|
on Innovation |
| By: | E. Echeverri-Carroll; L. Hunnicutt |
| Abstract: | Competition in high technology is increasingly based on rapid innovation. But what conditions quicken innovation? Some suggest innovation is faster in firms with many related organizations located nearby. Others propose relationships with customers and suppliers as key factors in rapid innovation. We attempt to differentiate between these hypotheses. We find that local amenities determine firm location, but not innovation speed. Instead relationships with suppliers and customers are the main determinants of innovation speed. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usu:wpaper:2000-33&r=ino |
| By: | John Deutch |
| Abstract: | Government support of innovation – both technology creation and technology demonstration – is desirable to encourage private investors to adopt new technology. In this paper, I review the government role in encouraging technology innovation and the success of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies in advancing technology in the energy sector. The DOE has had better success in the first stage of innovation (sponsoring R&D to create new technology options) than in the second stage (demonstrating technologies with the objective of encouraging adoption by the private sector). I argue that the DOE does not have the expertise, policy instruments, or contracting flexibility to manage successfully technology demonstration, and that consideration should be given to establishing a new mechanism for this purpose. The ill-fated 1980 Synthetic Fuels Corporation offers an interesting model for such a mechanism. |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mee:wpaper:0509&r=ino |
| By: | Maarten Cornet; Fré Huizinga; Bert Minne; Dinand Webbink |
| Abstract: | This article discusses several policy options in the fields of education, research, and innovation that are likely to have beneficial, neutral, or negative effects on overall welfare in the Netherlands. For some options, the effects are unknown. Beneficial education policies are, for instance, policies aimed at increasing teachers' quality and early childhood education programs. Additional R&D tax credits for new firms have favourable effects on innovation. A further increase in the research incentives to universities is expected to raise scientific output. |
| Keywords: | education; science; innovation; policy |
| JEL: | I28 O38 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:memodm:158&r=ino |
| By: | Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö; Mika Maliranta |
| Keywords: | R&D, research and development, dynamic, productivity, lag, long run |
| JEL: | H25 O32 |
| Date: | 2006–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1031&r=ino |
| By: | Dirk Kohnert (GIGA Institute of African Affairs) |
| Abstract: | The globalized Western culture of innovation, as propagated by major aid institutions, does not necessarily lead to empowerment or improvement of the well-being of the stakeholders. On the contrary, it often blocks viable indigenous innovation cultures. In African societies and African Diasporas in Latin America, cultures of innovation largely accrue from the informal, not the formal sector. Crucial for their proper understanding is a threefold structural differentiation: between the formal and informal sector, within the informal sector, according to class, gender or religion, and between different transnational social spaces. Different innovation cultures may be complementary, mutually reinforcing, or conflicting, leading in extreme cases even to a ‘clash of cultures’ at the local level. The repercussions of competing, even antagonistic agencies of innovative strategic groups are demonstrated, analyzing the case of the African poor in Benin and the African Diasporas of Brazil and Haiti. |
| Keywords: | Economic development; cultural change; innovations; social structure; African Diaspora; Benin; Brazil; Haiti |
| JEL: | O31 Z1 E26 Z12 Z13 O57 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gig:wpaper:25&r=ino |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics); Edquist, Harald (SNS) |
| Abstract: | This study consists of an examination of productivity growth following three major technological breakthroughs: the steam power revolution, electrification and the ICT revolution. The distinction between sectors producing and sectors using the new technology is emphasized. A major finding for all breakthroughs is that there is a long lag from the time of the original invention until a substantial increase in the rate of productivity growth can be observed. There is also strong evidence of rapid price decreases for steam engines, electricity, electric motors and ICT products. However, there is no persuasive direct evidence that the steam engine producing industry and electric machinery had particularly high productivity growth rates. For the ICT revolution the highest productivity growth rates are found in the ICT-producing industries. We suggest that one explanation could be that hedonic price indexes are not used for the steam engine and the electric motor. Still, it is likely that the rate of technological development has been much more rapid during the ICT revolution compared to any of the previous breakthroughs. |
| Keywords: | Electrification; General purpose technologies; ICT revolution; Productivity growth; Steam power |
| JEL: | N10 O10 O14 O40 |
| Date: | 2006–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0665&r=ino |
| By: | Joshua Linn |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the link between factor prices, technology and factor demands. I estimate the effect of price-induced technology adoption on energy demand in the U.S. manufacturing sector, using plant data from the Census of Manufactures, 1963-1997. I compare the energy efficiency of entrants and incumbents to measure the effect of technology adoption on the demand for energy. A 10 percent increase in the price of energy causes technology adoption that reduces the energy demand of entrants by 1 percent. This elasticity has two implications: first, technology adoption explains a statistically significant but relatively small fraction of changes in energy demand in the 1970s and 1980s; and second, technology adoption can reduce the long run effect of energy prices on growth, but by less than previous research has found. |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mee:wpaper:0612&r=ino |
| By: | Menzie D. Chinn; Robert W. Fairlie |
| Abstract: | Computer and Internet use, especially in developing countries, has expanded rapidly in recent years. Even in light of this expansion in technology adoption rates, penetration rates differ markedly between developed and developing countries and across developing countries. To identify the determinants of cross-country disparities in personal computer and Internet penetration, both currently and over time, we examine panel data for 161 countries over the 1999-2004 period. We explore the role of a comprehensive set of economic, demographic, infrastructure, institutional and financial factors in contributing to the global digital divide. We find evidence indicating that income, human capital, the youth dependency ratio, telephone density, legal quality and banking sector development are associated with technology penetration rates. Overall, the factors associated with computer and Internet penetration do not differ substantially between developed and developing countries. Estimates from Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions reveal that the main factors responsible for low rates of technology penetration rates in developing countries are disparities in income, telephone density, legal quality and human capital. In terms of dynamics, our results indicate fairly rapid reversion to long run equilibrium for Internet use, and somewhat slower reversion for computer use, particularly in developed economies. Financial development, either measured as bank lending or the value of stocks traded, is also important to the growth rate of Internet use. |
| JEL: | O30 L96 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12382&r=ino |
| By: | Stephen Machin (University College London, CEE, CEP, London School of Economics and IZA Bonn); Sandra McNally (CEE, CEP, London School of Economics and IZA Bonn); Olmo Silva (CEE, CEP, London School of Economics, European University Institute and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Despite its high relevance to current policy debates, estimating the causal effect of Information Communication Technology (ICT) investment on educational standards remains fraught with difficulties. In this paper, we exploit a change in the rules governing ICT funding across different school districts of England to devise an instrumental variable strategy to identify the causal impact of ICT expenditure on pupil outcomes. The approach identifies the effect of being a ‘winner’ or a ‘loser’ in the new system of ICT funding allocation to schools. Our findings suggest a positive impact on primary school performance in English and Science, though not for Mathematics. We reconcile our positive results with others in the literature by arguing that it is the joint effect of large increases in ICT funding coupled with a fertile background for making an efficient use of it that led to positive effects of ICT expenditure on educational performance in English primary schools. |
| Keywords: | Information and Communication Technology (ICT), pupil achievement |
| JEL: | H52 I20 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2234&r=ino |
| By: | Mª Teresa Sanchis Llopis |
| Abstract: | Spanish economic records in terms of GDP growth and convergence to European levels in the sixties, provide an excellent opportunity to look at a central question underlying in the interpretation of any process of economic growth. The relevance of industrial specific technological progress is confronted to a general and multifaceted productivity change coming from a variety of sectors and causes. This paper exploits sectoral growth accounting methodology in two different ways in order to answer this crucial question revisited recently by historiography with reference to British Industrial Revolution and to Information and Telecommunications Technologies. First, we calculate TFP growth following the Kendrick approach (1961) and using four input-output tables corresponding to 1958, 1962, 1970 and 1975 disaggregated at 25 productive branches. And Second, we examine the impact of electricity and electric machinery and equipment as a General Purpose Technology (GPT) in Spanish economic growth. |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:dilf0503&r=ino |
| By: | Lee Fleming; Koen Frenken |
| Abstract: | While networks are widely thought to enhance regional innovative capability, there exist few longitudinal studies of their formation and evolution over time. Based on an analysis of all patenting inventors in the U.S. from 1975 to 2002, we observe dramatic aggregation of the regional inventor network in Silicon Valley around 1989. Based on network statistics, we argue that the sudden rise of giant networks in Silicon Valley can be understood as a phase transition during which small isolated networks form one giant component. By contrast, such a transition in Boston occurred much later and much less dramatically. We do not find convincing evidence that this marked difference between the two regions is due to regional differences in the propensity to collaborate or the involvement of universities in patenting. Interviews with key network players suggest that contingent labor mobility between established firms in Silicon Valley, in particular resulting from IBM’s policy as a central player in patenting activity, promoted inter-organizational networking, leading to larger inventor networks. |
| Keywords: | evolutionary economic, inventor networks |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0609&r=ino |
| By: | Koen Frenken; Gerben van der Steege |
| Abstract: | The thesis advanced in this paper holds that any transaction cost explanation of the diffusion of a particular organizational form requires an evolutionary analysis of differential performance of competing organizational forms over time. Using data on 1141 dairy factories in The Netherlands, we find evidence that cooperative factories performed significantly better than private factories, which can be explained by cooperatives’ lower transaction costs. However, superior performance is observed only in the Northern part, while cooperatives were more dominant in the Southern part. This suggests that entry conditions for cooperative factories in the South were more favourable than in the North. |
| Keywords: | transaction cost economics, survival analysis, industry lifecycle, dairy industry, cooperatives |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0608&r=ino |