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on Innovation |
| By: | Huergo, Elena; Moreno, Lourdes |
| Abstract: | The objective of this study is to compare the effect of different types of public support for R&D projects on firms’ technological capabilities. We distinguish be-tween low-interest loans and subsidies and between national and European sup-port. Using data on 2,319 Spanish firms during the period 2002-2005, we estimate a multivariate probit to analyse the determinants of firms’ participation in public R&D programmes and, later, the impact of this participation on firms’ technologi-cal capabilities using different indicators. The results provide evidence of the ef-fectiveness of all treatments for improving firms’ innovative performance. Specif-ically, although the three kinds of public aid stimulate the intensity of R&D in-vestment, the highest impact corresponds to soft credits. In addition, national sub-sidies have a higher impact on internal R&D intensity than EU grants, but the op-posite relation is found as regards total R&D intensity. With respect to innovation outputs, apart from the indirect effect of public support by stimulating R&D in-tensity, we also find evidence of a direct effect of participation in the CDTI credit system and in the European subsidy programme on the probability of obtaining product innovations and applying for patents. |
| Keywords: | Soft loans, R&D subsidies, impact assessment |
| JEL: | H81 L2 L52 O3 |
| Date: | 2014–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:54218&r=ino |
| By: | Dirk Czarnitzki; Bronwyn H. Hall; Hanna Hottenrott |
| Abstract: | Information about the success of a new technology is usually held asymmetrically between the research and development (R&D)-performing firm and potential lenders and investors. This raises the cost of capital for financing R&D externally, resulting in financing constraints on R&D especially for firms with limited internal resources. Previous literature provided evidence for start-up firms on the role of patents as signals to investors, in particular to Venture Capitalists. This study adds to previous insights by studying the effects of firms’ patenting activity on the degree of financing constraints on R&D for a panel of established firms. The results show that patents do indeed attenuate financing constraints for small firms where information asymmetries may be particularly high and collateral value is low. Larger firms are not only less subject to financing constraints, but also do not seem to benefit from a patent quality signal. |
| JEL: | G32 O31 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19947&r=ino |
| By: | Vahagn Jerbashian (Facultat d'Economia i Empresa; Universitat de Barcelona (UB)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I present an endogenous growth model where the engine of growth is in-house R&D performed by high-tech firms. I model knowledge (patent) licensing among high-tech firms. I show that if there is knowledge licensing, high-tech firms innovate more and economic growth is higher than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge among high-tech firms. However, in case when there is knowledge licensing the number of high-tech firms is lower than in cases when there are knowledge spillovers or there is no exchange of knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge Licensing, Intra-firm R&D, Competitive Pressure,Endogenous Growth. |
| JEL: | O30 O41 L16 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewp:wpaper:304web&r=ino |
| By: | Thanh Le; Cuong Le Van |
| Abstract: | We set up a theoretical framework to discuss the impact of trade liberalization and R&D policies on domestic exporting firms' incentive to innovate and social welfare. In this framework, exporting firms invest in R&D to reduce their production costs and, in return, receive R&D subsidies from the government. While firms target at maximizing their profits, the government aims to maximize the social welfare. We consider different settings of firm competition to explore their strategic behaviours as well as the government's strategic behaviour at the policy stage. We find that tradeliberalization in the foreign market is always welfare enhancing and, in most cases, leads to higher export sales and R&D investments of firms, and raises productivity at firms and industry level. When firms are independent monopolies in the overseas market, it is optimal for the government not to provide any R&D subsidy. When goods are close substitutes, the social optimum can be achieved as a Nash equilibrium by applying an optimal R&D tax. Trade liberalization induces a higher R&D tax rate to be levied on firms. When firms also conduct business in the home market, it is always optimal for the government to provide firms with a financial support to their R&D activity. While this R&D subsidy is decreasing in the trade cost when firms are independent monopolies, its monotonicity in the trade costs is determined by the convexity of the R&D cost function when firms produce close substitutes. |
| Keywords: | Trade, R&D, subsidies, welfare |
| JEL: | F12 F13 F15 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-119&r=ino |
| By: | Abián García-Rodríguez (European University Institute); Fernando Sánchez-Losada (Facultat d'Economia i Empresa; Universitat de Barcelona (UB)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we show that the R&D effort of a country and its economic growth are highly correlated. In order to analyze this relationship, we study the nature of the researching activity. In particular, we focus on the following characteristics of research: the inherent uncertainty of researching, the existence of a wage premium associated to innovative activities, and moral hazard. Assuming that a higher R&D effort translates into a higher R&D success probability, we show that when the R&D success probability is low, the economy is not willing to bear the risk associated to R&D activities. As a consequence, few researchers are hired and the economy stays in an R&D poverty trap, a situation where the economy is stacked in a low growth environment due to the uncertainty associated with the researching activity. In this situation, the economy grows at a constant rate, independent of the R&D success probability (although it could grow at a higher rate through a higher effort). On the other hand, if the economy increases its R&D effort such that the R&D success probability increases sufficiently, then the risk associated with R&D activities drops and the economy hires more researchers. Consequently, growth does depend on the R&D success probability and technological advancement becomes a driving force of the economy. We show that imperfect information widens this R&D poverty trap. We also show that subsidizing R&D through researchers' hiring increases growth, but it does not increase the likelihood of leaving the R&D poverty trap. Moreover, the subsidy widens the R&D poverty trap. |
| Keywords: | R&D, poverty trap, growth. |
| JEL: | O30 O38 O40 O41 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewp:wpaper:307web&r=ino |
| By: | Llopis,Oscar; D’Este,Pablo |
| Abstract: | In this study, we analyze the determinants of biomedical scientists’ participation in various types of activities and outputs related to medical innovation. More specifically, we argue that scientists occupying brokerage positions among their contacts will in a more favorable position to deliver medical innovation outcomes, compared to scientists embedded in more dense networks. However, we also theorize that beyond a threshold, the coordination costs of brokerage may surpass its potential benefits. In addition to that, we study the influence of two individual-level attributes as potential determinants of the participation in medical innovation activities: cognitive breadth and perceived beneficiary impact. We situate our analysis within the context of the Spanish biomedical research framework, where we analyze a sample of 1,309 biomedical scientists. |
| Keywords: | Social Capital, Ego-Network Brokerage, Medical innovation, Translational Research, Perceived Beneficiary Impact, Cognitive Breadth |
| JEL: | D85 Z13 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ing:wpaper:201402&r=ino |
| By: | Michael D. König; Xiaodong Liu; Yves Zenou |
| Abstract: | We study a structural model of R&D alliance networks in which firms jointly form R&D collaborations to lower their production costs while competing on the product market. We derive the Nash equilibrium of this game, provide a welfare analysis and determine the optimal R&D subsidy program that maximizes total welfare. We also identify the key firms, i.e. the firms whose exit would reduce welfare the most. We then structurally estimate our model using a panel dataset of R&D collaborations and annual company reports. We use our estimates to identify the key firms and analyze the impact of R&D subsidy programs. Moreover, we analyze temporal changes in the rankings of key firms and how these changes affect the optimal R&D policy. |
| Keywords: | R&D networks, key firms, optimal subsidies |
| JEL: | D85 L24 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:142&r=ino |
| By: | Thanh Le; Cuong Le Van |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the long-run economic impact of natural resources by constructing a Schumpeterian endogenous growth model that incorporates an upstream resource intensive sector. Natural resources are extracted, processed and utilized to produce intermediate capital goods which are essential inputs for producing a ffnal consumption good. R&D activities are targeted at improving the quality of existing intermediate products. In this context, we characterize balanced growth paths and examine the issues of sustainability and long-run growth associated with these compet- itive equilibrium solution trajectories. The analysis is conducted through the comparison of the two natural resource types: renewable versus non- renewable and two optimal equilibrium conditions: social versus private. We show that negative growth is possible, however, only applied to an economy that is endowed with non-renewable resources. In addition, we derive conditions under which an economy experiences permanent stag- nant growth. We also show that having a strong innovative sector is essential for escaping this stagnant growth trap. We then identify condi- tions under which growth is larger under renewable resources as compared to their non-renewable counterpart and vice versa. |
| Keywords: | non-renewable resources, renewable resources, R&D-based growth,stagnant growth, vertical innovation. |
| JEL: | O13 O31 O41 |
| Date: | 2014–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-112&r=ino |
| By: | JOSÉ MARIA FERREIRA JARDIM DA SILVEIRA; MARIA ESTER DAL POZ; FABIO MASAGO |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2012:155&r=ino |
| By: | GUSTAVO VARELA ALVARENGA; DONALD MATTHEW PIANTO; BRUNO CÉSAR ARAÚJO |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2012:158&r=ino |
| By: | Petra Moser; Alessandra Voena; Fabian Waldinger |
| Abstract: | Historical accounts suggest that Jewish émigrés from Nazi Germany revolutionized U.S. science. To analyze the émigrés’ effects on chemical innovation in the U.S. we compare changes in patenting by U.S. inventors in research fields of émigrés with fields of other German chemists. Patenting by U.S. inventors increased by 31 percent in émigré fields. Regressions that instrument for émigré fields with pre-1933 fields of dismissed German chemists confirm a substantial increase in U.S. invention. Inventor-level data indicate that émigrés encouraged innovation by attracting new researchers to their fields, rather than by increasing the productivity of incumbent inventors. |
| JEL: | J61 N12 O3 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19962&r=ino |
| By: | Eleonora Di Maria (University of Padova); Roberto Ganau (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | Moving from the hypothesis of firm heterogeneity, we analyze whether the firmÕs experience, product and process innovation as well as a clear international marketing strategy affect firmsÕ probabilities of entering export markets and their export intensities (sales achieved abroad). The paper provides further knowledge on the determinants of both the decision to address foreign markets (firm export propensity) and the degree of penetration in those foreign markets (export intensity), by integrating the three above-mentioned streams of research usually approached as distinctive ones. Even though there is a large set of studies dealing with an analysis of export determinants, there is still a lack of theoretical and empirical investigation on how firmÕs innovation (product to be developed, process improvement) and marketing strategy (commitment, marketing investments) interplay in the international business processes, taking into account any prior experience of the firm in general terms as well as in the international scenario. Specifically, the paper empirically investigates how experience, innovation and international marketing strategy influence export behavior at the firm level in order to explore how these determinants act as export drivers for a firm and the consequences measured in terms of export intensity. We carried out a quantitative analysis based on a dataset on 582 Italian manufacturing firms observed over the three-year periods 2001Ð2003 and 2004Ð2006. As far as export propensity is concerned, it emerges that the main drivers affecting the firmÕs decision to enter foreign markets are related to its internal productivity level, innovation capabilities in terms of product innovation as well as an explicit marketing strategy oriented to foreign markets (establishing collaborations with foreign firms or direct commercial investment abroad). Thus, experience can be interpreted as the capability of a firm to manage internal processes (managerial experience) efficiently rather than in terms of knowledge cumulated through years of economic activities (captured through the age variable) or transferred from other partners or foreign ownership. When considering export intensity, two main elements arise from the analysis. The first one is that the shift from product to process innovations affects exports. This result can be explained by the firmÕs capability to efficiently change its internal processes to face the demand arising from foreign clients. The second important element refers to the remarkable role of direct commercial investment in influencing export intensity. This result confirms that the firm gains in terms of value captured by controlling directly its distribution channel. |
| Keywords: | experience; innovation; international marketing strategy; export intensity; Italy. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0175&r=ino |
| By: | Gilbert Giacomoni (CGS - Centre de Gestion Scientifique - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne (UPEC) : EA2354 - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (UPEMLV)); Rémi Jardat (ISTEC - Institut supérieur des Sciences, Techniques et Economie Commerciales - ISTEC, CNAM Paris - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM)) |
| Abstract: | D'après l'Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle et l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce, un élément de nouveauté inclut des caractéristiques nouvelles ne faisant pas partie du fond de connaissances existantes dans le domaine technique considéré. Nous partons de l'idée qu'un concept d'objet, de procédés, d'organisations ou de marchés est novateur quand il y a survenance d'un processus d'hybridation de fonds de connaissances jusque-là indépendants à l'issue duquel, de nouvelles identités émergent sur un nouveau fond de connaissance. Nous proposons une théorie générale pour concevoir de telles hybridations au cours d'un processus d'exploration sélective impliquant la rationalité, l'imaginaire, la mémoire, l'analogie et la réflexivité. Notre objet d'étude est une hydre scientifique dont nous cherchons à comprendre les mécanismes de la régénérescence. |
| Keywords: | innovation, invention, création, conception, mémoire, imaginaire, hybridation, analogie, réflexivité, knowledge, cognition, |
| Date: | 2014–02–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00786648&r=ino |
| By: | Iciar Dominguez Lacasa; Alexander Giebler |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyze the technological activities of Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies and to compare them with the technological activities of other world regions. Using data from the EPO World Wide Statistical Database for the period 1980-2009 the analysis is based on counts of priority patent applications over time. In terms of priority patent applications, CEE reduced its technological activities drastically in absolute and per capita terms after 1990. The level of priority patent applications in this world region maintained more recently a stable level below the performance of EU15, South EU and the former USSR. In what concerns technological specialization, the results suggest a division of labor in technological activities among world regions where Europe, Latin America and the former USSR are mainly specializing in sectors losing technological dynamism in the global patent activities (Chemicals and/or Mechanical Engineering) while North America, the Middle East (especially Israel) and Asia Pacific are increasingly specializing in Electrical Engineering, a sector with strong technological opportunities. |
| Keywords: | CEE, patent indicators, priority counts, patstat, trends, specialization |
| JEL: | O30 O57 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwh:dispap:2-14&r=ino |
| By: | Nicholas Bloom; Paul Romer; Stephen Terry; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | In a general equilibrium product-cycle model, lower trade barriers in-crease Southern purchasing power, which lifts long-run growth by increasing the profit from innovation. In the short run, factors of production must be reallocated inside firms, which lowers the opportunity cost of innovation, generating an additional "trapped factor" effect. Starting from a baseline OECD growth rate of 2% we find that trade integration with low-wage countries in the decade around China's WTO accession could have increased long-run growth to 2.4%. There is an additional short-run trapped factors effect, raising growth to 2.7%. China accounts for about half of these growth increases. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, trade, China, endogenous growth |
| JEL: | D92 E22 D8 C23 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1261&r=ino |
| By: | Molas-Gallart,Jordi; D’Este,Pablo; Llopis,Óscar; Rafols,Ismael |
| Abstract: | This paper will propose a framework for evaluating translational research by identifying the way in which translational research occurs in practice (rather than the formal linear stages in which the results of such process are typically presented). Following previous work on methods to evaluation science-society interactions, our approach will focus on the processes of TR and the ways in which public initiatives to support new ways of conducting research succeed or fail. Our starting point is that TR is expressed through complex cycles where knowledge is moving back and forth through the bedside-to-bench continuum across various channels, giving rise to complex interactions between research performers and the user of the results of such research. The approach is rooted on empirical context of IDIBAPS, a university-hospital joint institute in Barcelona, one of the European centre of excellence for TR, and a study on social networks and knowledge flows in the Spanish Biomedical Research Networking Centres (CIBERs). Further, we suggest that interactions between biomedical actors are less than optimal because the distances that separate these different groups make the interactions difficult. We end up by stating that learning processes and knowledge exchange interactions are facilitated and strengthened by five forms of proximity: cognitive, social, organisational, institutional and spatial. |
| Keywords: | Translational Research, evaluation, Knowledge flows, distances, clinical research, Medical innovation |
| JEL: | D83 H51 I18 |
| Date: | 2014–03–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ing:wpaper:201403&r=ino |
| By: | Inoue, Hiroyasu; Yamaguchi, Eiichi |
| Abstract: | Subsidizing small high-technology firms is now considered to be important in stimulating economies throughout the world. This is because fast growing small firms create new markets and jobs. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has played an important role in the United States in subsidization providing two billion dollars every year. Japan started its own SBIR program inspired by that in the United States. This paper examines the direct effects of Japan's SBIR program through the attributes of firms. First, we compared the changes in sales, employment, and the number of patents between SBIR awardees and matching firms. However, SBIR awardees did not demonstrate better performance in sales or employment. Therefore, it seems that the direct effect of Japan's SBIR program has not produced positive results. However, it did increase the number of patents. Second, we examined the overall results by using regression models. Even with control variables, these results were unchanged. Therefore, we concluded that the results were robust. |
| Keywords: | Small business, Research policy, Innovation, SBIR, Japan |
| JEL: | O2 O3 |
| Date: | 2014–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53898&r=ino |
| By: | G. Feichtinger; L. Lambertini; G. Leitmann; S. Wrzaczek |
| Abstract: | We extend a well known differential oligopoly game to encompass the possibility for production to generate a negative environmental externality, regulated through Pigouvian taxation and price caps. We show that, if the price cap is set so as to fix the tolerable maximum amount of emissions, the resulting equilibrium investment in green R&D is indeed concave in the structure of the industry. Our analysis appears to indicate that inverted-U-shaped investment curves are generated by regulatory measures instead of being a ‘natural’ feature of firms’ decisions. |
| JEL: | C73 L13 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp929&r=ino |
| By: | Fernando Sánchez-Losada (Facultat d'Economia i Empresa; Universitat de Barcelona (UB)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we claim that capital is as important in the production of ideas as in the production of final goods. Hence, we introduce capital in the production of knowledge and discuss the associated problems arising from the public good nature of knowledge. We show that although population growth can affect economic growth, it is not necessary for growth to arise. We derive both the social planner and the decentralized economy growth rates and show the optimal subsidy that decentralizes it. We also show numerically that the effects of population growth on the market growth rate, the optimal growth rate and the optimal subsidy are small. Besides, we find that physical capital is more important for the production of knowledge than for the production of goods. |
| Keywords: | knowledge, public good, growth. |
| JEL: | O30 O40 O41 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewp:wpaper:306web&r=ino |
| By: | Prettner, Klaus; Strulik, Holger |
| Abstract: | We generalize a trade model with firm-specific heterogeneity and R&D-based growth to allow for an endogenous education decision of households and an endogenously evolving population. Our framework is able to explain cross-country differences in living standards and trade intensities by the differential pace of human capital accumulation among industrialized countries. Consistent with the empirical evidence, scale matters for relative economic prosperity as long as countries are closed, whereas scale does not matter in a fully globalized world. Interestingly, however, the average human capital level of a country influences its relative economic prosperity irrespective of its trade-openness. While being consistent with the empirical evidence, our framework has the additional advantage that steady-state growth of income does not hinge on the unrealistic assumption of an ever expanding population. -- |
| Keywords: | technological progress,globalization,demographic change,education,human capital accumulation |
| JEL: | F10 I25 O31 O41 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:191&r=ino |
| By: | J.W. Fedderke and M. Velez |
| Abstract: | Does knowledge and innovation need to come with a big price tag? The question of resource allocation to research is of perennial concern for management of both public and private entities. In this study we evaluate whether a substantial increase in public funding to researchers makes a material difference to their productivity. To do so, we compare performance measures of researchers who were granted substantial funding against researchers with similar scholarly standing who did not receive such funding. We find that substantial funding does raise researcher performance - though the impact is moderate. Moreover, the impact is strongly conditional on the quality of the researcher who receives the funding, and is more successful in some disciplines than others. Moreover the cost per additional unit of output is such as to raise questions about the viability of the funding model. The implication is that public research funding will be more effective in raising research output where selectivity of recipients of funding is strongly conditional on the established track record of researchers. |
| Keywords: | Massive funding, funding initiative |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:389&r=ino |