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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
|
Issue of 2014‒02‒15
eight papers chosen by Fulvio Castellacci Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) |
| By: | Timmer, Marcel P.; Lashitew, Addisu A.; Inklaar, Robert (Groningen University) |
| Abstract: | When capital and labor are not allocated to the more productive firms, aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) suffers. Can this explain observed productivity differences across countries? We estimate manufacturing TFP levels for 52 developing countries and decompose it into a part due to misallocation and a part due to (residual) technology differences. The results show that removing misallocation would increase TFP by an average of 60 percent, but productivity gaps relative to the US remain large. The degree of misallocation is uncorrelated with observed productivity. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:rugggd:gd-143&r=tid |
| By: | Balsmeier, Benjamin; Czarnitzki, Dirk |
| Abstract: | This study examines how industry-specific managerial experience affects firms' innovation performance in the context of different institutional environments. Based on firm-level data from 27 Central and Eastern European countries we identify a robust positive relationship between industry-specific experience of the top-manager and the decision to innovate as well as the share of new product-related sales. These effects are particularly pronounced for small firms operating outside the European Union or, more generally, in institutionally less developed countries. The results suggest that managerial experience affects firm innovations largely indirectly, for example, by reducing uncertainty about future returns on innovations or by providing knowledge about how to cope with institutional shortfalls potentially hampering the commercial success of new products. -- |
| Keywords: | Corporate Governance,Innovation,Managerial Experience |
| JEL: | G38 L25 O32 P26 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14011&r=tid |
| By: | Hottenrott, Hanna; Rexhäuser, Sascha; Veugelers, Reinhilde |
| Abstract: | This study investigates productivity effects to firms introducing new environmental technologies. The literature on within-firm organisational change and productivity suggests that firms can get higher productivity effects from adopting new technologies if complementary organisational changes are adopted simultaneously. Such complementarity effects may be of critical importance for the case of adoption of greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement technologies. The adoption of these technologies is often induced by public authorities to limit social costs of climate change, whereas the private returns are much less obvious. We find empirical support for complementarity between green technology adoption and organisational change for a sample of firms located in Germany. The adoption of CO2 reducing and sustainable technologies innovations is associated with lower productivity. The simultaneous implementation of organisational innovations, however, increases the returns to the adoption of green technologies. -- |
| Keywords: | technical change,environmental innovation,organisational change,productivity |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12043r&r=tid |
| By: | Christian Le Bas; Julien Pénin |
| Abstract: | The standard view of patents emphasizes their dynamic efficiency. It considers that, by providing firms with incentives to invest in R&D and to disclose their knowledge, patents encourage innovation and increase social welfare in the long run. Yet, a growing body of literature opposes this view and asks for patent reform or even for the abolition of the patent system. In this work, which reviews the most recent literature on patents, we show that patents can have a negative impact on the dynamics of innovation. This is not due to some intrinsic properties of the patent system but to some of its recent evolutions which mean that, nowadays, too many patents are granted and that patent information is bad. The combination of those two elements explains most of the problems induced by modern patent systems such as hold-up (patent trolls), anti-commons (royalty stacking), and high transaction costs in markets for technology. We conclude by showing that realistic reforms can solve those problems and ensure that the patent system becomes again an instrument of dynamic efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Incentives, Patent, innovation policy, hold-up, trolls, anti-commons, markets for technology. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2014-02&r=tid |
| By: | Stefan Wagner (ESMT); Simon Wakeman (ESMT) |
| Abstract: | Patent-based measures are frequently used as indicators in empirical research on innovation and technology as well as on firms’ strategies and organizational choices to characterize inventions or, more generally, innovative activities and the technological capabilities of organizations. A clear correlation between the value of an invention and a number of patent indicators such as the number of citations received has been established. However, there is much less evidence of what patent-based indicators tell us about outcomes beyond patent value. Using data from the pharmaceutical industry, we investigate the relationship between the most frequently used indicators and the outcomes from the product development process. Our findings draw a complex picture regarding the information content of various patent indicators that bear important implications for the use and the proper interpretation of these indicators in settings where they are employed to describe outcomes beyond the patent system itself. |
| Keywords: | Patent indicators, patent system, product commercialization, pharmaceutical industry, drug development |
| Date: | 2014–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esm:wpaper:esmt-14-01&r=tid |
| By: | Stefano Breschi (CRIOS – Università Bocconi, Milan); Francesco Lissoni (GREThA – Université Montesquieu, Bordeaux IV and CRIOS – Università Bocconi, Milan); Gianluca Tarasconi (CRIOS – Università Bocconi, Milan) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the existing literature on migration and innovation, with special emphasis on empirical studies based on patent and inventor data. Other sources of micro-data are examined, too, for comparative purposes. A pilot database, based on patent filings at the European Patent Office is presented. It contains information on individual inventors, including their country of residence and of origin. Preliminary evidence suggests that immigrant inventors contribute to innovation not only in the US, but also in selected European countries, where they often rank among the most productive individuals. Data on returnee inventors to selected countries of origin suggest the phenomenon to be of limited scale, and highly subject to errors of measurement. |
| Keywords: | immigration, innovation, inventor data, patent data |
| JEL: | F22 O15 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:17&r=tid |
| By: | William R. Kerr (University, NBER, and Bank of Finland.) |
| Abstract: | High-skilled immigrants are a very important component of U.S. innovation and entrepreneurship. Immigrants account for roughly a quarter of U.S. workers in these fields, and they have a similar contribution in terms of output measures like patents or firm starts. This contribution has been rapidly growing over the last three decades. In terms of quality, the average skilled immigrant appears to be better trained to work in these fields, but conditional on educational attainment of comparable quality to natives. The exception to this is that immigrants have a disproportionate impact among the very highest achievers (e.g., Nobel Prize winners). Studies regarding the impact of immigrants on natives tend to find limited consequences in the short-run, while the results in the long-run are more varied and much less certain. Immigrants in the United States aid business and technology exchanges with their home countries, but the overall effect that the migration has on the home country remains unclear. We know very little about return migration of workers engaged in innovation and entrepreneurship, except that it is rapidly growing in importance. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, innovation, entrepreneurship, diaspora |
| JEL: | F15 F22 J15 J31 J44 L14 L26 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:16&r=tid |
| By: | Carlo Ciccarelli (University of Rome Tor Vergata); Alessandro Nuvolari (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the dynamics of technical change in the Italian locomotive industry in the period 1850-1913. From an historical point of view, the case of the Italian locomotive industry presents a major point of interest: it was one of the few relatively sophisticated “high-tech” industries in which Italy, a latecomer country, was able to firmly set foot before 1913. Using technical data on the performance of different vintages of locomotives, we construct a new aggregate index of technical change for the industry. Overall the most successful phase for the Italian locomotive industry seems to be period 1895-1913 characterized by a very rapid technical progress and by the effective consolidation of the technological capabilities in this area of two major firms: Breda and Ansaldo. Our re-assessment reveals the critical role of non-tariff trade barriers in the development of this industry. |
| Keywords: | technical change, non-tariff barriers, locomotives industry, 19th century Italy |
| JEL: | N73 O33 F13 |
| Date: | 2014–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:305&r=tid |