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on Innovation |
| By: | Emanuele Bacchiocchi (University of Milan, Italy.); Fabio Montobbio (University of Insubria, Varese and CESPRI - Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the process of diffusion and decay of knowledge from university, public laboratories and corporate patents in six countries and tests the differences across countries and across technological fields using data from the European Patent Office. It finds that university and public research patents are more cited relatively to companies’ patents. However these results are mainly driven by the Chemical, and Drugs & Medical fields and US universities. In Europe and Japan, where the great majority of patents from public reserach comes from national agencies, there is no evidence of a superior fertility of university and public laboratories patents vis `a vis corporate patents. The distribution of the citations lags shows that knowledge embedded in university and public research patents tends to diffuse more rapidly relatively to corporate ones in particular in US, Germany, France and Japan. |
| Keywords: | University patents, Citations, Spillovers, Knowledge Diffusion, Public Research. |
| JEL: | O30 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp193&r=ino |
| By: | Andrea Morrison (Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy and CESPRI, Università Bocconi, Italy.); Carlo Pietrobelli (CREI, Università di Roma 3, Italy.); Roberta Rabellotti (Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a critical review of the Global Value Chain literature in light of the “Technological Capabilities” approach to innovation in LDCs. Participation in GVC is beneficial for firms in LDCs, which are bound to source technology internationally. However, the issues of learning and technological efforts at the firm-level remain largely uncovered by the GVC literature. We propose a shift in the empirical and theoretical agenda, arguing that research should focus on the endogenous process of technological capability development, on the specific firm-level efforts and on the mechanisms allowing knowledge to flow within and between different global value chains. |
| Keywords: | global value chains, technological capabilities, learning, innovation, LDCs. |
| JEL: | F23 L22 O31 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp192&r=ino |
| By: | Daniel Chudnovsky (Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación (CENIT).); Andrés López (Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación (CENIT).); Martín Rossi (Universidad de San Andrés); Diego Ubfal (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | The paper contains and impact evaluation of matching grants to promote investments in innovation on firm financed R&D and other output variables. |
| Keywords: | innovation, matching grants, program evaluation, fixed effects, common support, Latin America, Argentina. |
| JEL: | O32 O38 C23 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:ovewps:1606&r=ino |
| By: | Lööf, Hans (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper asks whether there is evidence of higher innovation output from firms where there is more foreign activity in terms of foreign direct investments (FDI), trade and collaboration on innovation, or if proximity between innovators is more important. With a sample of about two-thirds of Swedish firms with at least 10 employees and by accounting for selectivity and simultaneity biases, sector specific effects and firm specific effects, we find robust evidence for import spill over. There is also support for international knowledge transfer to the local firm from foreign units indicating the importance of both inward and outward FDI. We only find some weak find association between proximity to local partners and innovation. The most important aspect of the local milieu on innovation is skilled labour. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; knowledge spillovers; proximity; trade; FDI |
| JEL: | D21 F23 O23 |
| Date: | 2007–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0083&r=ino |
| By: | Fidel Pérez Sebastián (Universidad de Alicante); Shiferaw Gurmu (Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | Hausman, Hall and Griliches (1984) and Hall, Griliches and Hausman (1986) investigated whether there was a lag in the patent-R&D relationship for the U.S. manufacturing sector using 1970¿s data. They found that there was little evidence of anything but contemporaneous movement of patents and R&D. We reexamine this important issue employing new longitudinal patent data at the firm level for the U.S. manufacturing sector from 1982 to 1992. To address unique features of the data, we estimate various distributed lag and dynamic multiplicative panel count data models. The paper also develops a new class of count panel data models based on series expansion of the distribution of individual effects. The empirical analyses show that, although results are somewhat sensitive to different estimation methods, the contemporaneous relationship between patenting and R&D expenditures continues to be rather strong, accounting for over 60% of the total R&D elasticity. Regarding the lag structure of the patents-R&D relationship, we do find a significant lag in all empirical specifications. Moreover, the estimated lag effects are higher than have previously been found, suggesting that the contribution of R&D history to current patenting has increased from the 1970¿s to the 1980¿s. |
| Keywords: | Innovative activity, Patents and R&D, Individual effects, count panel data methods. |
| JEL: | C20 O30 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2007-03&r=ino |
| By: | Ayyagari, Meghana; Demirguc-Kunt, Asli; Maksimovic, Vojislav |
| Abstract: | The authors investigate the determinants of firm innovation in over 19,000 firms across 47 developing economies. They define the innovation process broadly, to include not only core innovation such as the introduction of new products and new technologies, but also other types of activities that promote knowledge transfers and adapt production processes. The authors find that more innovative firms are large exporting firms characterized by private ownership, highly educated managers with mid-level managerial experience, and access to external finance. In contrast, firms that do not innovate much are typically state-owned firms without foreign competitors. The identity of the controlling shareholder seems to be particularly important for core innovation, with those private firms whose controlling shareholder is a financial institution being the least innovative. While the use of external finance is associated with greater innovation by all private firms, it does not make state-owned firms more innovative. Financing from foreign banks is associated with higher levels of innovation compared with financing from domestic banks. |
| Keywords: | Education for Development (superceded),Microfinance,Small Scale Enterprise,Investment and Investment Climate,Innovation |
| Date: | 2007–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4157&r=ino |
| By: | Terhi Hakala; Olli Haltia; Raine Hermans; Martti Kulvik; Hanna Nikinmaa; Albert Porcar-Castell; Tiina Pursula |
| Abstract: | In this study we have collected information by interviewing all identified parties within the Finnish forest sector who might have a potential biotechnology connection : university research groups, research institutions, small and medium-sized biotechnology-companies and up to the largest forest companies. The ultimate goal was to assess how resources have been allocated and biotechnologies utilized within the value chain of the entire forest sector. This study aimed at providing answers to the following questions : • What are the current Finnish academic resources and projects related to forest industry biotechnology? • How much does the Finnish forest cluster invest in biotechnology R&D activity, and what are the key application areas in the value chain? • How well do the academic resources, company R&D investments and research needs converge to help secure the future competitiveness of the Finnish forest industries? In order to answer the questions above, the study approached the matter in consecutive steps. First, the existing forest industry related biotechnological knowledge base within the academia on one hand, and the resource base among firms on the other hand, were mapped. Following up on that, we evaluated the sales expectations of forestry related biotechnological applications within the domestic forestry cluster itself, other potential domestic industries and global export markets. The third step assessed whether the development of forestry related biotechnological applications is justifiable in the framework of comparative advantage. This was accomplished by comparing the relevant existing knowledge and other resource bases to their sales expectations. In order to evaluate the potential of biotechnology in the entire forest industry value chain, the study assessed four value chain modules. Module 1 represents the beginning of the value chain : forestry applications. Module 2 consists of the development of wood products, module 3 is related to the pulp and paper industry, and module 4 to utilization side streams for bioenergy, biochemicals and other food or pharmaceutical applications. The assessment of module 1 implies that there is a constant lack of resources. Basic research conducts some relatively long projects, which often seem too time-consuming in applied research and corporate R&D. There seems to be only few active links between the academic research projects and companies. Many new technologies already exist but since the individual forest owners hardly have incentives to invest in R&D due to e.g. the long breeding cycle, collaboration with companies seems as the only potential pathway to commercialization of forestry related biotechnologies. There were few biotechnology-based projects within the module 2. The research and product development seems to focus on physical modifications, and composite research is based on chemistry. Module 3, paper, pulp and board industry, seems to be the most active in research and product development activity. Their products generate positive cash flows, and research projects are abundantly funded. The companies are closely involved in the research projects as financiers and collaborators. This involvement impacts on the nature of the research, which seems highly applicable and linked closely to industrial applications. Consequently, biotechnology applications are already used in the pulp and paper industry. Some biotechnology applications are adopted rapidly. They, such as enzymes in reducing paper machine runnability problems, do not affect the quality of the fibers, intermediate or end products and are thus easier to take into use in production scale. We observed the research and product development within module 4 as a high priority for both the academia and industry. The research is anticipated to grow strongly and even more than in other modules. Biotechnologies are applied as substitutes to chemical and thermal technologies. However, all of these fields of technology are developed and applied by the industry. This provides some important implications for technology development and innovation policy. Due to the fuzziness between technology border-lines, it seems misleading to prioritize biotechnologies over some other technology; in contrast, the most efficient technology should be preferred. Accordingly, technology subsidies might be most efficient if the public technology programmes would be based on application segments instead of a specific technology. Our assessment of international patenting activity raised some interesting notions. Finland seemed to be comparatively most specialized in plant genetic engineering, food and food additive, and waste disposal and the environment applications. However, biotechnology based biofuels are not included as a source of comparative advantage, which also stresses the importance of parallel development of biotechnologies and other technology fields. A potential source of value creation could be the utilization of process side streams more efficiently, including refinement of by-products such as tall oil, to products with higher value added in other application areas.The paper and board making might also be strongly influenced by new packaging solutions, materials and methods; these utilize, however, only rarely or never biotechnologies as such. Finland has a good overall and mainly publicly maintained infrastructure. If the raw material’s high quality and some special features can compensate the relatively low growth rates, Finland should be able to attract the multinational pulp and paper industry also in the long term. We conclude that the development of biotechnologies should not contain any intrinsic value per se. The commercial value of the biotechnology could be benchmarked with the value of alternative technologies; and consequently, biotechnology could become part of the technology options for companies active in established and conventional industries. The Finnish forest cluster has financial resources to commercialize any new technology that can increase the process efficiency or provide other economic benefits in new application areas. This is a reason why we see this area exceptionally promising compared to any other high technology field without such a financial backbone. |
| JEL: | L69 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2007–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1076&r=ino |
| By: | Rossi, Federica |
| Abstract: | We provide an overview of the specific innovation policies that are implemented at European level, highlighting, where possibile, the connections between these policies and the guidance documents issued by the Community’s institutions. We describe the kinds of policy interventions that are implemented, providing at the same time some useful elements in order to understand the assumptions and theories that underpin them. |
| Keywords: | Innovation policy; European institutions; Lisbon strategy; Structural funds; European research policy; European enterprise policy |
| JEL: | O32 O38 O31 |
| Date: | 2005–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2009&r=ino |
| By: | Fryges, Helmut |
| Abstract: | Determinants of a firm’s export-sales ratio (degree of internationalisation) are frequently discussed in the literature related to individual firms’ export activities. Stylised facts show a positive relationship between firm size and firm age on the one hand and the firm’s export-sales ratio on the other hand. However, anecdotic evidence and recent empirical results revealed that it is not size or age per se that leads to a high export-sales ratio. This paper analyses the export-sales ratio of a sample of young technology-oriented firms in Germany and the UK. The empirical results confirm that neither youth nor smallness are necessarily an obstacle to realising a high degree of internationalisation. However, this requires that the firms possess firm-specific assets in order to overcome barriers to entry into the foreign market. These firm-specific assets may be acquired via conducting own R&D activities, buying novel technology from other companies, or by employing internationally experienced managers. |
| Keywords: | High-technology industries, export-sales ratio, fractional logit model |
| JEL: | F23 L60 L86 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5435&r=ino |
| By: | Lucia Cusmano (CESPRI – Bocconi University, Milano, Italy and Insubria University, Varese, Italy); Maria Luisa Mancusi (Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.); Andrea Morrison (Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | Pervasive outsourcing is transforming business models and productive relations in advanced manufacturing areas. In particular, the international dimension of outsourcing, off-shoring, has been attracting great attention, as it leads to the emergence of global value chains and internationally distributed innovation processes, affecting the position of regions and countries in the international division of labour. The present paper investigates the diversified patterns of outsourcing and off-shoring across industries which have been characterising the recent dynamics of Lombardy, the Italian leading economic region. Based on a large firm-level survey, the work investigates extent, depth, regional embeddedness and degree of internationalisation of outsourcing processes, differentiating between stages of production, research and service activities. The evidence suggests that fragmentation is remarkably wide and interests all the industrial sectors to a similar extent. However, outsourcing has a clear regional dimension, concerning services at most, and taking the form of extended producer-driven chains, highly embedded in the regional system. Regionally confined fragmentation is driven by final producers of relatively small size, which nevertheless exhibit high skill intensity. Off-shoring is still, on the other hand, a limited phenomenon, encompassing only a minor fraction of the process of deverticalisation. The evidence depicts off-shoring as part of a wider process of internationalisation by mostly large firms or group subsidiaries at intermediate stages of the value chain, which increasingly rely on international intra-industry trade. The international outsourcing trend appears to be strongly driven by export-oriented firms, whereas foreign direct investment per se seems to play a minor role. |
| Keywords: | Outsourcing, Offshoring, R&D, Regional system. |
| JEL: | D21 F23 L22 L23 O32 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp194&r=ino |
| By: | Marco S. Giarratana; Anna Torres |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the link between brand performance and cultural primes in high-risk, innovation-based sectors. In theory section, we propose that the level of cultural uncertainty avoidance embedded in a firm determine its marketing creativity by increasing the complexity and the broadness of a brand. It determines also the rate of firm product innovations. Marketing creativity and product innovation influence finally the firm marketing performance. Empirically, we study trademarked promotion in the Software Security Industry (SSI). Our sample consists of 87 firms that are active in SSI from 11 countries in the period 1993-2000. We use the data coming from SSI-related trademarks registered by these firms, ending up with 2,911 SSI-related trademarks and a panel of 18,213 observations. We estimate a two stage model in which first we predict the complexity and the broadness of a trademark as a measure of marketing creativity and the rate of product innovations. Among several control variables, our variable of theoretical interest is the Hofstede’s uncertainty avoidance cultural index. Then, we estimate the trademark duration with a hazard model using the predicted complexity and broadness as well as the rate of product innovations, along with the same control variables. Our evidence confirms that the cultural avoidance affects the duration of the trademarks through the firm marketing creativity and product innovation. |
| Keywords: | Trademark duration, creativity, uncertainty avoidance cultural index |
| JEL: | M31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1015&r=ino |
| By: | Hanns Ullrich |
| Abstract: | The completion of a Community system of unitary intellectual property protection has come to a halt when the Commission’s proposal for a Community Patent Regulation was shelved by the Council on political grounds in late 2004. By contrast, under the auspices of the European Patent Organization a draft European Patent Litigation Agreement has been set up with a view to have it adopted by those Contracting States of the European Patent Convention ( EPC ), which would volunteer for it. Given that conceptually both the Community patent project and the European Patent Convention date back to the mid of the last century, and that due to economic and technological change there is a good case to be made for a broad reform effort, it is proposed to benefit from the present crisis of unification of patent law by undertaking a review of the entire system with a view to establish a fundamentally modernized system of protection. This should include the recognition of the role national patents have to play in an integrated system of patent protection in Europe. |
| Keywords: | European law; economic law; RTD policy; international agreements; Single Market |
| Date: | 2006–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:euilaw:p0070&r=ino |
| By: | Luc Behaghel; Eve Caroli; Emmanuelle Walkowiak |
| Abstract: | Following technical and organisational changes, firms may react to increasing skill requirements either by training (on the internal labour market) or hiring the new skills, or a combination of the two. Using matched datasets with about 1,000 French plants, we assess the role of these external and internal labour market strategies. We show that skill upgrading following technological and organisational changes takes place mostly through internal labour markets adjustments, except for the adoption of the Internet which gives rise to both internal and external types of adjustments. We then consider the determinants of the strategies used by individual firms: do some firms mainly rely on one strategy while other firms prevalently choose another strategy, and why? We show that firms' size and localisation are critical in explaining such differences. Skill upgrading strategies relying on the external labour market seem to be prevalently adopted by small urban plants. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2007-04&r=ino |
| By: | Ronaldo Villa Borges (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Economie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - [CNRS : FRE2664] - [Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II]); Virginie Jacquier-Roux (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Economie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - [CNRS : FRE2664] - [Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II]); Christian Le Bas (GEMO - Groupe de recherche en Economie et Management des Organisations - [Ecole de Commerce et de Management][Université Catholique de Lyon]) |
| Abstract: | Le présent travail vise à mesurer l'attractivité technologique d'une région (Rhône-Alpes), c'est-à-dire sa capacité à attirer des activités technologiques (activités de recherche et d'innovation) de firmes étrangères. On passe en revue les enjeux de l'implantation en région des firmes étrangères quant à la production de connaissances et les difficultés à définir une mesure de l'attractivité. Un travail sur plus de 2 000 brevets européens inventés par des entreprises régionales permet d'évaluer à près de 17 % le volume d'inventions faites en Rhône-Alpes et appropriées par des firmes étrangères. |
| Keywords: | recherche et développement ; globalisation ; investissement étranger ; implantation étrangère ; brevet européen ; économie régionale ; développement régional ; développement technologique ; France ; Rhône-Alpes |
| Date: | 2007–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00133607_v1&r=ino |
| By: | Pyyhtiä, Ilmo (Bank of Finland Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper builds on the literature on growth in searching for explanations for the divergent growth performance between the EU countries and the United States. We emphasise the role of R&D investment and perhaps different degrees of elasticity of substitution between capital and labour. We estimate two different production functions, namely Cobb-Douglas and CES specifications, with physical capital, a measure of labour, and residual ‘technical trend’ as inputs. <p> Our first finding is that in many ICT-producing and using countries such as Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and the United States technical progress has been accelerating during the past decade. Secondly, this speeding up of technical progress has been associated with R&D investment and perhaps with increasing elasticity of substitution between capital and labour. Hence, our results suggest that there is no growth paradox in Europe: the R&D factor and the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour which have been known to be important factors of economies’ growth potential, actually explain a significant part of the divergent growth performance of the European economies as well. |
| Keywords: | endogenous growth; panel data estimation; production function; R&D; technical progress; elasticity of substitution |
| JEL: | E22 E23 O51 O52 |
| Date: | 2007–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofrdp:2007_003&r=ino |
| By: | Andrea Caggese |
| Abstract: | In this paper I develop a general equilibrium model with risk averse entrepreneurial firms and with public firms. The model predicts that an increase in uncertainty reduces the propensity of entrepreneurial firms to innovate, while it does not affect the propensity of public firms to innovate. Furthermore, it predicts that the negative effect of uncertainty on innovation is stronger for the less diversified entrepreneurial firms, and is stronger in the absence of financing frictions in the economy. In the second part of the paper I test these predictions on a dataset of small and medium Italian manufacturing firms. |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1011&r=ino |
| By: | Christoph Engel (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Policymakers all over the world claim: no innovation without protection. For more than a century, critics have objected that the case for intellectual property is far from clear. This paper uses a game theoretic model to organise the debate. It is possible to model innovation as a prisoner's dilemma between potential innovators, and to interpret intellectual property as a tool for making cooperation the equilibrium. However, this model rests on assumptions about cost and benefit that are unlikely to hold, or have even been shown to be wrong, in many empirically relevant situations. Moreover, even if the problem is indeed a prisoner's dilemma, in many situations intellectual property is an inappropriate cure. It sets incentives to race to be the first, or the last, to innovate, as the case may be. In equilibrium, the firms would have to randomise between investment and non-investment, which is unlikely to work out in practice. Frequently, firms would have to invent cooperatively, which proves difficult in larger industries. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property, game theory |
| JEL: | C72 O31 K11 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2007_4&r=ino |
| By: | Guillem López |
| Abstract: | Recent policy developments in public health care systems lead to a greater diversity in health care. Decentralisation, either geographically or at an institutional level, is the key force, because it encourages innovation and local initiatives in health care provision. The devolution of responsibilities allows for a sort of ‘de-construction’ of the status quo by changing both organizational forms and service provision. The new organizations enjoy greater freedom in the way they pay their staff, and are judged according to their results. These organizations may retain financial surpluses, develop ‘spin-off’ companies and commission a range of specialised services (such as Diagnostic and Treatment Centres in UK) from providers outside the institutional setting in order to have more access to capital markets. However this diversity may generate a feeling of lack of commitment to a national health service and ultimately a loss of social cohesion. By fiscal decentralisation to regional authorities or planned delegation of financial agreements to the providers, financial incentives are more explicit and may seem to place profit-making above a commitment to better health care. An evaluation of the ‘myths and realities’ of the decentralization process is needed. Here, I offer an assessment ‘pros’ and ‘cons’of the decentralization process of health care in Spain, drawing on the experience of regional reforms from the pioneering organisational innovations implemented in Catalonia in 1981, up to the observed dispersion of health care spending per capita among regions at present. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal decentralisation, management autonomy, hospital innovation, National Health system, Spain, regional health service, Catalonia |
| JEL: | H11 H51 H73 H77 H83 I18 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:984&r=ino |
| By: | Nogareda, Jazmin Seijas; Ziegler, Andreas |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze potential endogeneity problems in former econometric studies which regress corporate environmental performance such as green technology activities on green management. Based on evolutionary theory and the resource-based view of the firm, we discuss in the first step that green technology could also influence green management and that unobserved firm characteristics could simultaneously influence green management and green technology. Contrary to existing studies, we empirically explore in the second step the structural reverse causality hypothesis with a unique crosssectional firm-level data set from the German manufacturing sector. Our econometric analyses with uni- and multivariate probit models imply a significantly positive effect of environmental process innovations on certified environmental management systems and a significantly positive impact of environmental product innovations on life cycle assessment activities. We interpret these empirical results as a further indicator that the causal relationship between green management and green technology is not clear. We conclude that panel data, which are not available for technological environmental innovations yet, are a necessary condition to solve these endogeneity problems. Such panel data studies could therefore be an appropriate basis for robust conclusions with regard to voluntary green management measures as a non-mandatory approach in environmental policy. |
| Keywords: | Non-mandatory environmental policy, green management, green technology, uni- and multivariate probit models, endogeneity |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5430&r=ino |
| By: | Guillem López; David McDaid; Joan Costa-Font |
| Abstract: | The organisation of inpatient care provision has undergone significant reform in many southern European countries. Overall across Europe, public management is moving towards the introduction of more flexibility and autonomy . In this setting, the promotion of the further decentralisation of health care provision stands out as a key salient policy option in all countries that have hitherto had a traditionally centralised structure. Yet, the success of the underlying incentives that decentralised structures create relies on the institutional design at the organisational level, especially in respect of achieving efficiency and promoting policy innovation without harming the essential principle of ‘equal access for equal need’ that grounds National Health Systems (NHS). This paper explores some of the specific organisational developments of decentralisation structures drawing from the Spanish experience, and particularly those in the Catalonia. This experience provides some evidence of the extent to which organisation decentralisation structures that expand levels of autonomy and flexibility lead to organisational innovation while promoting activity and efficiency. In addition to this pure ‘managerial decentralisation’ process, Spain is of particular interest as a result of the specific regional NHS decentralisation that started in the early 1980’s and was completed in 2002 when all seventeen autonomous communities that make up the country had responsibility for health care services. Already there is some evidence to suggest that this process of decentralisation has been accompanied by a degree of policy innovation and informal regional cooperation. Indeed, the Spanish experience is relevant because both institutional changes took place, namely managerial decentralisation – leading to higher flexibility and autonomy- alongside an increasing political decentralisation at the regional level. The coincidence of both processes could potentially explain why some organisation and policy innovation resulting from policy experimentation at the regional level might be an additional feature to take into account when examining the benefits of decentralisation. |
| Keywords: | Management autonomy, hospital innovation, National Health system, Spain, regional health service, Catalonia |
| JEL: | H11 H51 H73 H77 H83 I18 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:993&r=ino |
| By: | Daniel Chudnovsky (Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación (CENIT).); Andrés López (Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación (CENIT).); Martín Rossi (Universidad de San Andrés); Diego Ubfal (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | The paper contains an impact evaluation of research subsidies on the academic performance of researchers in Argentina. |
| Keywords: | scientific research, program evaluation, propensity score matching, Latin America, Argentina. |
| JEL: | H50 O38 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:ovewps:1206&r=ino |