nep-ino New Economics Papers
on Innovation
Issue of 2013‒02‒08
eight papers chosen by
Steffen Lippert
University of Otago, Dunedin

  1. Knowledge and rent spillovers through government-sponsored R&D consortia By Nishimura, Junichi; Okamuro, Hiroyuki
  2. Dissecting the impact of innovation on exporting in Turkey By Alessia LO TURCO; Daniela MAGGIONI
  3. The World innovation landscape: Asia rising? By Reinhilde Veugelers
  4. Carbon Taxes, Path Dependency and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Auto Industry By Philippe Aghion; Antoine Dechezleprêtre; David Hemous; Ralf Martin; John Van Reenen
  5. Industry-level Output Price Indexes for R&D: An Input-cost Approach with R&D Productivity Adjustment By Carol Robbins; Olympia Belay; Matthew Donahoe; Jennifer Lee
  6. Market Power, Governance and Innovation: OECD Evidence By Ugur, Mehmet
  7. Innovation Benefits from Nuclear Phase-out: Can they Compensate the Costs? By Enrica De Cian; Samuel Carrara; Massimo Tavoni
  8. Governance, Regulation and Innovation: Introducing New Studies By Ugur, Mehmet

  1. By: Nishimura, Junichi; Okamuro, Hiroyuki
    Abstract: R&D consortia (collaborative R&D projects among private firms, universities, and public research institutes) have been attracting increasing attention as an effective means of promoting innovation. Especially for SMEs, such collaboration provides important opportunities to access and obtain advanced scientific knowledge generated by universities and public research institutes. It is expected that not only the participants in R&D consortia will enhance their performance, through direct knowledge spillovers, but also that the business partners of consortia members may enjoy indirect effects (rent spillovers), through their business transactions. This paper empirically examines the spillover effects through government-sponsored R&D consortia using firm-level data and the propensity score method. Focusing on a major support program for R&D consortia in Japan, the “Consortium R&D Project for Regional Revitalization” by METI, we confirm that there are both direct (knowledge) spillover effects from firms’ participation in this program and indirect (rent) spillover effects on the customer firms of the consortia members. Moreover, by comparing SMEs and large firms, we find that only SMEs obtain knowledge spillovers in R&D consortia, whereas, among their customers, only large firms enjoy rent spillovers.
    Keywords: R&D consortia, business transaction, knowledge spillover, rent spillover, SME, policy evaluation
    JEL: H25 L53 O32 O38
    Date: 2013–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:cinwps:24&r=ino
  2. By: Alessia LO TURCO (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali); Daniela MAGGIONI (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali)
    Abstract: Making use of an original firm level dataset, we explore the causal impact of innovation on the manufacturing firm export activity in Turkey. We model process and product innovation as separately - through cost savings and product quality improvements, respectively - affecting the firm profitability and, consequently, the firm export propensity. This modeling choice highlights heterogeneous effects across high and low income destination markets. In a Multiple Propensity Score Matching framework, we, then, test the impact of each innovation activity and of their joint adoption. We find that only the latter fosters the first time entry into exporting, when the destination market is high income. Nevertheless, innovation positively affects the firmexport propensity. New product introduction is more rewarding than process innovation, especially for exporting to lowincome economies. Process innovation, though, strengthens the positive role of product innovation for exporting to more advanced markets.
    Keywords: Turkey, export, process innovation, product innovation
    JEL: D22 F10 F14 O31
    Date: 2013–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:388&r=ino
  3. By: Reinhilde Veugelers
    Abstract: Highlights â?¢ Research and development spending has risen rapidly in Asia, particularly in China, which is now the worldâ??s second R&D spender behind the United States.The increase in Korean and Chinese patent applications has been even more rapid, but Chinese patenting for exploitation on the main markets for innovation(the European Union, Japan and the US) is still marginal. â?¢ Asia's increased innovation spending is most prominently related to information and communication technologies. Overall, the Chinese and Korean economies are still not specialised in knowledge-intensive goods and services.Furthermore, China in particular is not (so far) capturing much value from its role as a manufacturer and exporter of high-tech goods; China remains mostly an assembler of goods, the value of which is created elsewhere. â?¢ It would be wrong to ignore China's innovation potential on the basis of its current performance. Its clear innovation ambitions are likely to drive its future growth. â?¢ Europe is struggling much more than the US to retain its place at the global innovation table. The EU should use Asiaâ??s capacity building in innovation as an opportunity for value capture. Reinhilde Veugelers (reinhilde.veugelers@bruegel.org) is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel. Research assistance from Francesca Barbiero is gratefully acknowledged.
    Date: 2013–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:polcon:766&r=ino
  4. By: Philippe Aghion (Harvard University); Antoine Dechezleprêtre (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics); David Hemous (INSEAD); Ralf Martin (Imperial College Business School and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics); John Van Reenen (Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and NBER)
    Abstract: Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between “dirty” (internal combustion engine) and “clean” (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that firms tend to innovate relatively more in clean technologies when they face higher tax-inclusive fuel prices. Furthermore, there is path dependence in the type of innovation both from aggregate spillovers and from the firm's own innovation history. Using our model we simulate the increases in carbon taxes needed to allow clean to overtake dirty technologies.
    Keywords: Climate Change, Innovation, Directed Technical Change, Automobiles
    Date: 2012–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2012.99&r=ino
  5. By: Carol Robbins; Olympia Belay; Matthew Donahoe; Jennifer Lee (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
    Date: 2012–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bea:wpaper:0090&r=ino
  6. By: Ugur, Mehmet
    Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between market power, governance and patenting activity in a sample of 25 OECD countries from 1988-2007. Controlling for a wide range of innovation predictors, we report that governance quality is related positively with patenting activity in the full sample and in samples of countries with higher-than-average per-capita GDP, governance scores and economic openness. Secondly, the relationship between market power and innovation has a U-shape in the full sample, but inverted-U shape in split samples. Third, when interacted with governance, market power tends to have an offsetting effect that weakens the positive relationship between governance and innovation. These findings are robust to a range of control variables such as per-capita GDP, income inequality, depth of equity markets, labour share in national income, economic globalization and military expenditures. Our findings indicate that governance is a significant factor that explain innovation and that blanket statements about the relationship between competition and innovation as well as the kind of reforms necessary to foster innovation can be misleading.
    Keywords: Economic governance; innovation; patenting; market power
    JEL: E02 B52 O3
    Date: 2012–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44141&r=ino
  7. By: Enrica De Cian (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC)); Samuel Carrara (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC)); Massimo Tavoni (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC))
    Abstract: This paper investigates whether an inefficient allocation of abatement, due to constraints on the use of currently available low carbon mitigation options, can promote innovation in new technologies and eventually generate welfare gains. We focus on the case of nuclear power phase out, when accounting for endogenous technical change in energy efficiency and in low carbon technologies. The analysis uses the Integrated Assessment Model WITCH, which features multiple externalities due to both climate and innovation market failures. Our results show that phasing out nuclear power stimulates additional R&D investments and deployment of infant technologies with large learning potential. The innovation benefits which this would generate and that would not otherwise be captured due to intertemporal and international externalities almost completely offset the economic costs of phasing out nuclear power. The technological change benefit depends on the stringency of the climate policy and is distributed unevenly across countries.
    Keywords: Technological change, Climate policy, Nuclear phase-out
    JEL: H40 O33 Q40 Q55
    Date: 2012–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2012.96&r=ino
  8. By: Ugur, Mehmet
    Abstract: We introduce new studies that argue in favour of: (i) according a central role to governance and regulation as potential determinants of innovation; and (ii) analysing the effects of governance and regulation on innovation in conjunction with the effects of the market structure. These studies were presented at an international conference at the University of Greenwich in September 2011 and will be published as an edited book titled Governance, Regulation and Innovation: Theory and Evidence on Firms and Countries (Edward-Elgar, 2013). The studies explore the relationship between governance and regulation widely defined and innovation, taking into account the interactions between governance and market structure as well as between different dimensions of governance. They contribute to existing literature by providing new empirical evidence and by pointing out to complementary and offsetting innovation effects that may result from interactions between economic governance institutions, corporate governance rules, regulation on the one hand and the market structure on the other.
    Keywords: Governance; corporate governance; regulation; innovation
    JEL: L5 E02 G3 O3
    Date: 2012–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44151&r=ino

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