, and to our knowledge novel, we propose a measure of concordance (or proximity) between the patents and trademarks owned by the same firm and we then investigate whether such concordance appears to exert any effect on performance.
    JEL: O31 O34 L25
    Date: 2019–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1127&r=all
  22. By: Giovanni Dosi; Maria Enrico Virgillito
    Abstract: The reflections which follow build on two interrelated questions, namely, first, whether we are witnessing another "industrial revolution", and second, what is the impact of technological transformations upon the current dynamics of the socio-economic fabric, especially with respect to employment, income distribution, working conditions and labour relations. We argue that the processes of innovation and diffusion of what we could call "intelligent automation" are likely to change, or more likely reinforce, the patterns of distribution of income and power, which have been there well before the arrival of the technologies we are concerned about: some are indeed intrinsic features of capitalism since its inception, while others are features of the last thirtyforty years. First, we shall offer a fresco of such tendencies which certainly preceded any potential "Fourth Industrial Revolution" but are going to be amplified by the latter. Second, we discuss the features of such possible new techno-economic paradigms. Third, we examine the relationships between technology, productivity and growth, and the ensuing impact on jobs, division of labour, distribution of knowledge, power, and control. Finally, we address some policy implications.
    Keywords: Social fabric, technology, macroeconomic development, division of labour, knowledge, inequality
    Date: 2019–01–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2019/02&r=all

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