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on Innovation |
| By: | Victor (Xucheng); CHEN |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between innovation activities and firm-level productivity among early-stage high-tech startups in China. Using a proprietary dataset encompassing patent records, R&D expenditures, capital valuation, and firm performance from 2020 to 2024, we examine whether and how innovation, measured by patents and R&D input, translates into economic output. Contrary to established literature, we find that patent output does not significantly contribute to either income or profit among the sampled firms. Further investigation reveals that patents may primarily serve a signaling function to external investors and policymakers, rather than reflecting true innovative productivity. In contrast, R&D expenditure shows a consistent and positive association with firm performance. Through mechanism analysis, we explore three channels (organizational environment, employee quality, and policy-driven incentives) to explain the impact of R&D, identifying capital inflow and valuation as key drivers of R&D investment. Finally, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effects of R&D are more pronounced in sub-industries such as smart terminals and digital creativity, and for firms based in Shenzhen. Our findings challenge the prevailing assumption that patent output is a universal indicator of innovation success and underscore the context-dependent nature of innovation-performance linkages in emerging markets. |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2507.18227 |
| By: | Craig A. Chikis; Benny Kleinman; Marta Prato |
| Abstract: | Most U.S. innovation output originates from firms that operate R&D facilities across multiple local markets. We study how this geographic structure influences aggregate innovation and growth, and whether it is socially optimal. First, we develop an endogenous growth model featuring multi-market innovative firms that generate knowledge spillovers to geographically proximate firms. In equilibrium, firms may operate in too few or too many local markets, depending on how sensitive are the local spillovers they generate to their local size. Second, to quantify these effects, we link the model to data on firms’ R&D locations, patents, and citation networks. Using an event-study design, we show that firms’ spatial expansion increases spillovers to other firms and estimate how these spillovers depend on a firm's local footprint. Our estimates imply that U.S. innovative firms operate in too few markets relative to the social optimum. Third, using quantitative counterfactuals, we find that policies promoting broader spatial scope yield larger welfare gains than standard R&D subsidies. Moreover, unlike R&D subsidies, such policies can also reduce regional inequality. |
| JEL: | E0 F0 L0 O0 R0 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34010 |
| By: | Bergeaud, Antonin; Deter, Max; Greve, Maria; Wyrwich, Michael (University of Groningen) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the causal relationship between inventor migration and regional innovation in the context of the large-scale migration shock from East toWest Germany between World War II and the construction of the Berlin Wallin 1961. Leveraging a newly constructed, century-spanning dataset on Germanpatents and inventors, along with an innovative identification strategy based onsurname proximity, we trace the trajectories of East German inventors and quantify their impact on innovation in West Germany. Our findings demonstrate a significant and persistent boost to patenting activities in regions with higher inflows of East German inventors, predominantly driven by advancements in chemistry and physics. We further validate the robustness of our identification strategy against alternative plausible mechanisms. We show in particular that the effect is stronger than the one caused by the migration of other high skilled workers and scientists. |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gro:rugfeb:2025002-i&o |
| By: | Hussinger, Katrin; Issah, Wunnam Basit |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether family ownership is associated with a preference for patents or trade secrets. Using a sample of S&P 500 firms, we show that family ownership is negatively associated with patenting and positively associated with the usage of trade secrets. We further show that both relationships are moderated by firm performance below the aspiration level, i.e. the performance benchmark level that an organization sets. These results can be explained with a mixed gambles behavioral agency framework. When family firms perform below their aspiration level, prospective financial gains become relatively more important as compared to current socioemotional wealth so that patents become more and trade secrets less attractive. |
| Keywords: | Family firms, patents, trade secrets, mixed gambles, aspiration gap |
| JEL: | O34 O32 G32 M14 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:319899 |
| By: | Miguel Ortiz (Departamento de Economía de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú); Juan Palomino (Departamento de Economía de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how technologyextension and transfer services (TETS) drive firm-level innovation andproductivity. Since research and development (R&D) investments are subjectto market failure, engaging with external agents enables firms to innovate atlower risk and cost. Using data from Peru’s National Innovation Survey (ENI), we apply the Crépon, Duguet, and Mairesse (CDM) model alongside propensityscore matching (PSM) to enhance the reliability of our results. Additionally, we employ the generalized propensity score (GPS) method to analyze thesensitivity of innovation and sales outcomes to varying investment levels. Thefindings confirm that investment in training and external R&D significantlyenhances innovation, thereby boosting labor productivity. However, thisrelationship is nonlinear, suggesting the presence of investment thresholdsrequired to maximize impact. Palabras claves: Technology Transfer, Innovation, Productivity, R&D, CDM model JEL Classification-JE: L25, O32, O38 |
| Keywords: | Technology Transfer, Innovation, Productivity, R&D, CDM model |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pcp:pucwps:wp00543 |
| By: | Michael D. Frakes; Melissa F. Wasserman |
| Abstract: | Biological drugs account for just two percent of prescriptions filled in the U.S. but fifty percent of prescription-drug spending. To explore the role patents play in explaining high biologics prices, we build the first comprehensive database of patents associated with all FDA-approved biologics. We first establish that much of what drives biologic patenting is the desire to block entry by competing biosimilars. For these purposes, we estimate the response to a 2010 Act that created an abbreviated pathway for biosimilars to receive FDA approval. We then document robust evidence consistent with two patenting strategies that may block biosimilar competition: thicketing and evergreening, whereby firms supplement primary patents with a dense web of later-expiring patents on secondary drug features. We conduct various exercises to suggest that these behaviors are undertaken with exclusionary purposes that go beyond the traditional justifications of the patent system. We then set forth various descriptive statistics surrounding biosimilar entry to suggest that these patenting strategies are, in fact, effective at delaying biosimilar entry. Finally, we simulate the degree to which biologics patent portfolios are impacted by policy proposals currently under consideration to address thicketing and evergreening. |
| JEL: | K0 L50 L65 O34 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34024 |
| By: | Taekyun Kim (Chungnam National University); Gabriela Fuentes (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France); Simone Vannuccini (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France) |
| Abstract: | We study the emerging technology of vision-language-action models (VLAMs), a potential breakthrough for the robotics industry. VLAMs connect artificial intelligence’s large language models with robots: they are a software innovation that increases flexibility and expand capabilities of robotic hardware. As the technology is yet in its infancy, we focus our analysis on three directions. First, we study the technological trajectory of VLAMs in scientific publications using scientometric techniques. Second, in order to assess market transformations associated with VLAMs and potential migration in the locus of value generation in robotics, we collect information and offer insights on the actors developing the technology ‘in the wild’. Third, we discuss the strategies put in place by a leading actor in the field to gatekeep the competitive landscape. We then generalise and rationalise our findings through established theoretical frameworks. The paper is the first to single out the forces at work in the development of an innovation poised to rejuvenate the robotics industry, one of the backbones of contemporary economies. |
| Keywords: | robotics, artificial intelligence, vision-language-action models, VLA, embodied AI |
| JEL: | L10 L86 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2025-33 |
| By: | Elfsbacka-Schmöller, Michaela; Goldfayn-Frank, Olga; Schmidt, Tobias |
| Abstract: | This paper provides novel empirical evidence on the impact of monetary policy on innovation investment using unique firm-level data. First, we document the effect of a large, systematic monetary tightening (ECB rate increases from 0% to 4.5% during 2022-23), with average firm-level innovation cuts of 20%. These cuts persist over the medium term, indicating a sustained innovation slowdown. Second, we use the survey to identify elasticities of innovation expenditure to exogenous policy rate changes. Responses to hikes and cuts are significant and largely symmetric at the baseline rate (4.5%), though we detect potential state-dependent asymmetry due to the extensive margin. The financing channel emerges as one of the transmission channels, with more pronounced effects in firms with higher shares of bank loans and variable-rate loans. Crucially, we show that monetary policy transmits via aggregate demand, with stronger responses in firms with pessimistic demand expectations. Forward guidance provides substantial additional stimulus by reducing uncertainty about future rates, suggesting long-term, supply-side effects of announcements. These results challenge monetary long-run neutrality and are suggestive of policy endogeneity of R∗ operating through innovation-driven technology growth. JEL Classification: E52, E22, E24, D22 |
| Keywords: | endogenous growth, forward guidance, monetary policy transmission, R&D, R∗ |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20253080 |