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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | William Kerr (Harvard University); Ufuk Akcigit (University of Pennsylvania); Nicholas Bloom (Stanford); Daron Acemoglu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth and reallocation featuring endogenous entry and exit. A key feature is the selection between high- and low-type firms, which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the parameters of the model using detailed US Census micro data on firm-level output, R&D and patenting. The model provides a good fit to the dynamics of firm entry and exit, output and R&D, and its implied elasticities are in the ballpark of a range of micro estimates. We find industrial policy subsidizing either the R&D or the continued operation of incumbents reduces growth and welfare. For example, a subsidy to incumbent R&D equivalent to 5% of GDP reduces welfare by about 1.5% because it deters entry of new high-type firms. On the contrary, substantial improvements (of the order of 5% improvement in welfare) are possible if the continued operation of incumbents is taxed while at the same time R&D by incumbents and new entrants is subsidized. This is because of a strong selection effect: R&D resources (skilled labor) are inefficiently used by low-type incumbent firms. Subsidies to incumbents encourage the survival and expansion of these firms at the expense of potential high-type entrants. We show that optimal policy encourages the exit of low-type firms and supports R&D by high-type incumbents and entry. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:188&r=tid |
| By: | Di Cintio, Marco; Grassi, Emanuele |
| Abstract: | The role of patents is threefold: first, they are important to state the property rights of an invention; second, they are necessary to secure financing for starting a new venture; third, they are fundamental to recoup R&D investments. The main difficulty in preventing unauthorized use of an innovation is in the establishment of ranges and contexts of patents applicability. Noting the imperfections of the patent legal system, the authors are in a position to consider an economy with two levels of competition under different market structures: the inter-sector monopolistic competition and the intra-sector Cournot oligopoly. The explicit consideration of strategic interactions in a model of endogenous growth produces interesting results. Considering the sectorial market share as the indicator of patent system enforcement, the authors find that growth takes place, if and only if, there are some property rights of private knowledge produced by R&D activities. In turn, the patent system translates into a low degree of competition among firms. Its influence on the growth rate goes in a single unambiguous direction. As competition rises, few resources are available for R&D, so the growth rate goes down. |
| Keywords: | product differentiation,endogenous growth,market structure,R&D |
| JEL: | E10 L13 L16 O31 O40 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201549&r=tid |
| By: | Shengjun Zhu; Canfei He; Yi Zhou |
| Abstract: | By using the proximity product index, recent studies have argued that regional diversification emerged as a path-dependent process, as regions often branch into industries that are related to preexisting industrial structure. It is also claimed that developed countries that start from the core, dense areas in the uneven industry space have more opportunities to jump to new related industries and therefore have more opportunities to sustain economic growth than do developing countries that jump from peripheral, deserted areas. In this paper, we differentiate two types of regional diversification—path-dependent and path-breaking—and ask questions from a different angle: can developing countries/regions jump further in the industry space to break path-dependent development trajectories and more importantly to catch up with developed ones? Based on China’s export data, this paper shows that regions can jump further by investing in extra-regional linkages and internal innovation. Not only do these two sets of factors promote regions’ jumping capability, but they also contribute to regions’ capability of maintaining a comparative advantage in technologically distant and less related industries. In addition, different extra-regional linkage and internal innovation factors have affected regional diversification to different extents, and these effects also vary across regions and industries. Empirically, this research seeks to find a more promising future for developing countries/regions. Theoretically, our research testifies some key findings of theoretical works in evolutionary economic geography by using a quantitative framework. In addition, this paper includes some economic and institutional factors that have been left out in previous studies. |
| Keywords: | path-dependent, path-breaking, industrial relatedness, proximity index, transition industries |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1524&r=tid |
| By: | Melitz, Marc J.; Polanec, Sašo |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we propose an extension of the productivity decomposition method developed by Olley & Pakes (1996). This extension provides an accounting for the contributions of both firm entry and exit to aggregate productivity changes. It breaks down the contribution of surviving firms into a component accounting for changes in the firm-level distribution of productivity and another accounting for market share reallocations among those firms - following the same methodology as the one proposed by Olley & Pakes (1996). We argue that the other decompositions that break-down aggregate productivity changes into these same four components introduce some biases in the measurement of the contributions of entry and exit. We apply our proposed decomposition to the large measured increases of productivity in Slovenian manufacturing during the 1995-2000 period and contrast our results with those of other decompositions. We find that, over a 5-year period, the measurement bias associated with entry and exit is substantial, accounting for up to 10 percentage points of aggregate productivity growth. We also find that market share reallocations among surviving firms played a much more important role in driving aggregate productivity changes. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:faseco:17492204&r=tid |