nep-knm New Economics Papers
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy
Issue of 2015‒11‒21
five papers chosen by
Laura Ştefănescu
Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor

  1. Intellectual Property Rights and Diaspora Knowledge Networks By Alireza Naghavi; Chiara Strozzi
  2. Vertical Integration, Knowledge Disclosure and Decreasing Rival's Cost By Chrysovalantou Miliou; Emmanuel Petrakis
  3. Can Intellectual Property Rights Protection Generate Brain Gain from International Migration? By Alireza Naghavi; Chiara Strozzi
  4. Effects of foreign acquisitions on R&D and high-skill activities By Eliasson, Kent; Hansson, Pär; Lindvert, Markus
  5. Vertical Educational Diversity and Innovation Performance By Thomas Bolli; Ursula Renold; Martin Wörter

  1. By: Alireza Naghavi (University of Bologna and Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano); Chiara Strozzi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
    Abstract: This paper studies mechanism through which intellectual property rights (IPR) protection can influ-ence the impact of skilled migration on innovation activities in developing countries. We argue that knowledge acquired by emigrants abroad can flow back to their country of origin through diaspora networks. IPR protection in the sending country magnifies this effect by increasing the size of the innovation sector, thereby allowing diaspora gains to fall on a larger range of workers. Strong IPR enforcement therefore makes it more likely for brain drain to be transformed into brain gain.
    JEL: O30 F22 J24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:380&r=knm
  2. By: Chrysovalantou Miliou (Department of Economics, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Calle Madrid 126, Getafe (Madrid)); Emmanuel Petrakis (Department of Economics, University of Crete, Greece)
    Abstract: We study vertical integration taking into account the fact that, by facilitating the exchange of information within the integrated firm, it allows its upstream unit to disclose to the non-integrated downstream customer-rival the knowledge that it acquires regarding its downstream partner's innovation. We show that a vertically integrated firm chooses to disclose its knowledge to its downstream rival. Knowledge disclosure intensifies downstream competition but, at the same time, expands the size of the downstream market. We also show that, due to knowledge disclosure, vertical integration increases firms' innovation incentives, consumer and total welfare, and decreases, instead of raises, the rival's cost.
    Keywords: vertical integration; R&D investments; market foreclosure; knowledge disclosure
    JEL: L13 L22 L42
    Date: 2015–11–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crt:wpaper:1507&r=knm
  3. By: Alireza Naghavi (University of Bologna); Chiara Strozzi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, IZA)
    Abstract: This paper studies the interaction between international migration and intellectual property rights (IPR) in determining innovation performance of developing countries. Although emigration may di-rectly cause brain drain, it generates a flow of knowledge acquired by emigrants abroad back to their home countries, which could be better absorbed under sound IPR institutions. IPRs thus work as a moderating factor to overcome brain drain by creating the conditions to better absorb potential gains from migration. Using a panel dataset of emerging and developing countries, we establish a positive correlation between emigration and innovation when IPRs are sufficiently strong.
    Keywords: Intellectual property rights, International migration, Innovation, Knowledge flows, Brain gain, Diaspora.
    JEL: O30 F22 J24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:374&r=knm
  4. By: Eliasson, Kent (Growth Analysis and Department of Economics, Umeå University,); Hansson, Pär (Uppsala Center for Labor Studies); Lindvert, Markus (Growth Analysis)
    Abstract: Using Swedish micro data we find no evidence for the concerns circulating in the public debate that foreign acquisitions lead to reductions in R&D expenditures and high-skilled activities in targeted domestic firms, neither in MNEs nor in non-MNEs. Previous studies have only focused on larger firms. In this paper we are able to study the impact on smaller firms (less than 50 employees). This is important since 90 percent of the firms acquired by foreign enterprises have less than 50 employees. For this group of firms there is no information on R&D, but by using the register of educational attainment we have data on the share of high-skilled labor in all Swedish firms, irrespective of size. Interestingly, we find that among smaller firms foreign enterprises tend to acquire high-productive, skill-intensive firms (cherry-picking) and after the acquisitions skill upgrading appears in acquired smaller, non-MNE firms.
    Keywords: foreign acquisitions; skill upgrading; R&D intensity; propensity score matching
    JEL: F23 J24 O32 O33
    Date: 2015–11–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uulswp:2015_002&r=knm
  5. By: Thomas Bolli (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Ursula Renold (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Martin Wörter (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
    Abstract: This paper uses panel data of Swiss firms to analyze the impact of education-level diversity in the workforce on innovation performance, addressing endogeneity by exploiting within-firm variation as well as variation in labor supply across regions. We find that vertical educational diversity increases the extensive margin of R&D and product innovation, particularly new product innovation. However, the relationship with process innovation, R&D intensity, and product innovation intensity is insignificant or even negative. These results are in line with the idea that vertical educational diversity enhances the creative moment of the invention phase, while it might affect the commercialization phase negatively due to the dominance of coordination and communication costs relative to the gains in creativity.
    Keywords: Vertical educational diversity, innovation performance, R&D, product innovation, process innovation
    JEL: O3
    Date: 2015–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:15-395&r=knm

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