nep-tid New Economics Papers
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics
Issue of 2010‒07‒10
four papers chosen by
Rui Baptista
Technical University of Lisbon

  1. Does history matter for the relationship between R&D, Innovation and Productivity? By Huergo , E; Moreno, L
  2. Pecuniary Knowledge Externalities and Innovation: Intersectoral Linkages and their Effects beyond Technological Spillovers By Agnieszka Gehringer
  3. Measuring Industry Relatedness and Corporate Coherence By Giulio Bottazzi; Federico Tamagni
  4. Understanding the spanish business innovation gap: the role of spillovers and firms’ absorptive capacity By Paloma López-García; José Manuel Montero

  1. By: Huergo , E; Moreno, L
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the relationship between R&D expenditures, innovation and productivity growth, taking into account the possibility of persistence in firms’ behaviour. We study this relationship for a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms between 1990 and 2005, estimating a model with four equations: participation in technological activities, R&D intensity, the generation of innovations and the impact of these technological outputs on total factor productivity growth. Our results reflect the existence of true state dependence both in the decision of R&D investment and in the production of innovations. The omission of this persistence leads to an overestimation of the current impact of innovations on productivity growth. However, the presence of persistence in technological inputs and outputs entails current R&D activities having long–run effects on a firm’s productivity.
    Keywords: CDM model; productivity growth; persistence in R&D and innovation.
    JEL: L6 D24 O3
    Date: 2010–05–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23611&r=tid
  2. By: Agnieszka Gehringer
    Abstract: The aim of the paper is to discuss and to provide evidence for the existence of pecuniary knowledge externalities, considered here as the main cause of positive disequilibrium experience by downstream producers. This last effect, confirmed by the empirical analysis here performed, contrasts the postulates of the model of growth through creative destruction due to Aghion & Howitt (1992), where downstream producers remain very much passive in front of new technological knowledge externally generated.
    Keywords: pecuniary knowledge externalities, endogenous growth, creative destruction, Input-Output
    Date: 2010–06–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:cegedp:100&r=tid
  3. By: Giulio Bottazzi; Federico Tamagni
    Abstract: Since the seminal work of Teece et al. (1994) firm diversification has been found to be a non-random process. The hidden deterministic nature of the diversification patterns is usually detected comparing expected (under a null hypothesys) and actual values of some statistics. Nevertheless the standard approach presents two big drawbacks, leaving unanswered several issues. First, using the observed value of a statistics provides noisy and nonhomogeneous estimates and second, the expected values are computed in a specific and privileged null hypothesis that implies spurious random effects. We show that using Monte Carlo p-scores as measure of relatedness provides cleaner and homogeneous estimates. Using the NBER database on corporate patents we investigate the effect of assuming different null hypotheses, from the less unconstrained to the fully constrained, revealing that new features in firm diversification patterns can be catched if random artifacts are ruled out.
    Keywords: corporate coherence; relatedness; null model analysis; patent data
    JEL: C1 D2 L2
    Date: 2010–07–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2010/10&r=tid
  4. By: Paloma López-García (Banco de España); José Manuel Montero (Banco de España)
    Abstract: This paper investigates whether the existence of knowledge spillovers, differences in the capacity of f rms to assimilate them and disparities in some human resource management practices are related with the decision to innovate of Spanish f rms. In order to do this, we employ data from the “Central de Balances” database, which covers both manufacturing and services f rms during the period 2003-2007, and use an estimator proposed by Wooldridge (2005) for dynamic random effects discrete choice models. The empirical exercise provides evidence on the positive link between spillovers and the innovative behaviour of companies, not just for the knowledge generated in the same industry, but also for that generated in the same region or by the public sector. Moreover, this link is stronger for those f rms with a higher capacity to absorb those spillovers. This ability not only works through f rms’ R&D capabilities, but also through such factors as the quality of the labour force, the share of temporary employment and the amount of resources spent in training. In addition to these factors, we f nd that innovation performance exhibits a high degree of inertia. Further, some other observed f rm characteristics, such as size, sales growth, export behaviour, sector capital intensity or f nancial structure variables, are also found to be relevant determinants of the likelihood of innovation.
    Keywords: innovation, R&D, spillovers, absorptive capacity, skilled labour, temporary employment, dynamic RE probit model
    JEL: O32 C23 C25 J6 J24 L00
    Date: 2010–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1015&r=tid

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