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on Innovation |
| By: | Spyros Arvanitis (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Nora Sydow (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Martin Woerter (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the impacts of a palette of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) activities (general information, educational and research activities, activities related with technical infrastructure, and consulting) (a) on several innovation indicators (a1) in the framework of an innovation equation with variables of endogenized KTT activities (overall activities, specific forms of activities) as additional determinants of innovation, and (a2) based on a matched-pairs analysis for several forms of KTT activities; (b) on labour productivity in the framework of a production function with endogenized KTT activities as an additional production factor. The data used in the study were collected by means of a survey of Swiss enterprises that took place at the beginning of 2005. We found that KTT activities improve the innovation performance of firms both in terms of R&D intensity and sales of innovative products. The positive effect of overall KTT activities can be traced back mainly to research and educational activities. This could be shown by several methods: the innovation equation approach with endogenized KTT variable as well as three matching methods. Further, KTT activities seem to exercise a positive influence on labour productivity both through a direct effect as well as through an indirect effect by raising the elasticity of R&D intensity with respect to labour productivity. |
| Keywords: | knowledge and technology transfer, innovation activities, R&D activities |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:05-117&r=ino |
| By: | Stéphane Lhuillery (Chaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) |
| Abstract: | Thanks to the second French Community Innovation Survey, a measurement of the importance of public research organisations as a useful source of innovation for manufacturing firms is available. We thus provide an exploratory econometric model where the internal R&D organisation and location of business units at the city level are both considered as explaining factors for the absorptive capacity dedicated to academic knowledge. Size, R&D intensity and organisation are found to be significant determinants of academic sourcing. The influence of local public research organisations on innovation is however found rather small and not restricted to urban areas. |
| Keywords: | R&D, geographic spillovers, universities, absorption |
| JEL: | O32 L21 C81 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmi:wpaper:cemi-report-2005-001&r=ino |
| By: | Spyros Arvanitis (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Ursina Kubli (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Martin Woerter (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the factors determining the propensity of Swiss firms to interact with public science institutions in Switzerland (universities and other research institution), i.e. to get involved in knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities in order to gain new tacit and/or codified scientific knowledge in research fields which are relevant for their own innovation activities. We are especially interested in the different forms of this interaction, not only through joint research projects but also through training, recruitment of qualified R&D personnel, jointly supervised master theses and PhDs, consulting and so on. The data used in this study were collected in the course of a survey among Swiss enterprises. The new elements that this paper adds to empirical literature are, first, the analysis of a wide spectrum of KTT activities covering not only research co-operation agreements between firms and science institutions but also general informational and educational activities (transfer of “tacit” knowledge), joint use of technical infrastructure and consulting. Although such additional activities seem to be an important part of KTT activities, they have been neglected in most studies. Second, a further important element is the explicit consideration of a series of relevant motives and obstacles as determinants of KTT which contribute significantly to the econometric explanation of firms’ propensity to overall KTT activities as well as to several forms of KTT activities. Third, some insights are gained with respect to the differences between manufacturing and service firms in transacting with science institutions. This is the first Swiss firm-level study on this matter. |
| Keywords: | knowledge and technology transfer, innovation activities, R&D activities |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:05-116&r=ino |
| By: | Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque (Cedeplar-UFMG); Leandro Alves Silva (Cedeplar-UFMG); Márcia Siqueira Rapini (IEL-Fiemg); Sara Gonçalves Antunes de Souza (Unimontes) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents preliminary results from a survey of R&D-performer industrial firms located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The inspiration for this research comes from the Yale Survey (Klevorick et all, 1995) and from the Carnegie Mellon Survey (Cohen et all, 2002), for these Surveys are groundwork for the study of interactions between universities and firms. The objective of this Minas Gerais Survey (MG Survey, henceforth) is the investigation of specific characteristics of the interaction between universities and firms in an 'immature national system of innovation'. The first section summarizes the theoretical questions putted forward by this investigation, specially the role of universities in immature NSIs. The second section investigates the Brazilian NSI using data from the IBGE’s PINTEC, focusing the R&D performer firms in Brazil and the importance of universities and public research institutes as source of knowledge for industrial innovation. This second section presents data that highlight the position of Minas Gerais in the Brazilian NSI and helps to define the MG Survey research universe. The third section summarizes the issues involved in the adaptation of the Yale and the Carnegie Mellon questionnaires to the Brazilian reality and in the identification of the R&D-performer firms in Minas Gerais. The fourth section presents the MG Survey results. The fifth section concludes the paper. |
| Keywords: | systems of innovations, interactions between science and technologies |
| JEL: | H50 O00 O30 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td280&r=ino |
| By: | Parry, Ian (Resources For the Future); Pizer, William (Resources For the Future); Fischer, Carolyn (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether the welfare gains from technological innovation that reduces future abatement costs are larger or smaller than the “Pigouvian” welfare gains from optimal pollution control. The relative welfare gains from innovation depend on three key factors - the initially optimal level of abatement, the speed at which innovation reduces future abatement costs, and the discount rate. We calculate the welfare gains from innovation under a variety of different scenarios. Mostly they are less than the Pigouvian welfare gains. To be greater, innovation must reduce abatement costs substantially and quickly and the initially optimal abatement level must be fairly modest. |
| Keywords: | innovation, welfare, regulation, endogenous, technological, change, R&D |
| JEL: | Q16 Q28 O32 O33 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-57&r=ino |
| By: | Siebert, Ralph; von Graevenitz, Georg |
| Abstract: | This paper is a study of licensing in a patent thicket. In a patent thicket licensing allows firms to avoid hold-up. It will have different effects on firms' R&D incentives depending on whether firms license existing or future patents. Building on a model of a patent portfolio race, firms' choice between these types of licensing contracts is modelled. We find that firms' relationships in product markets and technology space jointly determine the type of licensing contract chosen. We derive several hypotheses and test these. Using data from the semiconductor industry a dynamic panel data model with unobserved heterogeneity and a lagged dependent variable is estimated. A new method suggested by Wooldridge (2005) is employed to estimate a random effects probit model using conditional ML. The hypotheses derived from the theory are confirmed. Based on our results we argue that licensing raises welfare in the patent thicket. |
| Keywords: | hold-up problem; innovation; licensing; patent race; patent thicket |
| JEL: | L13 L49 L63 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5436&r=ino |
| By: | Arijit Mukherjee (University of Nottingham and The Leverhulme Centre for Research in Globalisation and Economic Policy, UK); Enrico Pennings (Faculty of Economics, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, the Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | Taking technological differences between firms as given, we show that the technologically advanced firm has a stronger incentive for technology licensing under a decentralized unionization structure than with centralized wage setting. Furthermore, We show that, in presence of licensing, the incentive for innovation may also be stronger under decentralized unions. Unions have a clear preference for centralization only if productivity improvements are relatively small. |
| Keywords: | Licensing; downstream market; upstream market; innovation; welfare |
| JEL: | D43 L13 O34 |
| Date: | 2005–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20050109&r=ino |
| By: | Siebeling, T. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); Romijn, H.A. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | Innovation, South Africa |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0513&r=ino |
| By: | Spyros Arvanitis (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Ursina Kubli (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Nora Sydow (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Martin Woerter (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)) |
| Abstract: | This study is part of a large project aiming at the investigation of a) extent and b) economic relevance of knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) between science institutions (universities, universities of applied science and other public research institutions) and private corporations. Under knowledge and technology transfer we understand very broadly any activities targeted at transferring knowledge and technology that may help a company or a research institution – depending on the direction of the transfer – to further promote its activities. In this paper we report on the results of a large postal survey of Swiss enterprises based on a questionnaire on the exchange of knowledge and technology with Swiss universities and other research institutions. The survey was addressed to about 6000 firms from all sectors of the economy (with exception of hotels/catering, retail trade, transportation and personal services) and from different size classes. We received answers from 2582 firms, i.e. 45.4% of the firms in the underlying sample. In this paper we undertake a characterisation of KTT activities from a firm’s point of view: Which are the main characteristics of firms conducting KTT (e.g. size, industry, R&D activities, R&D budget, research areas etc.) Which forms does KTT take (e.g. joint research projects, joint teaching courses, allocation of thesis or doctoral projects in collaboration with firms etc.), what is the relative importance of such forms? Which are the most important transfer channels (publications, patents, licenses, spinoffs) and intermediating organisations (technology transfer offices, KTI, SNF etc.)? Which are the most relevant transfer partners among the universities and other research institutions? Which are the most important motives for KTT activities (e.g. financial motives, access to academic knowledge, institutional motives etc.) Which are the most important impediments of KTT activities (lack of information, lack of conditions necessary for know-how transfer, costs and risks etc.) |
| Keywords: | knowledge and technology transfer, innovation activities, R&D actvities |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:05-115&r=ino |
| By: | Parry, Ian (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | This paper draws on a number of recent studies to shed light on several policy issues raised by the impact of environmental policies on technological innovation. First, to what extent does induced innovation raise the overall net benefits to society from environmental policies? Second, how does induced innovation affect the appropriate choice among alternative environmental policy instruments? Third, how does it affect the optimal stringency of environmental regulations? Fourth, should environmental policies be supplemented with additional policies to promote innovation, such as research contracts or prizes for new technologies? |
| Keywords: | environment, technological innovation, pollution control, instrument choice |
| JEL: | Q28 O38 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-01-44&r=ino |
| By: | Spyros Arvanitis (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Ursina Kubli (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Nora Sydow (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Martin Woerter (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)) |
| Abstract: | This descriptive paper is part of a large project aiming at exploring the factors determining the propensity of Swiss science institutions to interact with private enterprises in Switzerland (universities and other research institution), i.e. to get involved in knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities. On the other hand, a second part of this project investigates the factors determining the propensity of Swiss private enterprises for KTT activities. We are especially interested in the different forms of this interaction, not only through joint research projects but also through training, mobility of academic personnel, jointly supervised master theses and PhDs, consulting and so on. Further, our study investigates the channels of KTT such as e.g. scientific publications, patents, spin-offs as well as the mediating institutions (e.g. Technology Transfer Offices, Commission for Technology and Innovation (KTI), Swiss Research Foundation (SNF)). We also discuss the relative importance of a series of motives for and impediments of KTT activities. Finally, we take also a look at the impact of KTT activities on the research orientation, on teaching and least but not last, the financial position of institutes co-orating with private enterprises. |
| Keywords: | knowledge and technology transfer |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:05-119&r=ino |
| By: | Austin, David; Macauley, Molly (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | We develop a quality-adjusted cost index to estimate expected returns to investments in new technologies. The index addresses the problem of measuring social benefits from innovations in service sector inputs, where real output is not directly observable. We forecast welfare gains from two U.S. Advanced Technology Program innovations equaling 25%-50% of expected price, and aggregate consumer benefits of $1-$2 billion, relative to trends in existing technologies. Our model’s probabilistic parameters reflect uncertainty about prospective outcomes and in our hedonic estimates of shadow values for selected product attributes. The index can be readily adopted by research and development (R&D) managers in industry and government. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-00-13&r=ino |
| By: | Ulrich Witt (Max-Planck-Institute Jena, Evolutionary Economics group); Christian Zellner (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Chaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation) |
| Abstract: | New knowledge with commercial potential is continually created in academic institutions. How is it turned into economically valuable businesses? This paper argues that the transfer is an entrepreneurial process. To understand this, the actions and the constraints characteristic for the entrepreneurial reshaping of the division of labor must be recognized. In the case of knowledge-based entrepreneurship, specific constraints result from the peculiarities of scientific knowledge – epitomized by constrasting tacit and encoded knowledge. Scientifically trained labor is required for transferring both forms of knowledge. However, the mode of transfer differs crucially and shapes the organizational form of commercializing new scientific knowledge. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, technology commercialization |
| JEL: | L23 M13 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmi:wpaper:cemi-report-2005-002&r=ino |
| By: | Parry, Ian (Resources For the Future); Pizer, William (Resources For the Future); Fischer, Carolyn (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Economists have speculated that the welfare gains from technological innovation that reduces the future costs of environmental protection could be a lot more important than the "Pigouvian" welfare gains over time from correcting a pollution externality. If so, then a primary concern in the design of environmental policies should be the impact on induced innovation, and a potentially strong case could be made for additional instruments such as research subsidies. This paper examines the magnitude of the welfare gains from innovation relative to the discounted Pigouvian welfare gains, using a dynamic social planning model in which research and development (R&D) augments a knowledge stock that reduces future pollution abatement costs. We find that the discounted welfare gains from innovation are typically smaller....and perhaps much smaller....than the discounted Pigouvian welfare gains. This is because the long-run gain to innovation is bounded by the maximum reduction in abatement costs and, since R&D is costly, it takes time to accumulate enough knowledge to substantially reduce abatement costs. Only in cases when innovation substantially reduces abatement costs quickly (by roughly 50% within 10 years) and the Pigouvian amount of abatement is initially modest, can the welfare gains from innovation exceed the welfare gains from pollution control. These results apply for both flow and stock pollutants, and for linear and convex environmental damage functions. Our results suggest that spurring technological innovation should not be emphasized at the expense of achieving the optimal amount of pollution control. More generally, our results appear to have implications for a broad range of policy issues. They suggest that the welfare gains from innovation that reduces the costs of supplying any public good (defense, crime prevention, infrastructure, etc.) may be fairly small relative to those from providing the optimal amount of the public good over time. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-00-15&r=ino |
| By: | Stavins, Robert; Jaffe, Adam; Newell, Richard (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Market failures associated with environmental pollution interact with market failures associated with the innovation and diffusion of new technologies. These combined market failures provide a strong rationale for a portfolio of public policies that foster emissions reduction as well as the development and adoption of environmentally beneficial technology. Both theory and empirical evidence suggest that the rate and direction of technological advance is influenced by market and regulatory incentives, and can be cost-effectively harnessed through the use of economicincentive based policy. In the presence of weak or nonexistent environmental policies, investments in the development and diffusion of new environmentally beneficial technologies are very likely to be less than would be socially desirable. Positive knowledge and adoption spillovers and information problems can further weaken innovation incentives. While environmental technology policy is fraught with difficulties, a long-term view suggests a strategy of experimenting with policy approaches and systematically evaluating their success. |
| Keywords: | technology, research and development, environment, externality, policy |
| JEL: | O38 Q28 H23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-04-38&r=ino |
| By: | Fischer, Carolyn (Resources For the Future); Newell, Richard (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | We assess different policy options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the development and diffusion of renewable energy technologies- (1) a carbon emissions price, (2) a generation subsidy for renewable energy, (3) a tax on fossil fuel generated energy, (4) a portfolio (market share) requirement for renewable energy sources, (5) a tradable performance standard for the emissions intensity of all generation, and (6) a subsidy for R&D investment in renewable energy technology. We evaluate the relative performance of the different policies according to different potential goals- emissions reduction, renewable energy production, R&D, and welfare. We also assess how the nature of technological progress—whether it occurs by learning by doing or firm-specific innovation—affects the desirability of different policy measures. |
| Keywords: | technology, policy instruments, climate change, renewable energy |
| JEL: | Q21 Q28 Q48 O38 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-04-05&r=ino |
| By: | Fischer, Carolyn (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | In a second-best world of below-optimal pollution pricing, the public return to R&D may be greater than under Pigouvian pricing, due to excess benefits of increasing abatement, or it may be lower, since private actors lack the incentives to take full advantage of the new, cleaner technologies. This paper uses a simple model to demonstrate the interaction between environmental policies, R&D externalities, and the social return to innovation. The results indicate that strong public support for innovation is only justified if at least a moderate emissions policy is in place and spillover effects are significant. Furthermore, in most cases, policy constraints that limit regulatory burdens tend to further limit the scope for public support, even when cost reductions allow for more stringent abatement targets. An exception is when knowledge of the policy adjustment process further reduces private innovation incentives. |
| Keywords: | emissions price, technological innovation, spillovers, R&D policy |
| JEL: | Q28 O38 H23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-04-02&r=ino |
| By: | Josh Lerner; Julie Wulf |
| Abstract: | Beginning in the late 1980s, American corporations began increasingly linking the compensation of central research personnel to the economic objectives of the corporation. This paper examines the impact of the shifting compensation of the heads of corporate research and development. Among firms with centralized R&D organizations, a clear relationship emerges: more long-term incentives (e.g. stock options and restricted stock) are associated with more heavily cited patents. These incentives also appear to be somewhat associated with more patent filings and patents of greater generality. We address endogeniety concerns in a variety of ways, including examining the impact of compensation for other key managers and utilizing an instrument based on spawning activity in the region. While we cannot determine whether the effect is due to better project selection or better people selection, the results continue to be consistent with our interpretation that performance pay of corporate R&D heads is associated with more innovative firms. |
| JEL: | O3 J3 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11944&r=ino |
| By: | Parry, Ian (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Previous studies suggest that emissions taxes are more efficient at stimulating the development of improved pollution abatement technologies than other policy instruments, such as (non-auctioned) tradable emissions permits. We present results from a competitive model that cast some doubt on the empirical importance of this assertion. For example, we find that efficiency in the market for "environmental R&D" under tradable permits is typically less than 6 percent lower than that under an emissions tax for innovations that reduce pollution abatement costs by 10 percent or less. However the discrepancy is more significant in the case of more major innovations. We also find that the presence of R&D spillovers per se does not necessarily imply large inefficiency in the R&D market. For example, efficiency in the R&D market under a Pigouvian emissions tax is generally more than 90 percent of that in the first best outcome if the private benefit from innovation exceeds 50 percent of the social benefit. Thus the R&D spillover effect must substantially limit the private benefit from R&D in our analysis for there be a potentially "large" efficiency gain from additional policies such as research subsidies to stimulate innovation. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-98-04&r=ino |
| By: | Stavins, Robert; Jaffe, Adam; Newell, Richard (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Environmental policy discussions increasingly focus on issues related to technological change. This is partly because the environmental consequences of social activity are frequently affected by the rate and direction of technological change, and partly because environmental policy interventions can themselves create constraints and incentives that have significant effects on the path of technological progress. This paper, prepared as a chapter draft for the forthcoming Handbook of Environmental Economics (North-Holland/Elsevier Science), summarizes for environmental economists current thinking on technological change in the broader economics literature, surveys the growing economic literature on the interaction between technology and the environment, and explores the normative implications of these analyses. We begin with a brief overview of the economics of technological change, and then examine three important areas where technology and the environment intersect- the theory and empirical evidence of induced innovation and the related literature on the effects of environmental policy on the creation of new, environmentally friendly technology; the theory and empirics of environmental issues related to technology diffusion; and analyses of the comparative technological impacts of alternative environmental policy instruments. We conclude with suggestions for further research on technological change and the environment. |
| Keywords: | technological change, induced innovation, environment, policy |
| JEL: | O30 Q00 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-00-47&r=ino |
| By: | Marc Isabelle (IMRI (Institut pour le Management de la Recherche et de l’Innovation), Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | Two major and complementary transformations have occurred in the world of public research organisations in the past two decades. Instruments of intellectual property (first and foremost the patent) have disseminated in many domains of research while collaborations with industrial firms have grown substantially. Strategies have been designed in PROs to accompany and stimulate the researchers in their new mission: the transfer of knowledge and technologies to firms. This paper investigates on an empirical basis the fact that researchers’ inventiveness could to a certain extent be independent from private economic incentives. It concludes by opening some analytical perspectives about the pros and cons of PROs’ knowledge and technology transfer strategies and by suggesting that the dominant model could well look inappropriate in some respects. |
| Keywords: | public research organisations, invention, patent, knowledge and technology transfer, science and technology policy |
| JEL: | D83 H4 L3 O3 |
| Date: | 2004–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imr:wpaper:wp05_07&r=ino |
| By: | Dijk van, M. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); Szirmai, A. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | technology diffusion, Indonesia |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0515&r=ino |
| By: | Licandro, Omar; Maroto Illera, María Reyes; Puch, Luis |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of replacement and innovation in shaping investment and productivity during episodes of lumpy adjustment in capital. To this purpose we use a rich firm-level panel of Spanish manufacturing data that combines information on equipment investment and firm's strategies. Investment concentrates on episodes of high investment, or investment spikes, but its nature depends upon observable heterogeneity. We find evidence of replacement activity for firms involved in neither process innovation nor plant expansion. Then, we explore how large investment episodes transmit into the evolution of productivity under different innovative strategies. We find that productivity increases after an investment spike in innovative firms. However, long learning curves seem to be associated with innovative investments. |
| Keywords: | investment spikes; labour productivity; learning effects; machine replacement; technological innovation |
| JEL: | C33 E22 L60 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5422&r=ino |
| By: | Kozo Kiyota |
| Abstract: | Surprisingly, nearly 70 percent of Japanese manufacturing firms do not invest in Research and Development (R&D). Using firm-level longitudinal data in Japan, this paper asks why many firms can achieve high productivity growth without any R&D investments. We found the positive effects of intranational and international R&D spillovers on productivity growth both at the firm level (between a parent firm and its affiliate) and the industry level (among firms in the same industry). The effects of international R&D spillovers are much stronger than those of intranational spillovers. Even firms in developed countries like Japan have benefit from international R&D spillovers. |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:06001&r=ino |
| By: | Austin, David; Macauley, Molly (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | This paper describes a model for estimating, in a probabilistic framework, expected future consumer surplus from planned new product innovations. The model has been applied to estimations of taxpayer benefits from NASA's New Millenium Program (NMP), which develops new technologies for space science, and to the digital data storage technologies being supported by the Department of Commerce's Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The model uses cost index methods based on consumers' estimated marginal valuation for quality improvements in the technology. Probabilistic values for performance increases are taken from the innovators' own expectations. The analysis reveals the sensitivity of welfare increases to these values, which are assumed to be biased upward. The cost index, when combined with an expected rate of adoption, estimates consumer benefits from the innovation, gross of its research and development costs. Benefits are estimated net of a dynamic baseline defined by the best available substitute technology, which is also assumed to improve over time. Findings are therefore expressed in terms of the economic value of the innovation to consumers, compared to advances that might occur in the absence of the NMP or ATP investments. Illustrative resultsestimated cost indices and 95% confidence boundsare presented for technologies that are expected to improve consumer welfare and for those that, on a quality-adjusted cost basis, are likely to be outperformed by the selected baseline technology. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-98-45&r=ino |
| By: | Marc Isabelle (IMRI (Institut pour le Management de la Recherche et de l’Innovation), Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | The upstream oil and gas industry has experienced two different technological regimes since it became international in the 1920s. Whereas its incentives to innovate remained weak during the first fifty years, new technical challenges from the 1970s onward forced the industry into a real technological revolution, further amplified by fierce competitive pressure on hydrocarbon prices since the oil price collapse in 1986. The paper shows that performing this technological acceleration has entailed deep structural changes in the relationships between international oil and gas companies in terms of an increasing propensity to cooperate, more balanced partnerships and a more selective choice of partners. |
| Keywords: | oil & gas industry, industrial organisation, technological innovation, cooperation |
| JEL: | L71 D2 L2 O3 |
| Date: | 2001–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imr:wpaper:wp01_02&r=ino |
| By: | M. A. Maggioni; T. E. Uberti |
| Abstract: | In this paper we address the manifold nature of knowledge through the analysis of four distinct but complementary phenomena (Internet hyperlinks, European research networks, EPO co-patent applications, Erasmus students mobility) that characterize knowledge as an intrinsic relational structure (directly) connecting people, institutions and (indirectly) regions across five European countries. We study the structure (in terms of density, clustering and centralisation) of these networks through network analysis techniques and test the influence of geographical distance as opposed to sectoral (based on the industrial distribution of the innovative activity) and functional (based on the value of the RSII European technological leadership index) distances in shaping the strength of knowledge relations though a gravitational model. The empirical analysis shows the existence of a polarized centre-periphery hierarchy of European regions that is reflected in the structure of knowledge flows. By using a "gravitational" model we demonstrate that, far from the claim of the "death of distance", geographic distance is still relevant for determining the structure of inter-regional knowledge flows. Functional and sectoral distances play also a crucial role suggesting that knowledge flows easily between similar (according to their scientific, technological and sectoral characteristics) regions. If the EU intends to build a "truly European" Research Area in which the networking of "centres of excellence" acts as "catalysts for backward areas" this target may still be far away. |
| JEL: | R12 F14 D85 O31 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2005-19&r=ino |
| By: | Stavins, Robert; Jaffe, Adam; Newell, Richard (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | We develop a methodology for testing Hick’s induced innovation hypothesis by estimating a product-characteristics model of energy-using consumer durables, augmenting the hypothesis to allow for the influence of government regulations. For the products we explored, the evidence suggests- (i) the rate of overall innovation was independent of energy prices and regulations, (ii) the direction of innovation was responsive to energy price changes for some products but not for others, (iii) energy price changes induced changes in the subset of technically feasible models that were offered for sale, (iv) this responsiveness increased substantially during the period after energy-efficiency product labeling was required, and (v) nonetheless, a sizeable portion of efficiency improvements were autonomous. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-98-12-rev&r=ino |
| By: | Burtraw, Dallas (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | The 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) instituted a national program in tradable sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission permits, referred to as "emission allowances," in the U.S. electricity sector. This paper provides a survey and assessment of the SO2 allowance trading program with a focus on the role of innovation. Over the last decade the cost of compliance has fallen dramatically compared with most expectations, and today the total cost of the program is 40– 140% lower than projections (depending on the timing of those projections and the counter-factual baseline considered). Marginal costs of reductions are less than one-half the cost considered in most analyses at the time the program was introduced. Innovation accounts for a large portion of these cost savings, but not as typically formulated in economic models of research and development (R&D) efforts to obtain patent discoveries. Innovation under the SO2 allowance trading program involves organizational innovation at the firm, market and regulatory level and process innovation by electricity generators and upstream fuel suppliers. An important portion of the cost reductions that are evident was already in the works prior to and independent of the program. Nonetheless, the allowance trading program deserves significant credit for providing the incentive and flexibility to accelerate and to fully realize exogenous technical changes that were occurring in the industry. This marks a significant departure from conventional approaches to environmental regulation, which would not be expected to capture these savings. The ongoing transition to restructuring of electricity markets and expanding competition in electricity generation complements the design of the SO2 allowance trading program by providing firms with full incentives to reduce costs of pollution control. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-00-38&r=ino |
| By: | Heinz Hollenstein (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Martin Woerter (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims at explaining empirically the diffusion of E-commerce based on two largescale sample surveys conducted in the Swiss economy. The paper adds to previous work in two ways: firstly, we estimate separate models for E-selling and E-purchasing, and, secondly, we distinguish between inter-firm diffusion (i.e. technology adoption) and intra-firm diffusion (i.e. intensity of technology use). It turns out that the pattern of explanation strongly differs between the two types of E-commerce as well as the two types of diffusion. Therefore, further studies dealing with the diffusion of E-commerce should differentiate along these two dimensions. Besides, it is shown that institutional, technological and economic uncertainty as well as adjustment costs, which are neglected in most studies of diffusion, are important explanatory variables. Moreover, it turned out that “rank effects” are clearly more important drivers of adoption and intra-firm diffusion of the two types of E-commerce than “epidemic effects”, which are of some importance only in case of adoption. |
| Keywords: | Technology diffusion; Inter- vs. intra-firm diffusion; E-commerce; E-selling vs. E-purchasing; Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); Rank and epidemic effects of diffusion |
| JEL: | L2 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2004–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:04-89&r=ino |
| By: | Parry, Ian (Resources For the Future); Pizer, William (Resources For the Future); Fischer, Carolyn (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an analytical and numerical comparison of the welfare impacts of alternative instruments for environmental protection in the presence of endogenous technological innovation. We analyze emissions taxes and both auctioned and free (grandfathered) emissions permits. We find that under different sets of circumstances each of the three policies may induce a significantly higher welfare gain than the other two policies. In particular, the relative ranking of policy instruments can crucially depend on the ability of adopting firms to imitate the innovation, the costs of innovation, the slope and level of the marginal environmental benefit function, and the number of firms producing emissions. Moreover, although in theory the welfare impacts of policies differ in the presence of innovation, sometimes these differences are relatively small. In fact, when firms anticipate that policies will be adjusted over time in response to innovation, certain policies can become equivalent. Our analysis is simplified in a number of respects; for example, we assume homogeneous and competitive firms. Nonetheless, our preliminary results suggest there is no clear-cut case for preferring any one policy instrument on the grounds of dynamic efficiency. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-99-04&r=ino |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu; David Cutler; Amy Finkelstein; Joshua Linn |
| Abstract: | The introduction of Medicare in 1965 was the single largest change in health insurance coverage in U.S. history. Many economists and commentators have conjectured that the introduction of Medicare may have also been an important impetus for the development of new drugs that are now commonly used by the elderly and have substantially extended their life expectancy. In this paper, we investigate whether Medicare induced pharmaceutical innovations directed towards the elderly. Medicare could have played such a role only if two conditions were met. First, Medicare would have to increase drug spending by the elderly. Second, the pharmaceutical companies would have to respond to the change in market size for drugs caused by Medicare by changing the direction of their research. Our empirical work finds no evidence of a "first-stage" effect of Medicare on prescription drug expenditure by the elderly. Correspondingly, we also find no evidence of a shift in pharmaceutical innovation towards therapeutic categories most used by the elderly. On the whole, therefore, our evidence does not provide support for the hypothesis that Medicare had a major effect on the direction of pharmaceutical innovation. |
| JEL: | H51 I18 O33 O38 L65 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11949&r=ino |
| By: | B.M. Sadowski. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); G.M. Duysters (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); G.Sadowski-Rasters (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | alliances, technology |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0512&r=ino |
| By: | Jean-Bernard LAYAN (e3i, IFReDE-GRES & GERPISA) |
| Abstract: | Since 30 years new automotive countries develop in immediate periphery of the large regional blocks as Spain, Mexico, Czech Republic or Turkey. The products assembled in these new spaces are usually very innovative and originate in pioneering process from the organisational point of view. The existence of such organisational innovations in periphery tallies badly with the traditional theories of the international specialization. It is on the other hand more comprehensible if we take the insurancial aspects of manufacturers’ territorial strategies into consideration. Those find in periphery the favourable terms to the radical organisational changes which, by attacking the professional statutes and by scrambling the institutional reference frame of the employees, would clash with the resistance of central factories workforce. |
| Keywords: | automotive industry, emerging countries, innovation, uncertainty, organisational change, strategy |
| JEL: | L1 L62 F23 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grs:wpegrs:2006-01&r=ino |
| By: | Roberto Mazzoleni; Richard R. Nelson |
| Abstract: | We draw upon historical evidence from several countries and contemporary studies of national innovation systems to argue that indigenous systems of academic training and public research have been in the past important elements of the institutional structures supporting a country’s economic catch up. Recent changes in the international economic environment, and the growing scientific basis for contemporary technologies, will make those systems even more important in the future. The contributions of universities and public labs to the development of indigenous technological capabilities have taken different forms in different countries and economic sectors. However, we note that, in contrast with current emphasis on university-based embryonic inventions and fundamental research, effective research programs have predominantly occurred in the application-oriented sciences and engineering, and have been oriented towards problem-solving, and the advancement of technologies of interest to a well-defined user-community. |
| Keywords: | Catch-up, Public Research, Indigenous Technological Capabilites |
| Date: | 2006–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2006/01&r=ino |
| By: | Stavins, Robert; Snyder, Lori; Miller, Nolan |
| Abstract: | We use a hazard model to estimate the effect of environmental regulation on the diffusion of membrane cell production technology in the chlorine manufacturing industry. We estimate the effect of regulation on both the adoption of the membrane technology at existing plants and on the exit of existing plants using older technologies. We find that environmental regulation did affect the diffusion of the cleaner technology in the chlorine industry. However, it did so not by encouraging the adoption of membrane cells by existing facilities, but by reducing the demand for chlorine and hence encouraging the shutdown of facilities using the environmentally inferior options. |
| Keywords: | regulation, technological change, environment, hazard model |
| JEL: | Q20 Q28 L50 L65 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-03-25&r=ino |
| By: | Marc, GERMAIN (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Department of Economics); Vincent, VAN STEENBERGHE |
| Abstract: | The literature on the impact of economic instruments (typically taxes and tradable permits) on the level of innovation is usually based on the assumption that innovation reduces the slope of the marginal abatement cost curve. This assumption, which usually leads to the conclusion that taxes induce higher levels of innovation than tradable permits, is however never motivated. In this short article, we analyse the assumption by introducing innovation in the production function as a polluting firm and by showing how it affects the corresponding marginal abatement cost curve. We show that the slope of the marginal abatement cost curvedoes not necessarily decrease with the level of innovation. As a consequence, previous analyses lead to misleading policy recommendations |
| Date: | 2005–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvec:2005052&r=ino |
| By: | Castaldi, C. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); Fontana, R. (Bocconi University, Milan); Nuvolari, A. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | simulation, models |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0602&r=ino |
| By: | Olivier Bruno (GREDEG); Cuong Le Van (CERMSEM); Benoît Masquin (GREDEG) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of optimal pattern of economic development that is first rooted in physical capital accumulation and then in technical progress. We study an economy where capital accumulation and innovative activity take place within a two sector model. The first sector produces a consumption good using physical capital and non skilled labor. Technological progress in the consumption sector is driven by the research activity that takes place in the second sector. Research activity which produces new technologies requires technological capital and skilled labor. New technologies induce and endogenous increase of the Total Factor Productivity of the consumption sector. Physical and technological capital are not substitutable while skilled and non skilled labor may be substitutable. We show that under conditions on the adoption process of new technologies, the optimal strategy for a developing country consist in accumulating physical capital first ; postponing the importation of technological capital to the second stage of development. This result is due to a threshold effect from which new technologies begin to have an impact on the productivity of the consumption sector. However, we show that once a certain level of wealth is reached, it becomes optimal for the economy to import technological capital to produce new technologies. |
| Keywords: | New technology, economic development, developing country, optimal growth. |
| JEL: | C61 O14 O41 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:b05093&r=ino |
| By: | Diego Comin; Bart Hobijn; Emilie Rovito |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a new data set on the diffusion of about 115 technologies in over 150 countries over the last 200 years. We use this comprehensive data set to uncover general patterns of technology diffusion. Our main 5 findings are as follows: (i) Once the intensive margin is measured, technologies do not diffuse in a logistic way. (ii) Within a typical technology, the dispersion in the adoption levels across countries is about 5 times larger than the cross-country dispersion in income per capita. (iii) The rankings of countries by level of technology adoption are very highly correlated across technologies. (iv) Within a typical technology, there has been convergence at an average rate of 4 percent per year. (v) The speed of convergence for technologies developed since 1925 has been three times higher than the speed of convergence for technologies developed before 1925. |
| JEL: | O33 O47 O57 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11928&r=ino |
| By: | Qiu_Hong Wang (Department of Information Systems, National University of Singapore); Kai-Lung Hui (Department of Information Systems, National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | This study relaxes the conventional assumption in the literature of new product introduction that all consumers possess nothing at the beginning of the game. We generalize consumers’ utility function to a market in the presence of an installed base and characterize its specific properties pertaining to various market contexts with different consumer heterogeneity and technology improvement. In such a general setting, we investigate various feasible combinations of timing, pricing and product line strategies that the seller can employ in a two-period game for selling the new product to consumers with different purchase history and heterogeneous preference on product quality. Our subgame-perfect- equilibrium results suggest that other than the upgrade policy, the seller can maximize her profits via intertemporal price discrimination, or delayed introduction, or pooling pricing, depending on the characteristics of market structure and technology improvement. Without the concern about cost, social welfare directly depends on whether the seller can sustain her monopoly power facing the mutual cannibalization between the old and new products and the mutual arbitrage between the heterogeneous consumers. |
| Keywords: | New product introduction, intertemporal price discrimination, delayed product introduction, installed base, upgrade policy |
| JEL: | L |
| Date: | 2005–12–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0512013&r=ino |
| By: | Kerr, Suzi; Newell, Richard (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | The theory of environmental regulation suggests that economic instruments, such as taxes and tradable permits, create more effective technology adoption incentives than conventional regulatory standards. We explore this issue for an important industry undergoing technological responses to a dramatic decrease in allowed pollution levels—the petroleum industry’s phasedown of lead in gasoline. Using a panel of refineries from 1971 to 1995, we provide some of the first direct evidence that alternative policies affect the pattern of adoption in expected ways. Importantly, we find that the tradable permit system used during the lead phasedown provided incentives for more efficient technology adoption decisions. Where environmentally appropriate, this suggests that flexible market-based regulation can achieve environmental goals while providing better incentives for technology diffusion. |
| Keywords: | technology, adoption, diffusion, environment, regulation, lead, gasoline, tradable permit, incentive-based policy |
| JEL: | C41 L71 O31 O33 Q28 Q48 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-01-14&r=ino |
| By: | Tomas Philipson; Stephane Mechoulan; Anupam Jena |
| Abstract: | There is a long-standing literature that recognizes that an efficient solution in correcting a consumption externality is applying subsidies or taxes that align private with social incentives. An equally long-standing literature tackles the appropriate methods of generating the efficient amount of R&D into goods without external effects in consumption, e.g., the analysis of the welfare effects of patent regulations. This paper addresses the joint determination of intellectual property (IP) and externality remedies. We discuss the impact that IP has on remedies for externalities as well as the reverse problem of the impact externalities have on the design of IP. The results are discussed in the context of health care markets in general, and pharmaceutical markets in particular, the latter being one of the most R&D-intensive industries, and at the same time often being faced with altruistic access issues. A central but non-recognized tradeoff in health care concerns the correct R&D incentives when altruistic motives dictate that lives will be saved whenever feasible technologies exist. Understanding this tradeoff is central to understanding the efficiency of the observed growth ifn health care spending often attributed to technological change. We calibrate the model for the US health care sector and find that altruistic gains amount to 27 percent of consumer gains and that this implies R&D is under-provided by 61 percent in face of such altruistic motives. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11930&r=ino |
| By: | Austin, David; Macauley, Molly (Resources For the Future); Darmstadter, Joel (Resources For the Future); Shih, Jhih-Shyang (Resources For the Future); Aronow, Emily; Bath, Tom |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop a cost index–based measure of the expected consumer welfare gains from innovation in electricity generation technologies. To illustrate our approach, we estimate how much better off consumers would be from 2000 to 2020 as renewable energy technologies continue to be improved and gradually adopted, compared with a counterfactual scenario that allows for continual improvement of conventional technology. We proceed from the position that the role and prospects of renewable energy are best assessed within a market setting that considers competing energy technologies and sources. We evaluate five renewable energy technologies used to generate electricity- solar photovoltaics, solar thermal, geothermal, wind, and biomass. For each, we assume an accelerated adoption rate due to technological advances, and we evaluate the benefits against a baseline technology, combined-cycle gas turbine, which experts cite as the conventional technology most likely to be installed as incremental capacity over the next decade. We evaluate benefits against both the conventional combined-cycle gas turbine prevalent at this time and a more advanced combined-cycle gas turbine expected to be employed during the coming decade. We estimate the model for two geographic regions of the nation for which renewable energy is, or can be expected to be, a somewhat sizable portion of the electricity market—California and the north central United States. In present-value terms we find that median consumer welfare gains over 20 years vary markedly among the renewable technologies, ranging from large negative values (welfare losses) to large positive values (welfare gains). The effect of uncertainty can lead to estimates that are 20% to 40% larger or smaller than median predicted values. Our results suggest that portfolios that give equal weight to the use of each generation technology are likely to lead to consumer losses in our regions, regardless of the role of the externalities that we consider. However, when the portfolio is more heavily weighted toward certain renewables, consumer gains can be positive. |
| Keywords: | energy economics, technical change |
| JEL: | Q4 O3 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-05-&r=ino |
| By: | Paul Temple (University of Surrey); Robert Witt (University of Surrey); Chris Spencer (University of Surrey) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we consider the relationship between the standards created by national standards bodies and long run economic growth, exploring the relationship in the context of the UK and the British Standards Institution (BSI). We suggest that standards provide a key enabling mechanism for the widespread diffusion of major technologies, while being generally supportive of incremental innovation and general technological understanding. In order to further understanding of this mechanism we measure the ‘output’ of the BSI by estimating the size of the BSI ‘catalogue’ available to the economy since its inception in 1901. The measure allows us to estimate an augmented production function for the UK economy over the period 1948-2002. Within a co-integrating framework, we find a statistically significant and unique co-integrating vector between labour productivity, the capital-labour ratio, exogenous technological progress and the BSI catalogue. The long-run elasticity of labour productivity with respect to the standards stock is estimated to be about 0.05, so that the rapid growth of the catalogue in the postwar period is associated with about 13% of the aggregate growth in labour productivity. |
| Keywords: | standards, technological change, productivity. |
| JEL: | O11 O33 O47 L52 C22 |
| Date: | 2004–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sur:surrec:1004&r=ino |
| By: | Ugo FRATESI |
| Abstract: | The System Dynamics methodology is used in this article as unifying approach in order to show how a number of theories about the performance of territories developed in the past 20 years can integrate the one with the other; to demonstrate this, a model of local economy coherent with these schools is constructed and simulated. According to these theories, the ability to produce and use knowledge is at the centre of regional competitiveness in the advanced world; the model and the paper illustrate the elements of the local economic system and how they have to work coherently towards the continuous process of innovation, needed to be successful. The model also shows in a new framework how, due to the cumulative nature of this innovation process, it is possible to obtain equilibria with regional income di®erentiation, even in the presence of identical territories. When this is the case, structural policies, aiming to allow lagging regions to better innovate and/or imitate external knowledge, are appropriate. |
| Keywords: | competitiveness, income disparities, innovation, learning, regional production systems, system dynamics |
| JEL: | B52 O3 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2004–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:204&r=ino |
| By: | Inkmann,Joachim (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The inverse probability weighted Generalised Empirical Likelihood (IPW-GEL) estimator is proposed for the estimation of the parameters of a vector of possibly non-linear unconditional moment functions in the presence of conditionally independent sample selection or attrition. The estimator is applied to the estimation of the firm size elasticity of product and process R&D expenditures using a panel of German manufacturing firms, which is affected by attrition and selection into R&D activities. IPW-GEL and IPW-GMM estimators are compared in this application as well as identification assumptions based on independent and conditionally independent sample selection. The results are similar in all specifications. |
| Keywords: | generalised emperical likelihood;inverse probability weighting;propensity score;conditional independence;missing at random;selection;attrition; research and development |
| JEL: | C13 C33 O31 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2005131&r=ino |
| By: | Bohi, Douglas |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes sources of productivity change in petroleum exploration and development in the United States over the last ten years. There have been several major developments in the industry over the last decade that have led to dramatic reductions in the cost of finding and developing oil and natural gas resources. While some of the cost savings are organizational and institutional in nature, the most important changes are in the application of new technologies used to find and produce oil and gas- 3D seismology, horizontal drilling, and deepwater drilling. Not all the innovation is endogenous to the industry; some rests on outside advances (such as advances in high-speed computing that enabled 3D seismology), as well as learning-by-doing. The increased productivity of mature petroleum provinces like the U.S. helps to maintain competition in the world oil market as well as enhance domestic industry returns. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-98-38&r=ino |
| By: | Giuliana Battisti (OIM group, Aston Business School, Aston University); Heinz Hollenstein (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Paul Stoneman (Warwick Business School, Coventry UK); Martin Woerter (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)) |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to at least partially redress a paucity of current literature on the joint analysis of inter and intra firm diffusion of innovations within as well as across countries. In particular, by using two datasets derived from independent countryspecific surveys, it undertakes an international comparison of inter and intra firm diffusion of ICT use in the UK and Switzerland. This allows one to address many of the problems that have prevented general conclusions on the drivers of inter and intra firm ICT adoption decisions. An encompassing model is proposed which gives quite satisfactory results for both countries. It is found that inter and intra firm ICT adoption decisions are driven by different factors, confirming the findings of Battisti and Stoneman (2003, 2005) and Hollenstein and Woerter (2004) that ”first use’’ and ”intensification of use” represent independent choices. The study also suggests that significant differences exist between the UK and Switzerland, probably as a result of their differing diffusion stages. Besides, the importance of new organisational and managerial practices as drivers of diffusion stressed by recent theoretical and empirical work is supported for both countries. Overall the findings suggest that comparative research is a promising way to identify robust relationships and should be explored further. |
| Keywords: | Technological diffusion, ICT and e-business activities, international comparison |
| JEL: | O3 |
| Date: | 2005–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:05-111&r=ino |
| By: | Macauley, Molly (Resources For the Future); Davis, James |
| Abstract: | We develop a conceptual model of the economic value of space solar power (SSP) as a source of power to in-space activities, such as spacecraft and space stations. We offer several estimates of the value based on interviews and published data, discuss technological innovations that may compete with or be complementary to SSP, and consider alternative institutional arrangements for government and the private sector to provide SSP. |
| Keywords: | innovation, government policy |
| JEL: | O33 O32 L98 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-01-46&r=ino |
| By: | Newell, Richard (Resources For the Future); Wilson, Nathan |
| Abstract: | We analyze whether technology inducement prizes could be a useful complement to standard research grants and contracts in developing climate change mitigation technologies. We find that there are important conceptual advantages to using inducement prizes in certain circumstances. These conceptual inferences are borne out by an examination of the track record of prizes inducing research into public goods, including relevant energy technologies. However, we also find that the prizes’ successes are contingent on their proper design. We analyze how several important design elements could influence the effectiveness of a climate technology prize. |
| Keywords: | inducement prize, research and development, climate change, technology, policy |
| JEL: | Q28 D81 C68 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-05-33&r=ino |
| By: | Austin, David |
| Abstract: | I perform an event study on 600+ patents awarded primarily to 20 leading biotechnology firms and find significant changes in market values at the time of the awards. Adjusting for partial anticipation of events, I estimate that core technology patents in highly contested research areas are expected to generate between $13 and $21 million of economic value. They also generate spillover benefits for the patentee’s rivals—presumably including knowledge transfers—valued at $3 to $6 million per firm. Awardees may appropriate only half of private benefits, although I observe negative spillovers for some high-profile awards. Most patents have no significant market impact. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-00-53&r=ino |
| By: | Taylor, Michael; Cayford, Jerry |
| Abstract: | Many agricultural and food security experts believe that biotechnology has potential to assist developing country farmers in meeting current and future food needs. Most of the tools of biotechnology have been developed, however, by companies, governments, and universities in industrialized nations; are the subject of U.S. patents; and have so far been applied commercially to address the needs of large-scale growers in the United States and other developed countries. For commercial and other reasons, applications of biotechnology that might benefit developing country farmers are unlikely in the foreseeable future to be developed and disseminated through commercial channels. At the same time, noncommercial, public sector researchers report that their access to tools of biotechnology for creating developing country applications is impeded by the array of existing patents. After reviewing the basis for these observations, this paper outlines the utilitarian theory and objectives of the U.S. patent system, how the system has been applied to agricultural biotechnology, the “patent thicket” that has resulted, and the general pro-patent orientation of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The paper then describes how the U.S. patent system affects developing country access to biotechnology, based in part on an informal survey the authors conducted among experts and stakeholders in this field, and outlines a normative and analytical framework for evaluating possible changes in patent policy that might improve developing country access without undercutting the patent system’s incentives for invention. The central argument is that developing country food security is a legitimate interest to consider when evaluating the operation of the U.S. patent system and possible alternatives to current patent policy. The paper then briefly describes six specific policy alternatives, all addressing access to patented technology rather than the rules governing patenting. This paper serves as the basis for a fall 2002 workshop to be held by Resources for the Future (RFF), at which the policy alternatives and the framework for evaluating them will be explored in more detail and refined by a small group of invited experts and stakeholders. The authors invite comment on the paper, which should be addressed to Dr. Jerry Cayford at cayford@rff.org. |
| Keywords: | United States patents, agricultural biotechnology, developing countries, food security |
| JEL: | O34 Q16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-51&r=ino |
| By: | Blackman, Allen (Resources For the Future); Kildegaard, Arne |
| Abstract: | In many cities in developing countries, clusters of small and medium enterprises create severe pollution problems. Because conventional regulatory approaches are typically ineffective in such situations, policy responses have increasingly focused on promoting voluntary clean technological change. Yet the data and analysis needed to guide such efforts are scarce. This paper uses original firmlevel survey data on a cluster of small- and medium-scale leather tanneries in León, Guanajuato— Mexico’s leather capital—to econometrically identify the factors that drive the adoption of three clean tanning technologies. Using a multivariate probit model to estimate a system of seemingly unrelated regressions, we find—in contrast to conventional wisdom—that neither firm size nor regulatory pressure is correlated with adoption. Rather, the drivers of adoption are the firm’s human capital and stock of technical information, the same factors that explain conventional productivity-enhancing technological change. We also find that private-sector trade associations and input suppliers are important sources of technical information about clean technologies. |
| Keywords: | clean technology, developing country, small and medium enterprises, Mexico, multivariate probit |
| JEL: | Q25 O13 O33 Q28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-03-12-rev&r=ino |
| By: | Crosson, Pierre; Anderson, Jock |
| Abstract: | Food can be produced under a number of technological conditions. Some observers hold that modern crop production technologies, typified by those embodied in the Green Revolution, are so intensive in the use of external inputs that they damage the environment and so are not sustainable. Those observers argue that “alternative” technologies that use fewer, safer external inputs mark the path toward agricultural sustainability. But the question arises- will those alternative technologies permit increases in global food production on the required scale? In this paper, we address this question and the conflicting arguments regarding the answer. |
| Keywords: | agriculture, environment, green revolution, research and development, technology |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-02-&r=ino |
| By: | Pizer, William (Resources For the Future); Kopp, Raymond (Resources For the Future); Morgenstern, Richard (Resources For the Future); Harrington, Winston (Resources For the Future); Shih, Jhih-Shyang (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Improved technology is often cited as a means to alter the otherwise difficult trade-off between the economic burden of regulation and environmental damage. Focusing on energy-saving technologies that mitigate the threat of climate change, we find that both energy prices and financial health influence technology adoption among a sample of industrial plants in four heavily polluting sectors. Based on a model linking technology adoption to growth in aggregate efficiency, we estimate that a doubling of energy prices, after raising the growth rate to 2.1%, would require slightly more than 50 years to generate a 50% improvement in aggregate efficiency relative to the baseline forecast. |
| Keywords: | energy efficiency, endogenous technological change, technology adoption |
| JEL: | O31 O38 Q43 Q48 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-52&r=ino |
| By: | Ryo Horii (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a theory of endogenous growth cycles focusing on the interaction between consumersf desire to satisfy an indefinite range of wants and firmsf incentive to utilize knowledge from past production experiences. We show that firms endogenously form a number of distinguishable industries as accumulated knowledge induces them to agglomerate in the technology space. Knowledge accumulation in existing industries reduces production costs, but, as the diminishing returns from learning sets in, some firms start to adopt previously unexplored technologies so that their new goods fit consumersf unsatisfied wants and attract large demand. Thus, sporadic emergence of new industries generates growth cycles, where both the timing and the new technology to be adopted are endogenously determined. New industries based on new technology reduce the rate of per capita GDP growth in the initial phase, but nonetheless are indispensable for sustained economic growth in the long run. |
| Keywords: | endogenous growth, technology choice, wants, knowledge, cycles. |
| JEL: | O31 O33 O41 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0603&r=ino |
| By: | Catherine Co (University of Nebraska at Omaha); John Landon-Lane (Rutgers University); Myeong-Su Yun (Tulane University) |
| Abstract: | We study the dynamics of the cross-section distribution of patents per capita for the 48 continental U.S. states from 1930 to 2000 using a discrete-state Markov chain. We test for and find evidence in favor of the (knowledge) convergence hypothesis as we find that the distribution of patents is converging to a limiting distribution that is significantly more concentrated than its initial distribution. States in the extreme are more mobile and are more likely to move to the middle than states in the middle of the cross-sectional distribution and the rate of convergence to the limiting distribution is ``slow.'' |
| Keywords: | Patent; US States; Convergence; |
| JEL: | O31 O18 O32 |
| Date: | 2005–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rut:rutres:200511&r=ino |
| By: | Cristina Tébar Less; Steven McMillan |
| Abstract: | This report examines factors that have proven helpful in achieving the successful transfer of environmentally sound technologies (EST) to developing countries. It provides an overview of the main issues lying behind trade-related aspects of EST transfers. It then briefly examines the main channels for the transfer of such technologies and the factors which are relevant to technology transfer in general, and to EST transfer in particular. It concludes with a summary of conditions for successful EST transfers which seem to be particularly relevant in the context of trade. These include government regulation and marketbased instruments, trade-related policies and practices, intellectual property rights, capacity, and financing. The report is based on the extensive literature dealing with technology transfer in general, and EST transfer specifically, and on empirical work summarised in a range of case studies. |
| Keywords: | trade, developing countries, environmentally sound technologies, technology transfer |
| JEL: | F18 O33 Q56 |
| Date: | 2005–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:traaaa:2005/2-en&r=ino |
| By: | Macauley, Molly (Resources For the Future); Shih, Jhih-Shyang (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | We develop and estimate an index-based measure of expected consumer welfare under various carbon emissions control policies in the electricity generation sector. This approach estimates welfare effects by a somewhat less data intensive methodology than econometric approaches or more complex modeling. We include anticipated technological change in the production of renewable and nonrenewable power generation during the next two decades. We estimate welfare improvements from 2000 to 2020 as renewable energy technologies continue to be improved and gradually adopted, compared with a counterfactual scenario allowing for continual improvement of nonrenewable generation technology. We formally incorporate uncertainty. We evaluate the model under alternative carbon emissions control policies, including policies that create incentives through price mechanisms and policies that mandate the composition of the generation portfolio. We focus on three countries that differ widely in their power fuel mix- India, Germany, and the United States. |
| Keywords: | carbon emissions control, electricity generation, technological change, consumer welfare |
| JEL: | Q40 Q42 O33 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-03-14&r=ino |
| By: | Ho, Mun (Resources For the Future); Jorgenson, Dale; Stiroh, Kevin |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the sources of U.S. labor productivity growth in the post-1995 period and presents projections for both output and labor productivity growth for the next decade. Despite the recent downward revisions to U.S. GDP and software investment, we show that information technology (IT) played a substantial role in the U.S. productivity revival. We then outline a methodology for projecting trend output and productivity growth. Our base-case projection puts the rate of trend productivity growth at 2.21% per year over the next decade with a range of 1.33 - 2.92%, reflecting fundamental uncertainties about the rate of technological progress in IT-production and investment patterns. Our central projection is only slightly below the average growth rate of 2.36% during the 1995-2000 period. |
| Keywords: | productivity, information technology |
| JEL: | O4 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-42&r=ino |
| By: | Jacob, J. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); Szirmai, A. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | Indonesian, trade, spillovers |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0601&r=ino |
| By: | Tilton, John; Landsberg, Hans |
| Abstract: | Mining is widely viewed as an old industry with mature and stable technologies. Companies and countries with the best deposits are the most productive and efficient producers. As these deposits are depleted, mining shifts to countries with the next best deposits. This tendency to exploit poorer quality ores tends to push productivity down and the prices of mineral commodities up over time. Copper mining in the United States, however, calls into question this conventional view. After leading the world in output for decades, the U.S. industry lost its ability to compete and suffered a major decline during the 1970s and early 1980s. In the face of predictions of complete collapse, it staged a remarkable revival, and today mines more copper than in 1970. A handful of companies achieved this recovery, in large part through their efforts to introduce a wide range of cost-reducing innovations. These efforts, in turn, helped double labor productivity in copper mining during the 1980s. The known copper endowment of the United States hardly changed over this period, aside from the depletion arising from mining, and had little to do with either the decline or the recovery. The experience of copper mining in the United States holds a number of lessons for countries competing in global mineral markets and for countries striving to raise their labor productivity and standard of living. In particular, it highlights the stimulating influence of global competition on industry productivity and comparative advantage, even in the mining sector where mineral endowment is widely thought to be of overriding importance. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-97-41&r=ino |
| By: | Yannick LUNG (E3i-IFREDE-GRES & GERPISA) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses how carmakers integrate the Southern America Cone into their worldwide strategies: As a local emerging market? As a source for production and exports towards industrialised countries? As a source for design and export to other emerging markets? The discussion about Mercosur’s place in the carmakers’ internationalisation strategies is developed with specific attention to organisation of their local activities in terms of : product policy (specific product or adapted product) design policy (local adaptation of a global product or local design of a specific product) productive organisation (modular production or the role of suppliers) regional integration (spatial division of labour between countries). |
| Keywords: | Automotive industry – Regional integration – Mercosur – Multinational Firms – Internationalisation – Brazil – South America |
| JEL: | F14 F23 L62 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grs:wpegrs:2006-03&r=ino |
| By: | Blackman, Allen (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Recent efforts to forge a consensus on the role developing countries should play in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions have focused attention on climate friendly technologies (CFTs), most notably those that enhance energy efficiency. In the medium term, the effectiveness of technology-based climate strategies will depend critically on the rates at which CFTs diffuse in developing countries. This paper reviews some of the key findings of the economics research on technology diffusion and assesses the implications for climate policy. The most obvious lessons from this research are that widespread diffusion of CFTs may take decades, and that diffusion rates in developing and industrialized countries are likely to be quite different. In addition, the literature has implications for a number of strategies for promoting technology diffusion including information dissemination, factor price rationalization, and investment in human capital. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-99-42&r=ino |
| By: | Jérome VICENTE (LEREPS-GRES); Yan Dalla PRIA (CSO – CNRS); Raphaël SUIRE (CREM – CNRS) |
| Abstract: | This articles examines the peculiar role of mimetic behaviors in co-location processes. We start showing that geographical proximity between agents and/or firms is not a sufficient nor necessary condition for the collective performance of clusters. Other types of socio-economic proximities characterize clusters, and our purpose is to show that, among the several ways to analyze the complex links between proximities and clusters, the theoretical outlook on the role played by mimetic interactions in co-location processes are certainly one of the most promising. Mimetic behaviors of location (in economics and sociology) are introduced in order to demonstrate that co-location processes can be the result of sequentiality, uncertainty, legitimacy and non market interactions, rather than full rational and isolated decisions and pure strategic market interactions. According to the type of mimetic behavior at work in the clustering process, the nature of socio-economic proximity can differ and have a strong influence of the “evolutionary stability” of clusters. All these theoretical considerations are illustrated through the emblematic French case of “Silicon Sentier”, cluster which has gathered together three hundred firms of the French net-economy (the famous “dotcom”) during the Internet bubble swelling. |
| Keywords: | cluster, mimetic interactions, proximity, stability, Silicon Sentier |
| JEL: | D83 R12 R30 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grs:wpegrs:2006-02&r=ino |
| By: | Mario Cimoli; Giovanni Dosi; Richard R. Nelson; Joseph Stiglitz |
| Date: | 2006–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2006/02&r=ino |
| By: | Krupnick, Alan (Resources For the Future); Harrington, Winston (Resources For the Future); Farrell, Deirdre |
| Abstract: | The Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality Program (CMAQ), established in 1991 by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) to provide about $1 billion per year to fund transportation projects that improve air quality, is intended both to support traditional transportation control measures and to encourage innovation in developing new strategies and technologies for controlling emissions from transportation sources. While the program has indeed encouraged some innovative approaches to local transportation and air quality problems, critics see it as a diversion of funds that could more usefully be devoted to conventional highway improvement projects. The current debate in Congress over the reauthorization of ISTEA and, specifically, the CMAQ provisions, is hampered by the lack of detailed information about the achievements of previous CMAQ projects and a plan for evaluating future projects. Resolution of this debate could be aided by emphasizing the role of CMAQ projects as natural experiments and developing a plan to conduct them. The purpose of this paper is to outline a strategy of analysis and data collection that will facilitate evaluation of CMAQ projects. This paper argues that the lack of emphasis (in all but the largest projects) on project evaluation can be explained by the public goods nature of information. Because local implementing agencies bear the costs of evaluation, while the benefits are enjoyed primarily by other jurisdictions in planning their transportation and environment projects, too little evaluation is conducted. At present, much of the potential usefulness of CMAQ projects to planners is dissipated because there is little systematic learning. Indeed, a project could succeed as an experiment if learning took place, even if it failed to improve air quality. This paper examines the kinds of data collected now in CMAQ programs in comparison with the kinds of data that would permit more effective program evaluation, particularly ex post evaluation, i.e., analysis of what actually resulted from the implementation of the individual project. In many cases, data-gathering should concentrate on observable outcomes that can clearly be attributed to the project and yet bear some relationship to air quality or congestion, either established by previous empirical study or by model results. A method is proposed for collecting the requisite data for each of several important types of CMAQ projects. To assure that the data are collected and evaluated will also require changes in the way in which CMAQ is administered, including the dedication of some portion of CMAQ funds for evaluating completed projects. The biggest change may be the need to develop measures of "success" and identify "control cases" against which to judge the success of the experiment. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-98-18&r=ino |
| By: | David Marmet (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to shed light on the factors which determine the post-entry performance of new firms. It is often argued that new firms are the driving force of structural changes and sometimes they are even characterized as an “engine” of economic growth. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence is mixed. Taking into account the high exit rate of new firms, a specific founding cohort does not contribute substantially to new jobs. In this paper, we analyse the contribution of new firms concerning the ability of creating jobs. Furthermore, we investigate the main determinants of post-entry performance, which we derive from existing theoretical concepts based on industrial economic approaches, learning models and founding characteristics. The endogenous variable is employment development. We test our model with data from the Swiss cohort of start-ups of 1996/1997. The results reveal that the important and robust factors determining the post-entry performance are changes in demand, innovation behaviour, human capital, self-financing, seed capital, consultancy and support, assets, legal form, and motives for founding a new firm, such as the possibility to implement own ideas coming from research at university or to escape from unemployment. |
| Keywords: | New firms, employment growth, performance |
| JEL: | L25 J23 D21 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:04-97&r=ino |
| By: | Dan Braha (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth & New England Complex Systems Institute); Yaneer Bar-Yam (New England Complex Systems Institute) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, understanding the structure and function of complex networks has become the foundation for explaining many different real- world complex biological, technological and informal social phenomena. Techniques from statistical physics have been successfully applied to the analysis of these networks, and have uncovered surprising statistical structural properties that have also been shown to have a major effect on their functionality, dynamics, robustness, and fragility. This paper examines, for the first time, the statistical properties of strategically important organizational networks -- networks of people engaged in distributed product development (PD) -- and discusses the significance of these properties in providing insight into ways of improving the strategic and operational decision-making of the organization. We show that the structure of information flow networks that are at the heart of large-scale product development efforts have properties that are similar to those displayed by other social, biological and technological networks. In this context, we identify novel properties that may be characteristic of other information-carrying networks. We further present a detailed model and analysis of PD dynamics on complex networks, and show how the underlying network topologies provide direct information about the characteristics of this dynamics. We believe that our new analysis methodology and empirical results are also relevant to other organizational information- carrying networks. |
| Keywords: | Social Networks, Complex Systems, Product Design, Product Development, Collective Decision Making,Bounded Rationality, Systems Dynamics |
| JEL: | D1 D2 D3 D4 |
| Date: | 2005–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpmi:0510005&r=ino |
| By: | Yuanyuan Peng (Department of Economics, Florida International University) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an additional determininant of firm survival. Based on a detailed examination of firm survival in the British automobile industry between 1895 and 1970, we conclude that firm’s selection of submarket-defined by quality level-influenced survival. In contrast to findings for the US automobile industry, there is no evidence of first-mover advantage in the market as a whole. However, we do find evidence of first-mover advantage after conditioning on submarket choice. |
| Keywords: | firm survival, product differentiation, submarket, product quality |
| JEL: | L11 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fiu:wpaper:0601&r=ino |
| By: | Nuvolari, A. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); Verspagen, B. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | steam, Cornish, engineering |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0514&r=ino |
| By: | Newell, Richard (Resources For the Future); Anderson, Soren |
| Abstract: | Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies remove carbon dioxide from flue gases for storage in geologic formations or the ocean. We find that CCS is technically feasible and economically attractive within the range of carbon policies discussed domestically and internationally. Current costs are about $200 to $250 per ton of carbon, although costs are sensitive to fuel prices and other assumptions and could be reduced significantly through technical improvements. Near-term prospects favor CCS for certain industrial sources and electric power plants, with storage in depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Deep aquifers may provide an attractive longer-term storage option, whereas ocean storage poses greater technical and environmental uncertainty. Vast quantities of economically recoverable fossil fuels, sizable political obstacles to their abandonment, and inherent delay associated with developing alternative energy sources suggest that CCS should be seriously considered in the portfolio of options for addressing climate change, alongside energy efficiency and carbon-free energy. |
| Keywords: | carbon, capture, storage, sequestration, climate change, technology |
| JEL: | Q30 Q40 O30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-68&r=ino |
| By: | Drogendijk,Rian (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Managing relations is a complex task for internationalizing firms and their subsidiaries: MNC subsidiaries are not only part of the MNC network but they also develop relations with network actors in their local environment. This paper investigates conceptually how MNC subsidiaries established through generic expansion build relations within the MNC and with external market and non-market actors as they evolve through stages of start-up, growth and maturity. The paper develops propositions, grounded in institutional theory, resource dependency theory and network approaches, on the changing strength and importance of a subsidiary's relations depending on its dependence or interdependence in these relations, with five groups of actors (MNC headquarters, other subsidiaries within the MNC, local business actors, local government and non-government organizations). The paper ends with drawing directions for future work that will enhance understanding of the dynamics of relationship management in MNC subsidiaries. |
| Keywords: | MNC management;HQ-subsidiary relations;networks;institutional theory; multinational companies |
| JEL: | F23 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2005128&r=ino |
| By: | Blackman, Allen (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | In many developing countries, a host of financial, institutional, and political factors hamstring conventional environmental regulation. Given these constraints, a promising strategy for controlling pollution is to promote the voluntary adoption of clean technologies. Although this strategy has received considerable attention in policy circles, empirical research on the adoption of clean technologies in developing countries is limited. This paper presents historical background and original survey data on the adoption of five clean tanning technologies by a sample of 137 leather tanneries in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, a city where tanneries have serious environmental impacts and conventional environmental regulation has repeatedly failed to mitigate the problem. The analysis suggest that rather than top-down public-sector pressure and technical assistance, the key factor driving the adoption of clean tanning technologies in León is the bottom-up dissemination of information about the cost and quality benefits of the technologies. |
| Keywords: | clean technology, leather tanning, developing country, Mexico |
| JEL: | Q53 Q55 Q56 Q13 Q33 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-05-38&r=ino |
| By: | Darmstadter, Joel (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Labor productivity in U.S. coal mining increased at an average annual rate of slightly over four percent during the past 45 years. This report examines key factors contributing to that record - particularly, technological innovation in both surface and underground mining and concurrent geographic shifts in U.S. coal production. Health, safety, and environmental regulations introduced in the sixties and seventies, as well as labor unrest, interrupted long-term productivity advance; but the interruption was of limited duration. Although our principal focus is on worker productivity, steady growth in the relative importance of non-labor inputs underscores the need to consider total factor productivity. The report touches on the productivity record using that measure. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-97-40&r=ino |
| By: | Pierre Azoulay; Waverly Ding; Toby Stuart |
| Abstract: | We examine the influence of faculty patenting activity on the rate, quality, and content of public research outputs in a panel dataset spanning the careers of 3,862 academic life scientists. Using inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW) to account for the dynamics of self-selection into patenting, we find that patenting has a positive effect on the rate of publication of journal articles, but no effect on the quality of these publications. Using several measures of the "patentability" of the content of research papers, we also find that patenters may be shifting their research focus to questions of commercial interest. We conclude that the often-voiced concern that patenting in academe has a nefarious effect on public research output is, at least in its simplest form, misplaced. |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11917&r=ino |
| By: | Blackman, Allen (Resources For the Future); Mazurek, Janice |
| Abstract: | The flagship of the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory reinvention initiative, Project XL has been touted as a ‘regulatory blueprint’ for a site-specific, performance-based pollution control system. But widespread complaints about the costs of the program beg the question of whether the costs of tailoring regulations to individual facilities are manageable. To address this question, this paper presents original survey data on a sample of 11 XL projects. We find that the fixed costs of putting in place XL agreements are substantial, averaging over $450,000 per firm. While stakeholder negotiations are widely cited as the principal source for these costs, we find that they actually arise mainly from interaction between participating facilities and the EPA. Moreover, EPA management problems are perceived by our survey respondents as having inflated project development costs. Finally, we find that the key factor that explains differences in costs across XL projects is the scope and complexity of the project proposal. These findings suggest that Project XL favors large firms that can afford to pay significant project development costs, that EPA management problems must be resolved to reduce costs, and that there may be a significant economic bias against complex and innovative proposals—precisely the type of proposals that Project XL was designed to foster in order to improve the efficiency of the regulatory system. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-99-35-rev&r=ino |
| By: | Morgenstern, Richard (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Significant environmental benefits are often associated with the rapid diffusion of new energy-saving technologies. Over the past decade, the federal government, as well as electric and gas utilities, have begun to provide free technical information to potential buyers to stimulate private investment in certain technologies, particularly for retrofitting existing buildings. Yet it has not been demonstrated that this provision of technical information can truly accelerate the rate of technology diffusion. This study develops a model of firm behavior that incorporates multiple factors in the decision to retrofit high efficiency lighting technologies. Technology retrofit and the acceptance of technical information are modeled as jointly determined dichotomous variables, and their determinants are estimated using a bivariate probit specification. The principal conclusion is that information programs make a significant contribution to the diffusion of high efficiency lighting in commercial office buildings, although these programs are less important than basic price signals. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-96-16&r=ino |
| By: | Sadowski, B.M. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); Straathof, B. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | VoIP |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0516&r=ino |
| By: | Newell, Richard (Resources For the Future); Anderson, Soren |
| Abstract: | We analyze technology adoption decisions of manufacturers in response to energy audits provided by Department of Energy Industrial Assessment Centers. Using fixed effects logit estimation to control for unobserved plant characteristics, we find that plants respond as expected to financial costs and benefits, though there are unmeasured project-related factors that also influence investment decisions. Revealed behavior of plants suggests that most require a payback of 15 months or less as their investment threshold, corresponding to an 80% or greater hurdle rate. This is consistent with survey results for stated investment thresholds, suggesting that these programs do not lower hurdle rates, as some suggest. Plants reject about half of recommended projects; the primary rationale given is their economic undesirability, as opposed to remaining market or organizational barriers. This raises concerns regarding engineering-economic estimates of the degree to which there are feasible no-net-cost opportunities for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. |
| Keywords: | energy efficiency, information, technology adoption, energy audits, Municipal Solid Waste, Recycling, Inventory, Optimization |
| JEL: | Q41 Q48 O33 O38 Q2 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-58&r=ino |
| By: | Beck, Jonathan; Grajek, Michal; Wey, Christian |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a set of panel data to study the diffusion of retail checkout barcode scanning in ten European countries over the period 1981-1996. Estimates from a standard diffusion model suggest that countries differ most in the long-run diffusion level of barcode scanning and less in timing or diffusion speed. We present evidence that the emergence of hypermarkets raises competitive intensity and use hypermarket data, among other variables, in a pooled estimation. Results suggest that hypermarket competition reduces the long-run adoption level in retailing. In particular, the emergence of hypermarkets seems to deepen retail segmentation by inducing potential adopters (e.g. supermarkets) to exit the market and/or by discouraging adoption by other retail formats. Consistent with expectations, scale and income effects spur IT diffusion and there is a classic substitution effect: when wages rise, diffusion of a labour-saving technology such as barcode-scanning is more intense. We do not find a significant impact of employment protection legislation. |
| Keywords: | hypermarkets; IT diffusion; retail competition |
| JEL: | L5 L81 O33 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5386&r=ino |
| By: | Jeremy Atack; Fred Bateman; Robert Margo |
| Abstract: | We use establishment level data from the 1850-80 censuses of manufacturing to study the correlates of the use of steam power and the impact of steam power on labor productivity growth in nineteenth century American manufacturing. A key result is that establishment size mattered: large establishments, as measured by employment, were much more likely to use steam power than smaller establishments. Controlling for firm size, location, industry, and other establishment characteristics, steam powered establishments had higher labor productivity than establishments using hand or animal power, or water power. We also find that the impact of steam on labor productivity was increasing in establishment size. The diffusion of steam power was an important factor behind the growth of labor productivity, accounting for 22 to 41 percent of that growth between 1850 and 1880, depending on establishment size. |
| JEL: | N61 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11931&r=ino |