nep-knm New Economics Papers
on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy
Issue of 2018‒01‒08
four papers chosen by
Laura Ştefănescu
Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor

  1. Intellectual Property Rights, Multinational Firms and Technology Transfers By Sara Biancini; Pamela Bombarda
  2. The Effect of an Education-driven Labor Supply Shock on Firms' R&D Personnel By Patrick Lehnert; Curdin Pfister; Uschi Backes-Gellner
  3. The Paper Trail of Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from Patent Interferences By Ganguli, Ina; Lin, Jeffrey; reynolds, nicholas
  4. Bank Lending in the Knowledge Economy By Giovanni Dell'Ariccia; Dalida Kadyrzhanova; Camelia Minoiu; Lev Ratnovski

  1. By: Sara Biancini; Pamela Bombarda
    Abstract: Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protect firms from imitation and are considered crucial to promote innovation and technological diffusion. This paper examines the impact of IPR on import sourcing decisions of multinationals. We consider a framework in which firms offshore production of an intermediate good in a developing country. Firms can either decide to import the intermediate from vertically integrated producers, or from independent suppliers. In both cases, offshoring part of the production process embodies a risk of imitation. The model predicts that, under reasonable assumptions, stronger IPR encourage by a larger extent the imports of intermediates through vertical integration. Using U.S. Related-Party Trade database, we find empirical evidence supportive of the positive link between level of IPR and the relative share of imports from vertically integrated manufacturers.
    Keywords: intellectual property rights, MNF, FDI, outsourcing, international trade
    JEL: F12 F23 O34
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6769&r=knm
  2. By: Patrick Lehnert (University of Zurich); Curdin Pfister (University of Zurich); Uschi Backes-Gellner (University of Zurich)
    Abstract: This paper examines the effect of an R&D-specific labor supply shock produced by the establishment of tertiary vocational education institutions teaching and conducting applied R&D, the Universities of Applied Sciences, on the R&D personnel of private firms. We apply a difference-in-differences model, exploiting a quasi-natural experiment in the 1990s in Switzerland, the staggered establishment of these institutions. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the Swiss Earnings Structure Survey, we can precisely measure the R&D personnel of private firms, i.e., how much R&D personnel a firm employs and how much a firm spends on its R&D personnel in terms of wages. The education-driven labor supply shock has positive effects on both the percentage of R&D personnel and the wages paid to this personnel. Our assessments of effect heterogeneity suggest that these effects are driven by firms with 50 to 99 employees and firms in the manufacturing sector increasing their R&D personnel.
    Keywords: Innovation incentives, R&D, research institutions, skills
    JEL: I23 J24 O31 O32
    Date: 2017–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0141&r=knm
  3. By: Ganguli, Ina (University of Massachusetts–Amherst); Lin, Jeffrey (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); reynolds, nicholas (brown university)
    Abstract: We show evidence of localized knowledge spillovers using a new database of multiple invention from U.S. patent interferences terminated between 1998 and 2014. Patent interferences resulted when two or more independent parties simultaneously submitted identical claims of invention to the U.S. Patent Office. Following the idea that inventors of identical inventions share common knowledge inputs, interferences provide a new method for measuring spillovers of tacit knowledge compared with existing (and noisy) measures such as citation links. Using matched pairs of inventors to control for other factors contributing to the geography of invention and distance-based methods, we find that interfering inventor pairs are 1.4 to 4 times more likely to live in the same city or region. These results are not driven exclusively by observed social ties among interfering inventor pairs. Interfering inventors are also more geographically concentrated than inventors who cite the same prior patent. Our results emphasize geographic distance as a barrier to tacit knowledge flows.
    Keywords: Localized knowledge spillovers; multiple invention; patents; interferences
    JEL: O30 R12
    Date: 2017–12–21
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:17-44&r=knm
  4. By: Giovanni Dell'Ariccia; Dalida Kadyrzhanova; Camelia Minoiu; Lev Ratnovski
    Abstract: We study bank portfolio allocations during the transition of the real sector to a knowledge economy in which firms use less tangible capital and invest more in intangible assets. We show that, as firms shift toward intangible assets that have lower collateral values, banks reallocate their portfolios away from commercial loans toward other assets, primarily residential real estate loans and liquid assets. This effect is more pronounced for large and less well capitalized banks and is robust to controlling for real estate loan demand. Our results suggest that increased firm investment in intangible assets can explain up to 20% of bank portfolio reallocation from commercial to residential lending over the last four decades.
    Keywords: Intangible capital;bank lending, commercial loans, real estate loans, liquid assets, Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy, Government Policy and Regulation
    Date: 2017–11–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:17/234&r=knm

This nep-knm issue is ©2018 by Laura Ştefănescu. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.