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on Innovation |
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Issue of 2010‒04‒24
thirteen papers chosen by Steffen Lippert Massey University Department of Commerce |
| By: | Jacques Mairesse; Pierre Mohnen |
| Abstract: | After presenting the history, the evolution and the content of innovation surveys, we discuss the characteristics of the data they contain and the challenge they pose to the analyst and the econometrician. We document the two uses that have been made of these data: the construction of scoreboards for monitoring innovation and the scholarly analysis of various issue related to innovation. In particular we review the questions examined and the results obtained regarding the determinants, the effects, the complementarities, and the dynamics of innovation. We conclude by suggesting ways to improve the data collection and their econometric analysis. <P>Dans cet article de survol sur les utilisations des enquêtes innovation, nous commençons par présenter leur historique et les informations qu’elles apportent. Nous discutons en détail les caractéristiques des données fournies et les difficultés qu’elles peuvent poser pour les analyses. Nous considérons successivement les deux usages auxquelles ces données servent principalement : la construction d'indicateurs et de « scoreboard » de l'innovation et les études économétriques sur différents thèmes ayant trait à l'innovation. Nous passons ainsi en revue les questions posées et les résultats obtenus par les études sur les déterminants de l’innovation, sur ses effets, sur les complémentarités entre types d’innovation et sur sa dynamique. Nous concluons par une liste de suggestions pour améliorer la conception et l’organisation des enquêtes innovation et pour progresser dans leur analyse économétrique. |
| Keywords: | innovation survey, econometrics, complementarity, productivity, R&D, collaboration. , enquêtes innovation, économetrie, complémentarité, productivité, R&D, collaboration |
| JEL: | O30 O50 C35 C81 |
| Date: | 2010–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2010s-15&r=ino |
| By: | Frauke G. Braun; Jens Schmidt-Ehmcke; Petra Zloczysti |
| Abstract: | This paper studies technological change in renewable energies, providing empirical evidence on the determinants of innovative activity with a special emphasis on the role of knowledge spillovers. We investigate two major renewable energy technologies - wind and solar - across a panel of 21 OECD countries over the period 1978 to 2004. Spillovers may occur at the national level, either within the same technology field or economic sector (intra-sectoral spillovers) or in related technologies or sectors (inter-sectoral spillovers), or at the international level. We find that innovation is strongly driven by knowledge spillovers, especially those occurring at the national level. Wind and solar technologies exhibit distinct innovation characteristics: both are stimulated by intra-sectoral spillovers, but respond differently to inter-sectoral spillovers, which are only influential in the case of wind technology. We also find evidence that public R&D stimulates innovation, particularly in solar technologies. |
| Keywords: | Technological change, renewable energy, patents, knowledge spillover, climate change, innovation |
| JEL: | O31 Q42 Q55 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp993&r=ino |
| By: | Frauke G. Braun; Liz Hooper; Robert Wand; Petra Zloczysti |
| Abstract: | Better understanding the innovative process of renewable energy technologies is important for tackling climate change. Though concentrating solar power is receiving growing interest, innovation studies so far have explored innovative activity in solar technologies in general, ignoring the major differences between solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies. This study relies on patent data to examine international innovative activity in concentrating solar power technologies. Our unique contribution, based on engineering expertise and detailed datawork, is a classification system matching solar thermal technologies to the International Patent Classification (IPC) system. To this end we suggest a narrowly defined set of IPC classes and a broader one of technologies relevant to CSP, but not exclusively so. We moreover exploit information from three international patent offices, the European, the United States and the Japanese patent office. Innovative activity in narrowly defined CSP technologies has experienced an early boom before 1980 and only recently showed some signs of more activity - a pattern closely resembling the R&D support path. R&D and innovation are concentrated in few high-tech countries - such as the U.S. or Germany. Large CSP potential is not a sufficient condition for innovation, only developed countries such as Australia with both CSP potential and adequate economic and scientific capabilities are found to be among the group of relevant innovators. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, patent data, solar technologies, climate change |
| JEL: | O31 Q42 Q54 Q55 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp994&r=ino |
| By: | Bouguezzi, Fehmi; EL ELJ, Moez |
| Abstract: | The present paper studies and compares different vertical integration structures on consumers and total surplus with licensing by mean of a fixed fee in two successive homogeneous-good Cournot duopolies where one of the firms in each market has a different cost-reducing innovation. The key difference between the present model and models in the existing literature is that here we suppose the existence of two different patents in upstream and downstream markets. In each market we find two firms: the patent holding firm and a non innovative firm. In upstream market, the innovative firm owns an innovation allowing to reduce the input marginal production cost. In downstream market the innovative firm owns an innovation allowing to reduce marginal cost of transforming the input into output. We discuss different structures of vertical integration and we show that consumer surplus and total surplus are depending of cost-reducing innovation in upstream and downstream markets and the structure of vertical integration. |
| Keywords: | Cournot successive markets; Fee licensing; Vertical integration; process innovation |
| JEL: | D23 O32 O31 L22 L24 |
| Date: | 2009–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:22212&r=ino |
| By: | Andersson, Martin (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Baltzopoulos, Apostolos (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: | This paper analyzes how different R&D strategies of incumbent firms affect the quantity and quality of their entrepreneurial spawning. By examining entrepreneurial ventures of ex-employees of firms with different R&D strategies three things emerge: First, firms with persistent R&D investments with a general superiority in sales, exports, productivity, profitability and wages are less likely to generate entrepreneurs than firm with temporary or no R&D investments. Second, start-ups from knowledge intensive business service (KIBS) firms with persistent R&D investments have a significantly increased probability of survival. No corresponding association between the R&D strategies of incumbents and survival of entrepreneurial spawns is found for incumbents in manufacturing sectors. Third, spin-outs from KIBS-firms are more likely to survive if they start in the same firm, indicating the importance of inherited related knowledge. The findings suggest that R&D intensive firms spur fewer entrepreneurs, but their entrepreneurial spawns tend to be of higher quality. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; self-employment; R&D strategy; innovation; new firms; spin-off; spin-out |
| JEL: | J24 L26 M13 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2010–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0228&r=ino |
| By: | Masso, Jaan; Roolaht, Tõnu; Varblane, Urmas |
| Abstract: | A growing literature is trying to analyse the productivity gap between domestic and foreign firms with differences in innovation indicators. In our paper we analyse the relationship between inward and outward FDI at either company or industry level and the innovation behaviour of companies in Estonia. We use company-level data from three waves of the Community Innovation Surveys, which are combined with financial data from the Estonian Business Register and FDI data from the balance of payments statistics. For the analysis we apply a structural model involving equations on innovation expenditure, innovation outcome and productivity, and also innovation accounting and propensity score matching approaches. Our results show that the higher innovation output of foreign owned companies vanishes after various company characteristics are controlled for, but there were significant differences in innovation inputs such as the higher use of knowledge sourcing and the lower importance of various impeding factors. Outward investment has a positive influence on innovativeness among both domestic and foreign owned companies |
| Keywords: | innovation, internationalisation, foreign direct investments, catching-up countries |
| JEL: | F10 F23 O30 |
| Date: | 2010–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2010-05&r=ino |
| By: | Manel Antelo (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela) |
| Abstract: | A patent holder owning a two-period lasting innovation is unable to push it into the market, so it is licensed to a downstream user with production capabilities to market it. The production cost of this firm can be low or high, but the patent holder has only a prior on this fact |
| Keywords: | Licensing, asymmetric information, screening, signaling |
| JEL: | D82 L12 L13 L14 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cea:doctra:e2010_05&r=ino |
| By: | Filippetti, Andrea; Archibugi, Daniele |
| Abstract: | This article addresses the impact of the current economic downturn on innovation across Europe. Using micro and macro data we investigate to what extent some characteristics of a country affect the reaction of its firms in terms of innovation investment. It emerges that the effects of the economic downturn in terms of firms’ innovation investment are not the same across European countries. The competences and quality of the human resources, the specialization in the hi-technology sector together with the depth of the financial system seem to be the structural factors which are able to offset the effect of the economic downturn on innovation investments of firms across Europe. Finally, some considerations about policies during the crisis are discussed. |
| Keywords: | innovation investment; business cycles; national innovation systems; European Innovation Policy; financial crisis |
| JEL: | O38 E32 O3 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:22084&r=ino |
| By: | Thorsten Hansen (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of innovation on the organizational structure. The theoretical framework predicts that a larger parental pool of knowledge raises the probability of offshoring. This holds in a national as well as an international context. However, when the producer loses territorial protection, the changeover from non-integration to integration is delayed. Employing data on German firms investing in Eastern Europe finds empirical evidence for the theoretical predictions. The results are robust to different measurements and an instrumental variable regression. |
| JEL: | D23 D51 F23 L14 L21 L22 L23 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:315&r=ino |
| By: | Borota, Teodora (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Recent evidence on world trade patterns reveals North-South specialization across products of the same industries and product groups but different quality, which is not matched by the predictions of traditional and new trade theory. This paper analyzes a model of North-South trade and endogenous growth through innovation and imitation that can predict the observed trade patterns. The model is used to re-examine the impact of trade and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection on both the innovation in the North and the imitational lag of the South. Opening to trade increases the growth rate and welfare of both regions, but results in a larger lag in the quality level of the South. With free trade the quality lag of the South is positive even with no IPR protection as a result of a revealed comparative advantage in lower quality goods production and trade. This contradicts the common predictions of Southern take-over of the whole industries due to bad IPR enforcement. Stronger IPR protection has a negative effect on growth and deteriorates the lag of the South, but the welfare effects of the alternative IPR policy instruments may be different. |
| Keywords: | North-South trade; quality heterogeneity; endogenous growth; innovation and imitation; intellectual property rights |
| JEL: | F12 F43 O31 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2010–04–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2010_006&r=ino |
| By: | Giovanni Villani |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a real option methodology for evaluating R&D investment opportunities assuming that potential competitors can en- ter in the market. As it is well known, R&D investments are made often in a phased manner and so each stage creates an opportunity (option) for subsequent investment. Therefore, R&D projects can be consid- ered as ‘Compound Exchange Options' in which investments present uncertainty both in the gross project value and in costs. According to Majd and Pindyck (1987), in a real options context, “div- idends” are the opportunity costs inherent in the decision to defer an investment project and so deferment implies the loss of project's cash flows. Moreover, Trigeorgis (1996) incorporates the preemption effect through the “competitive dividends” which are the cash flows that can be eroded by anticipated competitive arrivals. In this paper we propose to value, using Montecarlo simulation, the R&D investments of a pioneer firm assuming that the Development cost can be spent in two moments: t2 or t3. If the Develpment cost is realized in t2 no firms enters in the market since the rivals' R&D plan is not yet concluded otherwise, if the investment D is delayed at time t3 waiting better market conditions, other rivals can enter in the market and so the opportunity costs (“dividends”) increase. |
| Keywords: | Real options; R&D; Monte Carlo methods; Competitive dividends. |
| JEL: | G13 O32 C15 D40 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ufg:qdsems:21-2009&r=ino |
| By: | Michael D. Makowsky (Department of Economics, Towson University); David M. Levy (Department of Economics, George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | We build a multi-agent model of endogenous technical change in which heterogeneous investments in patented knowledge generate Pareto-Levy and lognormal distributed returns to investment in research from very weak distributional assumptions. Firms produce a homogenous good and a public stock of knowledge accumulates from the expired patents of privately produced knowledge. Increasing returns to scale are derivative of endogenously produced technology, but the market remains competitive due to imperfect information and costly household search. The interaction of heterogeneous knowledge, research investment, revenues, and search outcomes across agents endogenously generates the empirically observed but seemingly idiosyncratic Pareto- Levy and lognormal mixture distribution of market returns. These distributional characteristics have ramifications for endogenous growth models given the importance of extreme values and market leaders in technological advancement. Average growth rates in the model have a global maximum at a finite, non-zero patent length. The distribution of growth rates is characterized by “fat tails.” The variance of growth rates increases with patent length. |
| Keywords: | patents, endogenous growth, increasing returns to scale, price dispersion, search, heterogeneous agents. |
| JEL: | C63 L11 O33 D83 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tow:wpaper:2010-10&r=ino |
| By: | Stepanok, Ignat (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I present a quality ladders endogenous growth model where firms differ in their productivities. I study the effect openness to trade has on firm productivity and firm turnover. Most theoretical papers in this literature assume an exogenous firm turnover rate. In this paper, the firm turnover rate is endogenously determined and in line with the empirical evidence, it depends on variable costs to trade. The paper is inspired by the theoretical work of Melitz (2003) and obtains Melitz-type results but with a different set of assumptions. In particular, I assume that firms invest in learning how to become exporters. I show that exporters are on average more productive than non-exporters and sell their products at higher prices. I also find that trade liberalization increases firm productivity and leads to a higher steady-state firm turnover rate, consistent with the empirical evidence. |
| Keywords: | trade liberalization; heterogenous firms; endogenous turnover; endogenous growth |
| JEL: | F12 F13 F43 O31 O41 |
| Date: | 2010–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hastef:0727&r=ino |