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on Innovation |
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Issue of 2009‒10‒31
twelve papers chosen by Steffen Lippert Massey University Department of Commerce |
| By: | Ilke VAN BEVEREN (Lessius University College, Department of Business Studies, Antwerp and UniversitŽ catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Hylke VANDENBUSSCHE (UniversitŽ catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance and ¤ CEPR.) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Community Innovation Survey for Belgium in two consecutive periods, this paper explores the relationship between firm-level innovation activities and the propensity to start exporting. To measure innovation, we include indicators of both innovative effort (R&D activities) as well as innovative output (product and process innovation). Our results suggest that the combination of product and process innovation, rather than either of the two in isolation, increases a firmÕs probability to enter the export market. After controlling for potential endogeneity of the innovation activities, only firms with a sufficiently high probability to start exporting engage in product and process innovation prior to their entry on the export market, pointing to the importance of self-selection into innovation. |
| Keywords: | Exports, Product innovation, Process innovation, Self-selection, Firm heterogeneity |
| JEL: | D24 F14 L25 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–09–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2009032&r=ino |
| By: | Tomás del Barrio-Castro (University of the Balearic Islands); José García-Quevedo (University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | In recent years various studies have examined the factors that may explain academic patents. Existing analyses have also underlined the substantial differences to be found in European countries in the institutional framework that defines property rights for academic patents. The objective of this study is to contribute to the empirical literature on the factors explaining academic patents and to determine whether the incentives that universities offer researchers contribute towards explaining the differences in academic patenting activity. The results of the econometric analysis for the Spanish universities point towards the conclusion that the principal factor determining the patents is funding of R&D while royalty incentives to researchers do not appear to be significant. |
| Keywords: | patents, university, R&D |
| JEL: | O34 O31 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2009/9/doc2009-13&r=ino |
| By: | Vanessa OLTRA (GREThA UMR CNRS 5113); René KEMP (University of Maastrich); Frans P. de VRIES (University of Stirling) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the usefulness of patent analysis for measuring eco-innovation. The overall conclusion is that patents are a useful means for measuring environmentally motivated innovations, such as pollution control technologies and green energy technologies, and for general purpose technologies with environmental benefits. For these types of innovations it is acceptable to use patent analysis, provided they are carefully screened. Patent analysis may be used for measuring five attributes of eco-innovation: (1) eco-inventive activities in specific technology fields, (2) international technological diffusion, (3) research and technical capabilities of companies, (4) institutional knowledge sources of eco-innovation, and (5) technological spillovers and knowledge flows. Up until now it is mainly used for measuring eco-inventive activity. |
| Keywords: | Eco-innovation, patents |
| JEL: | C81 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2009-05&r=ino |
| By: | Margaret Kyle; Anita McGahan |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between patent protection for pharmaceuticals and investment in development of new drugs. Patent protection has increased around the world as a consequence of the TRIPS Agreement, which specifies minimum levels of intellectual property protection for members of the World Trade Organization. It is generally argued that patents are critical for pharmaceutical research efforts, and so greater patent protection in developing and least-developed countries might result in greater effort by pharmaceutical firms to develop drugs that are especially needed in those countries. Since patents also have the potential to reduce access to treatments through higher prices, it is imperative to assess whether the benefits of increased incentives have materialized in research on diseases that particularly affect the poor. We find that patent protection is associated with increases in research and development (R&D) effort when adopted in high income countries. However, the introduction of patents in developing countries has not been followed by greater investment. Particularly for diseases that primarily affect the poorest countries, our results suggest that alternative mechanisms for inducing R&D may be more appropriate than patents. |
| JEL: | F13 I11 L65 O34 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15468&r=ino |
| By: | Martinsson, Gustav (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Lööf, Hans (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Based on data from of 2,700 Swedish manufacturing firms, observed through the period 1997-2005, this paper shows that internal finance resources, measured by cash-flow, affect the propensity to apply for a patent as well as the number of patent applications. From a business cycle perspective, cash-flow only plays a role during and after economic contractions. In periods of economic expansion there is no significant association between internal finance and patent applications. Further, the sensitivity of patent applications to cash-flow is limited to firms with low equity-ratio. Among high equity firms the pattern of patent applications are robust over the business cycle. |
| Keywords: | Financing constraints; Innovation; Intellectual property rights; Firm-level panel data; |
| JEL: | G32 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2009–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0200&r=ino |
| By: | Pierre Mohnen (University of Maastrich, UNU-MERIT and CIRANO); Boris Lokshin (University of Maastricht and UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | We take a critical look at how to assess the effectiveness of R&D tax incentives. The net welfare gain is shown to be sensitive to a certain number of parameters. In particular, the deadweight loss associated with level-based tax incentives depends on the ex-ante R&D level. We report on the success of a past policy changes and simulate the effect of various parameter changes in the existing Dutch R&D tax incentive scheme. We show that this policy is more effective for small firms than for large firms. We end with a discussion of the pros and cons of volume-based versus incremental R&D tax incentives. |
| Keywords: | R&D tax credits; policy evaluation; cost-benefit analysis. |
| JEL: | O32 O38 H25 H50 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2009/10/doc2009-9&r=ino |
| By: | Ajay K. Agrawal; Iain M. Cockburn; Carlos Rosell |
| Abstract: | We examine variation in the concentration of inventive activity across 72 of North America's most highly innovative locations. In 12 of these areas, innovation is particularly concentrated in a single, large firm; we refer to such locations as "company towns.'' We find that inventors employed by large firms in these locations tend to draw disproportionately from their firm's own prior inventions (as measured by citations to their own prior patents) relative to what would be expected given the underlying distribution of innovative activity across all inventing firms in a particular technology field. Furthermore, we find such inventors are more likely to build upon the same prior inventions year after year. However, smaller firms in company towns do not exhibit this myopic behavior; they draw upon prior inventions as broadly as their small-firm counterparts in more diverse locations. In addition, we find that inventions by large firms in company towns have less impact than those produced elsewhere, although the difference is modest, and that the impact is disproportionately appropriated by the inventing firms themselves. Finally, the geographic scope of impact realized by company town inventions is narrower, whether produced by large or small firms. |
| JEL: | O18 O33 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15437&r=ino |
| By: | Cowan, Robin (UNU-MERIT, and BETA, Universite Louis Pasteur); Jonard, Nicolas (Universite du Luxembourg.); Sanditov, Bulat (UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an economic model of R&D network formation through the creation of strategic alliances. Firms are randomly endowed with knowledge elements. They base their alliance decisions purely on the technological fit of potential partners, ignoring social capital considerations and indirect benefits on the network. This is sufficient to generate equilibrium networks with the small world properties of observed alliance networks, namely short pairwise distances and local clustering. The equilibrium networks are more clustered than "comparable" random graphs, while they have similar characteristic path length. Two extreme regimes of competition are examined, to show that while the competition has a quantitative effect on the equilibrium networks (density is lower with competition), the small world features of the equilibrium networks are preserved. |
| Keywords: | network formation, small worlds, R&D networks, strategic alliances, business clusters |
| JEL: | D85 O32 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2009042&r=ino |
| By: | William R. Kerr |
| Abstract: | We investigate the speed at which clusters of invention for a technology migrate spatially following breakthrough inventions. We identify breakthrough inventions as the top one percent of US inventions for a technology during 1975-1984 in terms of subsequent citations. Patenting growth is significantly higher in cities and technologies where breakthrough inventions occur after 1984 relative to peer locations that do not experience breakthrough inventions. This growth differential in turn depends on the mobility of the technology's labor force, which we model through the extent that technologies depend upon immigrant scientists and engineers. Spatial adjustments are faster for technologies that depend heavily on immigrant inventors. The results qualitatively confirm the mechanism of industry migration proposed in models like Duranton (2007). |
| JEL: | F2 J4 J6 O3 O4 R1 R3 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15443&r=ino |
| By: | Nicolas CARAYOL (GREThA UMR CNRS 5113); Lorenzo CASSI (CES, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne - CNRS) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a bayesian methodology to treat the who’s who problem arising in individual level data sets such as patent data. We assess the usefullness of this methodology on the set of all French inventors appearing on EPO applications from 1978 to 2003. |
| Keywords: | Patents, homonymy, Bayes rule |
| JEL: | C81 C88 O30 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2009-07&r=ino |
| By: | Naomi R. Lamoreaux; Kenneth L. Sokoloff; Dhanoos Sutthiphisal |
| Abstract: | The standard view of U.S. technological history is that the locus of invention shifted during the early twentieth century to large firms whose in-house research laboratories were superior sites for advancing the complex technologies of the second industrial revolution. In recent years this view has been subject to increasing criticism. At the same time, new research on equity markets during the early twentieth century suggests that smaller, more entrepreneurial enterprises were finding it easier to gain financial backing for technological discovery. We use data on the assignment (sale or transfer) of patents to explore the extent to which, and how, inventive activity was reorganized during this period. We find that two alternative modes of technological discovery developed in parallel during the early twentieth century. The first, concentrated in the Middle Atlantic region, centered on large firms with in-house R&D labs and superior access to the region’s rapidly growing equity markets. The other, located mainly in the East North Central region, consisted of smaller, more entrepreneurial enterprises that drew primarily on local sources of funds. Both modes seem to have made roughly equivalent contributions to technological change through the 1920s. The subsequent dominance of large firms seems to have been propelled by a differential access to capital during the Great Depression that was subsequently reinforced by the regulatory and military procurement policies of the federal government. |
| JEL: | N0 O3 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15440&r=ino |
| By: | Nicolae Gârleanu; Leonid Kogan; Stavros Panageas |
| Abstract: | We study asset-pricing implications of innovation in a general-equilibrium overlapping-generations economy. Innovation increases the competitive pressure on existing firms and workers, reducing the profits of existing firms and eroding the human capital of older workers. Due to the lack of inter-generational risk sharing, innovation creates a systematic risk factor, which we call "displacement risk.'' This risk helps explain several empirical patterns, including the existence of the growth-value factor in returns, the value premium, and the high equity premium. We assess the magnitude of displacement risk using estimates of inter-cohort consumption differences across households and find support for the model. |
| JEL: | G10 G12 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15457&r=ino |