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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
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Issue of 2014‒06‒07
seven papers chosen by Fulvio Castellacci Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) |
| By: | Lorenzo Caliendo; Fernando Parro; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg; Pierre-Daniel Sarte |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of regional and sectoral productivity changes on the U.S. economy. To that end, we consider an environment that captures the effects of interregional and intersectoral trade in propagating disaggregated productivity changes at the level of a sector in a given U.S. state to the rest of the economy. The quantitative model we develop features pairwise interregional trade across all 50 U.S. states, 26 traded and non-traded industries, labor as a mobile factor, and structures and land as an immobile factor. We allow for sectoral linkages in the form of an intermediate input structure that matches the U.S. input-output matrix. Using data on trade flows by industry between states, as well as other regional and industry data, we obtain the aggregate, regional and sectoral elasticities of measured TFP, GDP, and employment to regional and sectoral productivity changes. We find that such elasticities can vary significantly depending on the sectors and regions affected and are importantly determined by the spatial structure of the US economy. |
| JEL: | E0 F1 F16 R12 R13 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20168&r=tid |
| By: | David Audretsch (Indiana University); Taylor Aldridge (Indiana University) |
| Abstract: | This report explores how U.S. federal institutions fund and influence innovation in the knowledge economy context and if any agencies or particular policies could be replicated in other countries. Three key U.S. agencies are identified as having significantly contributed to innovation and growth: (1) the Small Business Innovative Research program (SBIR), (2) the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and (3) the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA). How these agencies have advanced US innovation is explained in detail. The beginning of the report offers a lens for understanding why and how research and development does not necessarily lead to innovation. The report explores how ideas must pass through a knowledge filter in order to become successful innovations. This filter, which may impede potential innovations, means that transfers from ideas to innovations are not linear, nor are they always successful even though conditions may be suitable. Therefore, U.S. agencies are needed to help firms pass through the Valley of Death from ideas to successful commercial innovations. The report identifies US policies which could conceivably be replicated in other countries. Most notably, the authors argue that spurring innovation from European universities, with the help of an SBIR-like institution, may offer considerable help in transforming European ideas into innovations. The report concludes that the SBIR offered significant aid to innovative firms in the US and its replication by Horizon 2020 could also offer significant advantages for commercialization of inventions and ideas. The report also points out potential problems in a adopting an SBIR-like program in other countries. |
| Keywords: | Innovation policies, SBIR, DARPA, ATP |
| JEL: | L2 L5 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc87894&r=tid |
| By: | John Foster (School of Economics, The University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to understand the drivers of Australian economic growth since its Federation in 1901. Australia is an interesting case study given that it seems not to have been affected by the ‘natural resource curse’ like many other natural resource dependent countries. Indeed, at time of writing, it has been 23 years since it experienced a recession and its GDP per capita is now amongst the very highest in the World. At the end of the 19th Century it also had one of the highest per capita incomes in the World and, although there were economic difficulties between the World Wars, it did not fall into relative economic decline like, for example, Argentina, also a European immigrant country producing and exporting natural resources. |
| Date: | 2014–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:521&r=tid |
| By: | Semih Akçomak (TEKPOL, Science and Technology Policy Studies, Middle East Technical University); Hanna Müller-Zick (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of trust on innovation. In addition to generalised trust we use a range of other indicators that could measure trust and investigate which trust related variables could explain innovation in 20 European countries divided into 135 regions. We specifically look at causal, non-linear and spatial forces. Our findings indicate that only generalised trust and non-egoistic fairness have robust effects on innovation in Europe. Using historical data on the extent and existence of universities and an instrumental variable strategy we set up a causal relationship between trust and innovation. Even after controlling for causal, spatial and non-linear forces there is a significant direct impact of trust on innovation. |
| Keywords: | trust, social capital, innovation, EU |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:stpswp:1304&r=tid |
| By: | Anna Bohnstedt |
| Abstract: | We develop a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms à la Melitz (2003), where both the government and firms can invest into R&D to improve the country’s technological potential. A higher technological potential raises the average productivity of firms, thus implying lower consumer prices, and eventually leads to a welfare gain. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneous firms; public and private R&D investments; basic research; innovation |
| JEL: | O3 H4 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0485&r=tid |
| By: | Andrea Bellucci; Ilario Favaretto; Germana Giombini |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the access to credit of innovative firms on the price and non-price dimensions of bank lending. Using information from two datasets, we use a propensity score matching procedure to estimate the impact of the innovative nature of firms on: (a) loan interest rates; (b) the probability of having to post collateral; and (c) the probability of overdrawing. Our analysis reveals that banks trade off higher interest rates and lower collateral requirements for firms involved in innovative processes. Further, innovative firms have a lower probability of being credit rationed than their non-innovative peers. |
| Keywords: | innovative firms, interest rate, firm’s financing, relationship lending |
| JEL: | D82 E43 D40 G21 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaw:iawdip:104&r=tid |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Florian Noseleit; Yvonne Schindele |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of industry and region-specific conditions for the survival of new businesses in innovative and in other manufacturing industries. The data comprises all German manufacturing start-ups of the 1992 to 2005 period. In contrast to studies for some other countries, we find that businesses in innovative industries have higher survival rates than businesses in other manufacturing industries. Moreover, the chances of survival for innovative industries are rather immune to changes, regarding regional and industry-specific conditions, whereas businesses in the other manufacturing industries are strongly affected. These findings highlight that resistance to adverse conditions is dependent on industry specific opportunities and technological conditions. |
| Keywords: | New business survival, hazard rates, duration analysis, entrepreneurship, location |
| JEL: | C41 L25 L26 L60 |
| Date: | 2014–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2014-017&r=tid |