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on Innovation |
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Issue of 2009‒01‒31
fourteen papers chosen by Steffen Lippert Massey University Department of Commerce |
| By: | Michele Boldrin; David K Levine |
| Date: | 2009–01–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levarc:814577000000000092&r=ino |
| By: | Katharine Rockett |
| Abstract: | We survey the economics literature on optimal patent design. We first outline the patent right and the basic economic effects of the patent on innovation. Models that use frictions instead of patents to generate rewards to innovation and models of trade secrecy are considered briefly. The patent design papers are divided into those that model a single innovation, those dealing with cumulative innovation, and more recent papers focussing on complementary innovations. Disclosure issues are presented in a separate section. Finally, enforcement of patents and the interactions between patents and competition policy are considered. |
| Date: | 2009–01–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:663&r=ino |
| By: | Carolin Haeussler; Dietmar Harhoff; Elisabeth Müller |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how patent applications and grants held by new ventures improve their ability to attract venture capital (VC) financing. We argue that investors are faced with considerable uncertainty and therefore rely on patents as signals when trying to assess the prospects of potential portfolio companies. For a sample of VC-seeking German and British biotechnology companies we have identified all patents filed at the European Patent Office (EPO). Applying hazard rate analysis, we find that in the presence of patent applications, VC financing occurs earlier. Our results also show that VCs pay attention to patent quality, financing those ventures faster which later turn out to have high-quality patents. Patent oppositions increase the likelihood of receiving VC, but ultimate grant decisions do not spur VC financing, presumably because they are anticipated. Our empirical results and interviews with VCs suggest that the process of patenting generates signals which help to overcome the liabilities of newness faced by new ventures. |
| Keywords: | patents, venture capital, intellectual property rights, R&D, biotechnology |
| JEL: | O30 O34 L20 L26 G24 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:253&r=ino |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu; Kostas Bimpikis; Asuman E. Ozdaglar |
| Date: | 2009–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levarc:814577000000000081&r=ino |
| By: | Dirk Bergemann; Ulrich Hege; Liang Peng |
| Date: | 2009–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levarc:814577000000000046&r=ino |
| By: | Gerlagh , Reyer (University of Manchester); Kverndokk, Snorre (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Rosendahl, Knut Einar (Research Department, Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the timing and interdependence between innovation and environmental policy in a model of research and development (R&D). On a first-best path the environmental tax is set at the Pigouvian level, independent of innovation policy. With infinite patent lifetime, the R&D subsidy should be constant and independent of the state of the environment. However, with finite patent lifetime, optimal innovation policy depends on the stage of the environmental problem. In the early stages of an environmental problem, abatement research should be subsidized at a high level and this subsidy should fall monotonically over time to stimulate initial R&D investments. Alternatively, with a constant R&D subsidy, patents’ length should initially have a very long life-time but this should be gradually shortened. In a second-best situation with no deployment subsidy for abatement equipment, we find that the environmental tax should be high compared to the Pigouvian levels when an abatement industry is developing, but the relative difference falls over time. That is, environmental policies will be accelerated compared to first-best. |
| Keywords: | Environmental policy; research and development; innovation studies; patents |
| JEL: | H21 O30 Q42 |
| Date: | 2008–06–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2008_010&r=ino |
| By: | Ortega-Argilés, Raquel (European Commission); Piva, Mariacristina (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Potters, Lesley (Utrecht School of Economics); Vivarelli, Marco (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the link between R&D and productivity across the European industrial and service sectors. The empirical analysis is based on both the European sectoral OECD data and on a unique micro longitudinal database consisting of 532 top European R&D investors. The main conclusions are as follows. First, the R&D stock has a significant positive impact on labour productivity; this general result is largely consistent with previous literature in terms of the sign, the significance and the magnitude of the estimated coefficients. More interestingly, both at sectoral and firm levels the R&D coefficient increases monotonically (both in significance and magnitude) when we move from the low-tech to the medium and high-tech sectors. This outcome means that corporate R&D investment is more effective in the high-tech sectors and this may need to be taken into account when designing policy instruments (subsidies, fiscal incentives, etc.) in support of private R&D. However, R&D investment is not the sole source of productivity gains; technological change embodied in gross investment is of comparable importance on aggregate and is the main determinant of productivity increase in the low-tech sectors. Hence, an economic policy aiming to increase productivity in the low-tech sectors should support overall capital formation. |
| Keywords: | R&D, productivity, high-tech sectors, innovation, industrial policy |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3945&r=ino |
| By: | Filip De Beule; Ilke Van Beveren |
| Abstract: | Using the cluster definitions of the European Cluster Observatory, this paper investigates the link between cluster membership and firm-level product innovation and renewal,using data from the Community Innovation Survey for Belgium. Clustered firms account for 71 percent of total product renewal generated in 2004 and for 53 percent of product innovators; compared to 29 and 47 percent for non-clustered firms, respectivily. Furthermore, cluster membership is shown to be conducive to firm-level product innovation and renewal once firm size, export intensity and reseach inputs are taken into account. Foreign firms are not more prone to carry out product innovation, except for subsidiaries in clusters. |
| Keywords: | Product Innovation, Clusters, Community Innovation Survey, Multinational Firms |
| JEL: | D21 F23 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:22709&r=ino |
| By: | Pavla Zizalova (Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | Innovation studies literature has put high importance to sectoral and regional patterns of innovations. This research effort is based upon the argument that industries as well as regions represent quite homogeneous entities with respect to firms’ innovation strategies. To the contrary, evolutionary approaches assign more importance to firms’ heterogeneity and hence look for groups of firms characterised by similar innovation strategies cutting across the traditional boundaries. The purpose of this paper is to characterize the innovation strategies of Czech firms using explanatory factor analysis and thus first contribute to a better understanding of innovative activities and second, explore whether the identified divergence in innovation patterns can be attributed to the localized conditions or whether it is rather firmspecific. Finally, the paper will discuss the implications of these findings for the literature on territorial systems of innovation, particularly the question how the systems should be delineated, as well as implications for (regional) innovation policy. |
| Keywords: | innovation, regional systems of innovation, factor analysis. |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tik:inowpp:20090102&r=ino |
| By: | Cristiano Antonelli; Giuseppe Scellato |
| Date: | 2009–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levarc:814577000000000071&r=ino |
| By: | Bruno Amable (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Lilas Demmou (Ministère des Fiances - DGTPE); Ivan Ledezma (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | According to a recent literature, the positive effect of competition is supposed to be growing with the proximity to the technological frontier. Using a variety of indicators, the paper tests the effect of competition and regulation on innovative activity measured by patenting. The sample consists of a panel of 15 industries for 17 OECD countries over the period 1979-2003. Results show no evidence of a positive effect of competition growing with the proximity to the frontier. Two main configurations emerge. First, regulation has a positive effect whatever the distance to the frontier and the magnitude of its impact is higher the closer the industry is to the frontier. Second, the effect of regulation is negative far from the frontier and becomes positive (or non significant) when the technology gap decreases. These results contradict the belief in the innovation-boosting effect of product market deregulation such as taken into account in the Lisbon Strategy. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, competition, distance to frontier. |
| JEL: | O30 L16 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:r08064&r=ino |
| By: | Bee Yan Aw; Mark J. Roberts; Daniel Yi Xu |
| Abstract: | A positive correlation between productivity and export market participation has been well documented in producer micro data. Recent empirical studies and theoretical analyses have emphasized that this may reflect the producer's other investment activities, particularly investments in R&D or new technology, that both raise productivity and increase the payoff to exporting. In this paper we develop a dynamic structural model of a producer's decision to invest in R&D and participate in the export market. The investment decisions depend on the expected future profitability and the fixed and sunk costs incurred with each activity. We estimate the model using plant-level data from the Taiwanese electronics industry and find a complex set of interactions between R&D, exporting, and productivity. The self- selection of high productivity plants is the dominant channel driving participation in the export market and R&D investment. Both R&D and exporting have a positive direct effect on the plant's future productivity which reinforces the selection effect. When modeled as discrete decisions, the productivity effect of R&D is larger, but, because of its higher cost, is undertaken by fewer plants than exporting. The impact of each activity on the net returns to the other are quantitatively unimportant. In model simulations, the endogenous choice of R&D and exporting generates average productivity that is 22.0 percent higher after 10 years than an environment where productivity evolution is not affected by plant investments. |
| JEL: | F14 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14670&r=ino |
| By: | De Silva, Dakshina G.; McComb, Robert P. |
| Abstract: | If localized knowledge spillovers are present in the university setting, higher rates of both start-ups and/or survival than in the broader economy would be observed in areas that are geographically proximate to the university. Using a fully-disclosed Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for Texas for the years 1999:3-2006:2, this paper analyzes start-ups and exit rates for high-tech firms in Texas. We find that there is evidence that the presence of a research institution will affect the likelihood of technology start-ups. However, results suggest that geographic proximity to knowledge centers does not reduce hazard rates. |
| Keywords: | Entry and Survival; R & D; Regional; Urban; and Rural Analyses. |
| JEL: | R53 O18 R12 |
| Date: | 2009–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:13022&r=ino |
| By: | Vona, Francesco; Consoli, Davide |
| Abstract: | Empirical anomalies in the dynamics of earnings following the emergence of new ICT technologies are not consistent with various re-elaborations of the human capital theory. The first part of the paper reviews critically this literature and highlights an important gap concerning the role of institutional infrastructures for the systematisation and diffusion of new knowledge. The dynamic life-cycle approach elaborated in the second part provides a coherent account of the evidence, and indicates interesting implications for innovation and educational policies. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Human Capital; Earning Distribution; |
| JEL: | J24 D8 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:13032&r=ino |