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on Innovation |
| By: | Macher, Jeffrey (University of Basel); Rutzer, Christian (University of Basel); Weder, Rolf (University of Basel) |
| Abstract: | Despite tremendous growth in the volume of new scientific and technological knowledge, the popular press has recently raised concerns that disruptive innovative activity is slowing. These dire prognoses were mainly driven by Park et al. (2023), a Nature publication that uses decades of data and millions of observations coupled with a novel quantitative metric (the CD index) that characterizes innovation in science and technology as either consolidating or disruptive. We challenge the Park et al. (2023) methodology and findings, principally around concerns of truncation bias and exclusion bias. We show that 88 percent of the decrease in disruptive patents over 1980-2010 reported by the authors can be explained by their truncation of all backward citations before 1976. We also show that this truncation bias varies by technology class. We update the analysis to 2016 and account for a change in U.S. patent law that allows for citations to patent applications in addition to patent grants, which is ignored by the authors in their analysis. We show that the number of highly disruptive patents has increased since 1980---particularly in IT technologies. Our results suggest caution in using the Park et al. (2023) methodology as a basis for research and decision making in public policy, industry restructuring or firm reorganization aimed at altering the current innovation landscape. |
| Keywords: | Disruptive Innovation, Truncation Bias, Exclusion Bias, U.S. Patent Law Change |
| JEL: | O30 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2023/06&r=ino |
| By: | Suarsana, Laura; Schneider, Tina; Warsewa, Günter |
| Abstract: | In addition to traditional, cluster-oriented approaches, both cross-sectional technologies ("key enabling technologies") and societal challenges ("grand challenges") are becoming increasingly important for regional innovation strategies. A more complex, multi-dimensional approach of regional innovation strategies requires but a number of adaptations, which need to adjust to various, different regional preconditions. The article raises the research question how societal demands are considered and implemented by regional innovation strategies in four case study regions: Pirkanmaa/Tampere region in Finland, Groningen region in the Netherlands, West Flanders in Belgium, and the Federal State of Bremen in Germany. The four regional case studies are comparable European regions in terms of their innovation capacity and their level of innovation (all are classified "highly innovative" or "strong innovator" by the European Union). In order to address global societal goals and challenges - in particular climate change and its consequences as well as demographic change - a multidimensional innovation policy spanning sectors and technologies and a close interlinking of technological and societal innovation objectives and strategies, seems inevitable. The analyses revealed that governance structures and the innovation infrastructures in the regions indeed start to adapt to societal needs and to the increasing complexity of regional innovation strategies, though the speed as well as the intensity of transition and adjustment varies greatly across the regions. Interregional learning as is intended by the European Interreg programme could offer meaningful support for the progress of regional measures towards multi-dimensional innovation policies. |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iawsch:402023&r=ino |
| By: | Jakub Growiec; Peter McAdam; Jakub dup Muck |
| Abstract: | We supplement the “Idea Production Function” (IPF), whereby research and development (R&D) activity leads to growth, with measures of R&D capital. We construct the R&D capital stock in the United States and estimate the IPF with patent applications as R&D output, allowing for a flexible treatment of R&D productivity (over 1968–2019). The estimated substitution elasticity between R&D inputs is 0.7−0.8, which suggests that R&D capital is an essential factor in producing ideas and complementary to R&D labor. We identify a positive trend in R&D labor productivity (roughly 1 percent) and a cyclical variation of R&D capital productivity. Rather than “ideas getting harder to find, ” the R&D capital needed to find them has become scarce. |
| Keywords: | macroeconomics; Idea Production Function (IPF); R&D capital |
| JEL: | O30 O40 O47 |
| Date: | 2023–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedkrw:96357&r=ino |
| By: | Paolo Carioli; Dirk Czarnitzki |
| Abstract: | Skills shortage has become a key policy issue in highly developed and innovationoriented economies, with non-negligible consequences on firms’ innovation activities. We investigate the effect of skills shortage on firms’ innovation openness, which is considered to be one of the key drivers of innovation performance. We hypothesize that scarcity of personnel causes firms to cooperate more broadly with external partners. Using cross-sectional data from the German contribution to the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), and exploiting detailed information on the extent to which firms could fill their job vacancies, we find that, on average, a one standard deviation increase in skills shortage more than doubles a firm’s cooperation breadth. We contribute to the literature on human capital in relation to open innovation by characterizing the necessity of openness as a way to mitigate the scarcity of skills. |
| Keywords: | open innovation, R&D collaboration, skills shortage |
| Date: | 2023–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ecoomp:720361&r=ino |
| By: | Chu, Angus; Liao, Chih-Hsing |
| Abstract: | Does wealth inequality affect optimal patent policy? This study develops a Schumpeterian growth model with heterogeneous households to explore this question. The model features a general innovation specification that captures two common specifications as special cases: (a) the knowledge-driven specification that uses R&D labor, and (b) the lab-equipment specification that uses final output for R&D. Under the knowledge-driven specification, all households prefer the same level of patent protection. However, under the lab-equipment specification, wealthier households prefer stronger patent protection, and higher wealth inequality reduces the optimal level of patent protection and economic growth. Under the general innovation specification, strengthening patent protection has an inverted-U effect on innovation, in contrast to the positive effect under the two special cases. Furthermore, wealthier households continue to prefer stronger patent protection, and wealth inequality also reduces optimal patent protection. Therefore, all households preferring the same level of patent protection under the knowledge-driven specification is due to a knife-edge parameter condition. Calibrating the model to US data, we find that eliminating wealth inequality raises the optimal level of patent protection and economic growth. |
| Keywords: | patent policy; innovation; wealth inequality; economic growth |
| JEL: | O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:117209&r=ino |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi; António Dias da Silva; Juan F. Jimeno; Ana Lamo; Alena Wabitsch |
| Abstract: | We examine the link between labour market developments and new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and software in 16 European countries over the period 2011- 2019. Using data for occupations at the 3-digit level in Europe, we find that on average employment shares have increased in occupations more exposed to AI. This is particularly the case for occupations with a relatively higher proportion of younger and skilled workers. This evidence is in line with the Skill Biased Technological Change theory. While there exists heterogeneity across countries, only very few countries show a decline in employment shares of occupations more exposed to AI-enabled automation. Country heterogeneity for this result seems to be linked to the pace of technology diffusion and education, but also to the level of product market regulation (competition) and employment protection laws. In contrast to the findings for employment, we find little evidence for a relationship between wages and potential exposures to new technologies. |
| JEL: | E24 J2 J21 J31 O30 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31357&r=ino |