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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Joseph E. Stiglitz |
| Abstract: | This paper is an exercise in comparative institutional analysis, asking what kinds of arrangements most facilitate innovation. After identifying pervasive market failures in innovation, it explains why those associated with the Nordic model may be particularly conducive to innovation, and demonstrates that, in general, the optimal policies of the leader should differ from that of followers, but that both leaders and followers can benefit from active government policies (like industrial policies, public investments, and systems of social protection), not only leading to more innovation, but ensuring that more innovative activity is directed in ways that lead to the enhancement of living standards. It concludes by constructing a simple model in which knowledge flows slowly across national borders but moves easily within borders. We show there is a leadership-followership equilibrium, in which some countries are leaders, others are followers. Contrary to Solow's analysis, there need not be convergence. Focusing on technological progress that is a result of learning by doing, where learning occurs within the industrial sector but spills over to other sectors, we demonstrate the optimality of policies to expand the industrial sector beyond that which prevails in competitive equilibrium. |
| JEL: | E61 O3 O31 O32 O33 O34 O38 O51 O52 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20493&r=tid |
| By: | Gault F. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the current state of indicators of the activity of innovation and how they are presented for use in the policy process leading to a discussion of the development of new indicators, some outside of the business sector, which raises questions about the definition of innovation. This is followed by a review of plans for the evolution of innovation indicators and their use over the next few years. These plans, national and international, are diverse and this leads to a discussion of international organizations and forums which could facilitate progress towards new indicators and a better understanding of innovation systems. |
| Keywords: | Technological Change; Research and Development; Intellectual Property Rights: General; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives; Technological Change: Government Policy; Cultural Economics: Public Policy; |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O38 Z18 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014055&r=tid |
| By: | Viktor Slavtchev; S. Wiederhold |
| Abstract: | Governments purchase everything from airplanes to zucchini. This paper investigates the role of the technological content of government procurement in innovation. We theoretically show that a shift in the composition of public purchases toward high-tech products translates into higher economy-wide returns to innovation, leading to an increase in the aggregate level of private research and development (R&D). Collecting unique panel data on federal procurement in US states, we find that reshuffling procurement toward high-tech industries has an economically and statistically significant positive effect on private R&D, even after extensively controlling for other R&D determinants. Instrumental-variable estimations support a causal interpretation of our findings. |
| Keywords: | government demand, private R&D, endogenous growth, innovation policy |
| JEL: | E60 H57 O31 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwh:dispap:10-14&r=tid |
| By: | Alessandra Colombelli (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR7321 - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)); Jackie Krafft (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR7321 - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)); Francesco Quatraro (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR7321 - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)) |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes the contribution of high-growth firms (HGFs) to the process of knowledge creation. We articulate a demand-pull innovation framework in which knowledge creation is driven by sales growth, and knowledge stems from creative recombination. Building on the literature on HGFs and economic growth, we investigate whether "gazelles" follow patterns of knowledge creation dominated by exploration or exploitation strategies. We construct indicators for the structure of knowledge and identify firms' innovation strategies. The empirical results show that increasing growth rates are associated with exploration, supporting the idea that HGFs are key actors in the creation of new technological knowledge, and showing also that firms that achieve higher than average growth focus on exploration based on familiar technology. This suggests that exploration is less random than has been suggested. Our main result is that HGFs, especially gazelles, predominantly adopt exploration strategies that have the characteristics of organized search more often observed among firms following an exploitation strategy. |
| Date: | 2014–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01070569&r=tid |
| By: | Takayuki Mizuno (National Institute of Informatics, Department of Informatics, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo, The Canon Institute for Global Studies); Wataru Souma (College of Science and Technology, Nihon University); Tsutomu Watanabe (Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo, The Canon Institute for Global Studies) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the structure and evolution of customer-supplier networks in Japan using a unique dataset that contains information on customer and supplier linkages for more than 500,000 incorporated non-financial firms for the five years from 2008 to 2012. We find, first, that the number of customer links is unequal across firms; the customer link distribution has a power-law tail with an exponent of unity (i.e., it follows Zipf's law). We interpret this as implying that competition among firms to acquire new customers yields winners with a large number of customers, as well as losers with fewer customers. We also show that the shortest path length for any pair of firms is, on average, 4.3 links. Second, we find that link switching is relatively rare. Our estimates indicate that the survival rate per year for customer links is 92 percent and for supplier links 93 percent. Third and finally, we find that firm growth rates tend to be more highly correlated the closer two firms are to each other in a customer-supplier network (i.e., the smaller is the shortest path length for the two firms). This suggests that a non-negligible portion of fluctuations in firm growth stems from the propagation of microeconomic shocks – shocks affecting only a particular firm – through customer-supplier chains. |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upd:utppwp:033&r=tid |