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on Innovation |
| By: | Leonel Muinelo-Gallo (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía); Macarena Suanes (UniversitatAutònoma de Barcelona (Spain). Departamentd’Economia Aplicada) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between investment in R&D, innovation generation and productivity changes in Uruguayan manufacturing firms during 2001-2009. The production function structural model is sequentially applied to data from the "Survey of innovation activities in enterprises" of Uruguay. The empirical results suggest a positive link between R&D activities and the generation of technological innovations, as well as a positive effect of the latter on firm’s productivity. |
| Keywords: | innovation, research, productivity, structural production function model |
| JEL: | O31 D24 J24 O4 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-01-17&r=ino |
| By: | Mariacristina Piva (DISCE, Università Cattolica); Marco Vivarelli (DISCE, Università Cattolica - UNU-MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands and IZA, Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, the economic insights about the employment impact of technological change are disentangled starting from the classical economists to nowadays theoretical and empirical analyses. On the other hand, an empirical test is provided; in particular, longitudinal data - covering manufacturing and service sectors over the 1998-2011 period for 11 European countries - are used to run GMM-SYS and LSDVC estimates. Two are the main results: 1) a significant labour-friendly impact of R&D expenditures (mainly related to product innovation) is found; yet, this positive employment effect appears to be entirely due to the medium-and high-tech sectors, while no effect can be detected in the low-tech industries; 2) capital formation is found to be negatively related to employment; this outcome points to a possible labour-saving effect due to the embodied technological change incorporated in gross investment (mainly related to process innovation). |
| Keywords: | technological change, employment, sectoral analysis, EU |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:ispe0078&r=ino |
| By: | Hans Gersbach (ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Marie-Catherine Riekhof (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | We introduce an international technology treaty that couples the funding of research for a more advanced abatement technology with an international emissions permit market. Under the treaty, each country decides on the amount of permits for its domestic industries, but a fraction of these permits is auctioned on the permit market, and the revenues are used to scale up license revenues for the innovators of abatement technologies. We discuss the conditions under which such a technology treaty can slow down climate change through technological innovations and whether it creates complementary incentives for countries to tighten permit issuance. Finally, we discuss how participation in Tech Treaties can be fostered and how such treaties might be implemented. |
| Keywords: | Climate change mitigation, Technology promotion, International permit markets, International treaty, Externalities |
| JEL: | H23 Q54 O31 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:17-269&r=ino |
| By: | Laurent Bergé (CREA, Université du Luxembourg); Nicolas Carayol, GREThA, UMR CNRS 5113, Université de Bordeaux (GREThA, UMR CNRS 5113, Université de Bordeaux); Pascale Roux (GREThA, UMR CNRS 5113, Université de Bordeaux) |
| Abstract: | Social networks are expected to matter for invention in cities, but empirical evidence is still puzzling. In this paper, we provide new results on urban patenting covering more than twenty years of European patents invented by nearly one hundred thousand inventors located in France. Elaborating on the recent economic literatures on peer effects and on games in social networks, we assume that the productivity of an inventor’s efforts is positively affected by the efforts of his or her partners and negatively by the number of these partners’ connections. In this framework, inventors’ equilibrium outcomes are proportional to the square of their network centrality, which encompasses, as special cases, several well-known forms of centrality (Degree, Katz-Bonacich, Page-Rank). Our empirical results show that urban inventors benefit from their collaboration network. Their production increases when they collaborate with more central agents and when they have more collaborations. Our estimations suggest that inventors’ productivity grows sublinearly with the efforts of direct partners, and that they incur no negative externality from them having many partners. Overall, we estimate that a one standard deviation increase in local inventors’ centrality raises future urban patenting by 13%. |
| Keywords: | invention ; cities; network centrality; co-invention network; patent data |
| JEL: | O31 R11 D85 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:17-03&r=ino |
| By: | Tamer Taha (United Nations University) |
| Abstract: | In a region with a tradition and abundance of rent-seeking behavior, innovation in MENA countries is key for growth and development. However many inherited institutional barriers are still locking the potentials for a transition towards a knowledge and innovation-based economy. Using recently collected firm-level data from MENA countries, this article explores the effect of institutional obstacles in Egypt and Tunisia on the innovative behavior of firms. Recognizing the potential risk of endogeneity and simultaneity, the paper uses a conditional recursive mixed-process model (CMP) to estimate the micro level interactions that occur between corruption and business permits. The results show a positive effect of corruption on innovation only as a “greasing” mechanism to bypass the bureaucratic obstacles of business permits. Such an effect is even more pronounced if the firm is surrounded by other firms with corrupt practices. |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:982&r=ino |
| By: | Pallares-Barbera, M. |
| Abstract: | While space might shrink, the flows of goods in space gets constantly wider. Great inventions in history have marked the reorganization of space as well as some activities, some spatial relations and the value of territory. Space has been adapting to these needs offering new opportunities and challenges. Geography has become the leading science to analyze and mediate in these processes. The space of markets, the relations between the digital world and the real world, ?geolocalization? of services and new economic activities have moved geography to a new level within social sciences. This round table starts from the following standpoint: How do the extreme speed of flows affects the meaning and perception that in different social and cultural settings people have? Keywords: innovation, flows, networks. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:10399&r=ino |
| By: | Cathy Ge Bao (University of International Business and Economics); Maggie X. Chen (George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | This paper quantiÖes the threat of foreign competition by exploring news of foreign multinational investment appearing in over 35,000 newspapers, business presses, magazines, newswires, and other forms of media in 200 countries. Using unique time-variant firm-specic measures of foreign multinational threat, the analysis shows that domestic firms respond to the threats by upgrading productivity, raising innovation, investment and wage rate, and altering product composition. However, the responses exhibit substantial heterogeneity across firms: within each industry, the right tail of the domestic productivity distribution responds by increasing innovation while the left tail escapes competition threats by dropping products, leading to a U-shape relationship between initial productivity and productivity growth. Actual multinational competition, in contrast, leads to product dropping only. These previously unexplored responses to the threat of foreign competition constitute an economically important source of gains from globalization and convey new implications for the timing, evolvement, and form of industrial, trade and investment policies. |
| Keywords: | threat, foreign investment news, and domestic Örm responses |
| JEL: | F1 F2 L2 D2 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2016-22&r=ino |
| By: | Suchita Srinivasan |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of different policies in facilitating the diffusion of green innovations through trade. Focusing on developing countries, this paper develop analyses the effectiveness of policies such as information, subsidies, and banning the use of the incumbent technology in encouraging the use of a clean technology. The empirical model uses a novel dataset of a sample of 72 low and middle-income countries, spanning the period 1993- 2013 to evaluate the effectiveness of these policies, and analyse the determinants of policy choice. Results suggest that domestic policies pay a pivotal role in facilitating the transfer of CFL, especially subsidies; however, simultaneous implementation of policies need not necessarily be effective. Moreover, countries learn from the experiences of other countries in deciding whether to implement a particular policy. Results also suggest a role for trade policy instruments, such as trade agreements with top exporters, to facilitate clean technology diffusion. |
| Keywords: | Technology Diffusion; Policy Effectiveness; International Trade. |
| JEL: | D78 D83 F13 H30 O33 O38 Q48 |
| Date: | 2016–07–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:ciesrp:cies_rp_45&r=ino |
| By: | Ernest MIGUELEZ; Claudia NOUMEDEM TEMGOUA |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the influence of networks of highly-skilled migrants on international knowledge flows. It adds to the growing literature on highly-skilled international migration and its contribution to international knowledge diffusion, in migrants’ home as well as host countries. In particular, it first explores knowledge feedbacks to home countries generated by migrant inventors, a representative category of high-skilled migrants, most of them scientists and engineers. Second, it investigates the knowledge inflows to host countries brought by inventors. We test our hypothesis of a positive relationship between knowledge flows and highly skilled migration in a country-pair gravity model setting, for the period 1990-2010, using patent citations across countries as a measure of international knowledge diffusion. Our results confirm our initial assumption on the positive impact of highly skilled migrants on knowledge flows to their homelands as well as to their host countries. We find doubling the number of inventors of a given nationality at a destination country, leads to an 8.3% increase in knowledge outflows to their home economy from that same host land; while a similar increase in the number of migrant inventors produces a 6% increase in the knowledge inflows to the host economy. |
| Keywords: | migration, brain gain, diaspora, diffusion, inventors, patents, PCT patents |
| JEL: | C8 J61 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2017-07&r=ino |
| By: | Übelmesser, Silke; Uebelmesser, Silke |
| Abstract: | We study the determinants of the use of profit sharing schemes (PSS) by exploiting two datasets for Germany and the United Kingdom. Our results replicate studies for the U.S. which report a positive correlation between R&D activity and PSS use. For Germany, Granger-causality tests support a causal interpretation. Similarly to U.S.-based studies, we also find that a firm's turnover is strongly associated with PSS use whereas this does not hold for the age of a firm and its organizational characteristics. |
| JEL: | L20 J33 O31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145622&r=ino |
| By: | Burhan, Nik Ahmad Sufian; Che Razak, Razli; Salleh, Fauzilah; Labastida Tovar, María Elena |
| Abstract: | Does the intelligence quotient (IQ) in a nation regulate the ease of doing business in the society? Based on the normal distribution of IQ scores within a nation, the population was classified into three groups, specifically intellectual class, average ability, and non-intellectual class, which were represented by the 95th, 50th, and the 5th percentiles of IQ level respectively. Using a robust regression method with Huber’s weight function, the impact of each IQ class on the ease of doing business (EDB) index was examined. The sub-indicators of the ten business regulatory environment across 71 countries were studied. In this study, the effect of IQ was controlled for the levels of economic freedom, GDP per capita, freedom of corruption, and tertiary education. Results revealed strong evidence that the IQ of the intellectual class had contributed most to the enhancement of the regulatory environment, which is supportive for entrepreneurship. This result was consistent with the term ‘creative minority’ coined by the prominent historian Arnold Toynbee. It was concluded that the IQ of the people from the intellectual class is the most significant factor for creating a business regulatory environment that favours and eases the new and experienced entrepreneurs. This occurs through their competent and virtuous leadership that enhances the quality and efficiency of institutions across countries. |
| Keywords: | doing business; entrepreneurship; intelligence; intellectual class; leadership; non-intellectual class; robust regression |
| JEL: | J24 L26 O11 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77503&r=ino |
| By: | Martina Bozzola; Tim Swanson; Helena Ting |
| Abstract: | We look at the diffusion of seed technology among Ugandan farmers. We present a target-input model to conceptualize the adoption decisions of a new technology in which the best use of inputs is unknown. In this framework, there is path dependency in the adoption process. We show that the group of innovators is well-defined but too small to overcome the system’s inertia. We find little evidence that seed policy reforms implemented in Uganda in the past 20 years boosted agricultural productivity, largely on account of a lack of local experimentation and inadequate use and diffusion of new seed varieties. |
| Keywords: | Improved Seed, Seed Policy Reforms, Peer Effects, Uganda. |
| JEL: | D10 O33 O34 Q12 |
| Date: | 2016–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:ciesrp:cies_rp_46&r=ino |
| By: | Ankai Xu |
| Abstract: | This paper provides empirical evidence in support of the Porter hypothesis that tighter environmental regulations can increase productivity under certain circumstances. It builds on a theoretical model in which environmental regulations induce firms to adopt more efficient technologies. Using Chinese firm-level data covering a ten-year period, the empirical study examines the effects of two specific policy instruments - the pollution levy and regulatory standards - on firm productivity. It finds a bell-shaped relationship between pollution levies and the total factor productivity of firms, indicating that an increase in the pollution levy rate can be associated with higher productivity. In addition, the study investigates the effect of pollution emission standards on firm productivity and identifes an initial negative effect which diminishes after a period of two to three years. |
| Keywords: | Environmental regulations, Innovation, Productivity, Porter hypothesis, China. |
| JEL: | D2 F18 Q52 Q55 Q56 |
| Date: | 2016–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:ciesrp:cies_rp_47&r=ino |
| By: | Aissaoui, Najeh; Ben Hassen, Lobna |
| Abstract: | Although there is a plethora of literature that supports the existence of a technological bias in the US and Europe, exploring such a subject in the developing countries is still relevant and very little processed. This article is part of the perspective that involves examining and bringing additional insight to the phenomenon of the technological change skewed in the Tunisian context. Estimating a multinomial logit model directed to 902 employees generated very original results. First, these results confirm the existence of a technological bias in favour of skilled workers in the Tunisian labour market. However, it is no longer the access or the intensive use of ICT at work that privileges some employees and not others, in terms of pay, but rather the employees’ digital skills which contribute to rising inequality. Even more, it is the ability to get, select, process and evaluate information based on the specific needs and capacity to use it to achieve specific objectives, and not the simple manipulation of digital technologies and structures, that are at the core of the problem. Finally, the organizational change also contributes to the amplification of the existing wage disparities. Actually, the more independent the employee is in carrying out his tasks and works per project, the higher the probability of earning a high salary vs low and medium salary. However, several other types of organizations do not have any significant positive effect on the wage rise. This reflects a weakness in the labour organization in the Tunisian firms. |
| Keywords: | Skill-biased technological change (SBTC), wage inequality, organizational forms. |
| JEL: | J31 O12 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76551&r=ino |