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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Carlos J. Serrano |
| Abstract: | The "market for innovation" — the sale and licensing of patents — is an often discussed source of incentives to invest in R&D. This article presents and estimates a model of the transfer and renewal of patents that, under some assumptions, allows us to quantify the gains resulting from the transfer of patents in the market for innovation. The gains from trade measure the benefits of reallocating the ownership of a patent from the original inventor to a new owner for whom the patent has a higher value. In addition, we study the effect that lowering the costs of technology transfer has on the proportion of patents traded and the gains from trade. |
| JEL: | L24 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17304&r=tid |
| By: | Schimke, Antje; Brenner, Thomas |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the time structure of the effects of R&D activities on firm growth. The main questions are whether R&D activities come together with firms' growth in the subsequent periods and how this relationship depends on other characteristics of the firms, such as size and industry. In addition, we study the relationship between R&D effects and the autocorrelation dynamics of firm growth. We use firm level data of 1000 European companies with details on R&D investments in 2003 to 2006. A regression approach is applied with a linear model taking into account R&D activities at points in time and autocorrelation dynamics of firm growth. We find that R&D has, on average, a positive effect on firm growth, but the effect and its temporal structure strongly depends on firm size and industry. -- |
| Keywords: | Firm growth,R&D activities,firm size,industry,autocorrelation,time gap,temporal structure |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kitwps:32&r=tid |
| By: | Alireza Naghavi; Julia Spies; Farid Toubal |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we propose the technological complexity of a product and the level of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) protection to be the co-determinants of the mode through which multinational firms purchase their goods. We study the choice between intra-firm trade and outsourcing given heterogeneity at the product-(complexity), firm-(productivity) and country-(IPRs) level. Our findings suggest that the above three dimensions of heterogeneity are crucial for complex goods, where firms face a trade-off between higher marginal costs in the case of trade with an affiliate and higher imitation risks in the case of sourcing from an independent supplier. We test these predictions by combining data from a French firm-level survey on the mode choice for each transaction with a newly developed complexity measure at the product-level. Our fractional logit estimations confirm the proposition that although firms are generally reluctant to source highly complex goods from outside the firm’s boundaries, they do so when a strong IPR regime in the host country guarantees the protection of their technology. |
| Keywords: | Sourcing decision, product complexity, intellectual property rights, fractional logit estimation |
| JEL: | F12 F23 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaw:iawdip:75&r=tid |
| By: | Ferguson, Shon (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical evidence suggests that prices for some goods and services are higher in larger markets. This paper provides a demand-side explanation for this phenomenon when firms can choose how much to differentiate their products in a model of monopolistic competition with horizontal product differentiation. The model proposes that consumers’ love of variety makes them more sensitive to product differentiation efforts by firms, which leads to higher prices in larger markets. At the same time, endogenous product differentiation modeled in this way can lead to a positive and concave relationship between market size and entry. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous Technology; Entry; Market Size Effect; International Trade; Monopolistic Competition |
| JEL: | D43 F12 L13 |
| Date: | 2011–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0878&r=tid |
| By: | C. Fritz Foley; William R. Kerr |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact that immigrant innovators have on the global activities of U.S. firms by analyzing detailed data on patent applications and on the operations of the foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational firms. The results indicate that increases in the share of a firm's innovation performed by inventors of a particular ethnicity are associated with increases in the share of that firm's affiliate activity in their native countries. Ethnic innovators also appear to facilitate the disintegration of innovative activity across borders and to allow U.S. multinationals to form new affiliates abroad without the support of local joint venture partners. Thus, this paper points out that immigration can enhance the competitiveness of multinational firms. |
| JEL: | F22 F23 J44 J61 O31 O32 O33 O57 |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17336&r=tid |
| By: | Toivanen, Otto; Väänänen, Lotta |
| Abstract: | Modern growth theory puts invention on the center stage. Inventions are created by individuals, raising the question: can we increase number of inventors? To answer this question, we study the causal effect of M.Sc. engineering education on invention, using data on U.S. patents’ Finnish inventors and the distance to the nearest technical university as an instrument. We find a positive effect of engineering education on the propensity to patent, and a negative OLS bias. Our counterfactual calculation suggests that establishing 3 new technical universities resulted in a 20% increase in the number of USPTO patents by Finnish inventors. |
| Keywords: | ability bias; citations; education; engineers; growth; innovation; invention; inventors; patents |
| JEL: | I21 J24 O31 |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8537&r=tid |