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on Innovation |
| By: | Uwe Cantner (FSU Jena); Holger Graf (FSU Jena); Ekaterina Prytkova (FSU Jena); Simone Vannuccini (FSU Jena) |
| Abstract: | A growing number of studies identify a generalized slowdown in labor productivity growth. The very existence of the slowdown ignited a series of academic debates suggesting that secular stagnation or 'mismeasurement' problems are at the root of the observed trends. We posit that the composition of aggregate productivity matters. In a nutshell, we make the analysis of productivity growth slowdown more fine-grained by shifting the focus to the industry level, considering that the downward trend identified at the macroeconomic level emerges from the aggregation of diverse industry-level productivity trends. We perform an analysis of the structural dynamics of labor productivity by conducting a non-parametric dynamic decomposition exercise that separates within (improvement) and between (structural change) effects for 10 OECD countries. By pooling industries in groups identified according to two different taxonomies - one related to R&D intensities rankings, and the other built upon the Pavitt taxonomy of sources of technological change -, this study assess the industry-level contributions to the slowdown and the trends over time of the within and between components. We interpret our findings highlighting common patterns and suggest two related technological explanations for the productivity slowdown: one based on a Baumol-disease-like effect driven by structural change and another based on implementation lags and/or on an exhaustion of technological opportunities - that is, on decreasing returns in innovative activities. To investigate that, we complement our productivity analysis with evidence on innovation slowdown trends, looking at aggregate and compositional trends. We explore the innovation slowdown using an array of indicators based on the notion of 'idea- TFP' and show that there is a generalized evidence for its occurrence. Eventually, we relate productivity and innovation slowdowns deriving tables of trends co-movements, weighted by input-output matrices coefficients, and clustered by Pavitt industry group. We interpret these relationships and highlight patterns and clusters of significant correlations. |
| Keywords: | productivity slowdown, decomposition, industrial dynamics, innovation |
| JEL: | L16 O30 O47 |
| Date: | 2018–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2018-006&r=ino |
| By: | Jeffrey L. Furman; Markus Nagler; Martin Watzinger |
| Abstract: | How important is information disclosure through patents for subsequent innovation? Although disclosure is regarded as essential to the functioning of the patent system, legal scholars have expressed considerable skepticism about its value in practice. To adjudicate this issue, we examine the expansion of the USPTO Patent and Trademark Depository Library system between 1975 to 1997. Whereas the exclusion rights associated with patents are national in scope, the opening of these patent libraries during the pre-Internet era yielded regional variation in the costs to access the technical information (prior art) disclosed in patent documents. We find that after a patent library opens, local patenting increases by 17% relative to control regions that have Federal Depository Libraries. A number of additional analyses suggest that the disclosure of technical information in the patent documents is the mechanism underlying this boost in patenting: the response to patent libraries is significant and of important magnitude among young companies, library opening induces local inventors to cite more geographically distant and more technologically diverse prior art, and the library boost ceases to be present after the introduction of the Internet. We find that library opening is also associated with an increase in local business formation and job creation, which suggests that the impact of libraries is not limited to patenting outcomes. Taken together, our analyses provide evidence that the information disclosed in patent prior art plays an important role in supporting cumulative innovation. |
| JEL: | H4 L3 O3 O34 O38 R1 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24660&r=ino |
| By: | Asjad Naqvi; Engelbert Stockhammer |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a post-Keynesian ecological macro model that combines three strands of literature: the directed technological change mechanism developed in mainstream endogenous growth theory models, the ecological economic literature which highlights the role of green innovation and material flows, and the post-Keynesian school which provides a framework to deal with the demand side of the economy, financial flows, and inter- and intra-sectoral behavioral interactions. The model is stock-flow consistent and introduces research and development (R&D) as a component of GDP funded by private firm investment and public expenditure. The economy uses three complimentary inputs – Labor, Capital, and (non-renewable) Resources. Input productivities depend on R&D expenditures, which are determined by relative changes in their respective prices. Two policy experiments are tested; a Resource tax increase, and an increase in the share of public R&D on Resources. Model results show that policy instruments that are continually increased over a long-time horizon have better chances of achieving a "green" transition than one-off climate policy shocks to the system, that primarily have a short-run effect. |
| Keywords: | directed technological change, research and development, green transition, ecological economics, post-Keynesian economics, stock-flow consistency |
| JEL: | E12 O33 Q57 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:1714&r=ino |
| By: | Jean Belin (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Marianne Guille (UP2 - Université Panthéon-Assas); Nathalie Lazaric (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Mérindol Valérie (PSB - Paris School of Business) |
| Abstract: | The structural changes inside the French innovation system have impacted the role of defense firms since the late 1980s. Major changes have affected the defense budget and public R&D funding system in particular. The aim of this article is to understand French defense firms' repositioning within the National Innovation System (NIS) based on an analysis of their R&D behavior over a long period of time (1987 to 2010). We show that French defense firms remain major players in the NIS and faced up to these major changes by adapting the funding of their R&D and their research priorities and rolling out new innovation capabilities. Additionally, they developed new innovation models to take advantage of new collaborative partnerships developed for civil and military markets. JEL classification: G32, 032 |
| Keywords: | Defense firms,System of innovation,R&D |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01798712&r=ino |
| By: | Amel Attour (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Nathalie Lazaric (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Our article emphasizes the relationship between knowledge and business ecosystems. Transformation of a knowledge ecosystem can lead to the emergence of a technological platform embodying a business ecosystem and providing the resources required especially for firm startup. The role of knowledge replication in an innovation ecosystem is identified through exploratory research and a qualitative case study in the technology hotspot of Sophia-Antipolis. Our findings provide evidence of a new technological trajectory in near field communication ecosystems resulting from a radical transformation of traditional knowledge ecosystems. We show that the role of a knowledge filter is reduced by some public actors and universities acting as the “tenant anchor” and accelerating the replication of knowledge, and the resolution of intellectual property rights issues in emergent business ecosystems. We highlight the critical role of a public actor in enabling the emergence and creation of a business ecosystem, and its involvement in this entrepreneurial activity. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge ecosystem, entrepreneurial opportunities, technological platform, knowledge replication, academic actor.,entrepreneurial opportunities,technological platform,knowledge replication,academic actor |
| Date: | 2018–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01797941&r=ino |
| By: | Lin William Cong; Sabrina T. Howell |
| Abstract: | Regulators have suspended IPOs in China on numerous occasions, exposing firms already approved to IPO to indeterminate listing delay. These disruptions curtail firms’ timely access to risk capital and increase uncertainty. After firms ultimately list, suspension-induced delay substantially reduces their innovation activity, measured using patent quantity and quality. These effects begin during the delay and endure for years after listing, while impacts on other firm outcomes are short-lived. The corporate innovation process, like an individual’s accumulation of human capital, has a cumulative dimension. Interrupting it can be detrimental in the long term, highlighting the importance of well-functioning IPO markets. |
| JEL: | G3 O3 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24657&r=ino |
| By: | Bakker, Gerben; Crafts, Nicholas; Woltjer, Pieter (Groningen University) |
| Abstract: | We develop new aggregate and sectoral Total Factor Productivity (TFP) estimates for the United States between 1899 and 1941 through better coverage of sectors and better-measured labor quality, and find TFP-growth was lower than previously thought, broadly based across sectors, and strongly variant intertemporally. We then test and reject three prominent claims. First, the 1930s did not have the highest TFP-growth of the twentieth century. Second, TFP-growth was not predominantly caused by four `great inventions?. Third, TFP-growth was not driven indirectly by spillovers from great inventions such as electricity. Instead, the creative-destruction-friendly American innovation system was the main productivity driver. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gro:rugggd:gd-156&r=ino |
| By: | Jamie Berryhill; Théo Bourgery; Angela Hanson |
| Abstract: | Blockchain technology has evolved from a niche subject to the hottest tech disruption buzzword, but there is still a lot of confusion about the subject. Without a clear understanding about what Blockchains are, their potential public sector potential impact is sometimes misunderstood or, more often, ignored. Questions related to their technical complexity, risk, security, and appropriateness often serve as obstacles to government officials’ ability to truly engage with this emerging technology. In light of this, the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) in collaboration with the Working Party of Senior Digital Government Officials (E-Leaders) has developed a guide on Blockchains and how they may (and may not) apply to government. OPSI is part of the OECD Directorate for Public Governance (GOV). |
| Date: | 2018–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:govaaa:28-en&r=ino |
| By: | Ufuk Akcigit; Sina T. Ates; Giammario Impullitti |
| Abstract: | How do import tariffs and R&D subsidies help domestic firms compete globally? How do these policies affect aggregate growth and economic welfare? To answer these questions, we build a dynamic general equilibrium growth model where firm innovation endogenously determines the dynamics of technology, market leadership, and trade flows, in a world with two large open economies at different stages of development. Firms’ R&D decisions are driven by (i) the defensive innovation motive, (ii) the expansionary innovation motive, and (iii) technology spillovers. The theoretical investigation illustrates that, statically, globalization (defined as reduced trade barriers) has ambiguous effects on welfare, while, dynamically, intensified globalization boosts domestic innovation through induced international competition. Accounting for transitional dynamics, we use our model for policy evaluation and compute optimal policies over different time horizons. The model suggests that the introduction of the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit in 1981 proves to be an effective policy response to foreign competition, generating substantial welfare gains in the long run. A counterfactual exercise shows that increasing tariffs as an alternative policy response improves domestic welfare only when the policymaker cares about the very short run, and only when introduced unilaterally. Tariffs generate large welfare losses in the medium and long run, or when there is retaliation by the foreign economy. Protectionist measures generate large dynamic losses by distorting the impact of openness on innovation incentives and productivity growth. Finally, our model predicts that a more globalized world entails less government intervention, thanks to innovation-stimulating effects of intensified international competition. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth ; Short- and long-run gains from globalization ; Foreign technological catching-up ; Innovation policy ; Trade policy ; Competition |
| JEL: | F13 F43 O40 |
| Date: | 2018–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:1230&r=ino |
| By: | Patricia Laurens (LISIS - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences, Innovations, Sociétés - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - ESIEE Paris - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Christian Le Bas (ESDES - ESDES - École de management de Lyon - Université Catholique de Lyon); Stéphane Lhuillery (ICN Business School); Antoine Schoen (LISIS - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences, Innovations, Sociétés - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - ESIEE Paris - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we address the determinants of clean energy inventions by 946 large firms. We use a new set of large firms' patent portfolios and we broaden and deepen existing literature on this issue in two main ways: first, we conduct our study directly at the firm level and not at the industry or national levels and second, we do not focus on a single industry but encompass all industrial sectors. Drawing on firm (internal and external) knowledge and knowledge accumulation, we show there is a robust positive association between the (past) knowledge accumulated capital related to clean technologies and the number of inventions produced in that field, even after controlling for industry and nation fixed effects and other factors. The same relation works for (past) knowledge-accumulated capital in other (non-clean) technologies. However, the relation's impact on the number of clean inventions produced is much lower. The magnitudes of our coefficient are in line with that obtained previously on firms in the auto-industry or at the sectoral level. |
| Keywords: | knowledge capital,dirty invention,Clean invention,learning,firms |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01775110&r=ino |
| By: | Brian Lucking; Nicholas Bloom; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the results of Bloom, Schankerman, and Van Reenen (2013) examining the impact of R&D on the performance of US firms, especially through spillovers. We extend their analysis to include an additional 15 years of data through 2015, and update the measures of firms' interactions in technology space and product market space. We show that the magnitude of R&D spillovers appears to have been broadly similar in the second decade of the 21st Century as it was in the mid-1980s. However, there does seem to have been some increase in the wedge between marginal social returns to R&D and marginal private returns with the ratio of marginal social to private returns increasing to a factor of 4 from 3. There is certainly no evidence that the divergence between public and private return has narrowed. Positive spillovers appeared to increase in the 1995-2004 boom. |
| JEL: | E22 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24622&r=ino |
| By: | Arvid Raknerud; Diana-Cristina Iancu (Statistics Norway); Øivind A. Nilsen |
| Abstract: | We analyse all the major sources of direct and indirect R&D subsidies in Norway in the period 2002- 2013 and compare their effects on individual firms’ performance. Firms that received support are matched with a control group of firms that did not receive support using a combination of stratification and propensity score matching. Changes in performance indicators before and after support in the treatment group are compared with contemporaneous changes in the control group. We find that the average effects of R&D support among those who obtained grants and/or subsidies are positive and significant in terms of performance indicators related to economic growth: value added, sales revenue and number of employees. The estimated effects are larger for start-up firms than incumbent firms when the effects are measured as relative effects (in percentage points), but smaller when these effects are translated into level effects. Finally, we do not find positive effects on return to total assets or productivity for firms who received support compared with the control group. |
| Keywords: | Public policy; Firm performance; Treatment effects; Stratification; Propensity score matching; Productivity |
| JEL: | C33 C52 D24 O38 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:878&r=ino |