|
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Akcigit, Ufuk; Hanley, Douglas; Serrano-Velarde, Nicolas |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a general equilibrium model of endogenous technical change through basic and applied research. Basic research differs from applied research in the nature and the magnitude of the generated spillovers. We propose a novel way of empirically identifying these spillovers and embed them in a framework with private firms and a public research sector. After characterizing the equilibrium, we estimate our model using micro-level data on research expenditures by French firms. Our key finding is that standard innovation policies (e.g., uniform R&D tax credits) can accentuate the dynamic misallocation in the economy by oversubsidizing applied research. Policies geared towards public basic research and its transmission to the private sector are significantly welfare improving. |
| Keywords: | applied research; basic research; Endogenous Growth; government spending; innovation; productivity; Research and Development; spillover. |
| JEL: | J82 L25 L50 O31 O38 O40 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11707&r=tid |
| By: | Jing Cai; Adam Szeidl |
| Abstract: | We organized business associations for the owner-managers of randomly selected young Chinese firms to study the effect of business networks on firm performance. We randomized 2,800 firms into small groups whose managers held monthly meetings for one year, and into a “no- meetings” control group. We find that: (1) The meetings increased firm revenue by 8.1 percent, and also significantly increased profit, factors, inputs, the number of partners, borrowing, and a management score; (2) These effects persisted one year after the conclusion of the meetings; and (3) Firms randomized to have better peers exhibited higher growth. We exploit additional interventions to document concrete channels. (4) Managers shared exogenous business-relevant information, particularly when they were not competitors, showing that the meetings facilitated learning from peers. (5) Managers created more business partnerships in the regular than in other one-time meetings, showing that the meetings improved supplier-client matching. (6) Firms whose managers discussed management, partners, or finance improved more in the associated domain, suggesting that the content of conversations shaped the nature of gains. |
| JEL: | D22 L14 O12 O14 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22951&r=tid |
| By: | Tanya Ara\'ujo; Rui Faustino |
| Abstract: | In last years, the Portuguese economy has gone through a severe adjustment process, affecting almost all industrial sectors, the building blocks of economic structures. Research on economic structural changes has made use of input/output tables to define networks of industrial relations. Here, these networks are induced from output tables of the Portuguese national accounting system, being each inter-industry relation defined by the output made by any two industries for the products that they both produce. The topological analysis of these networks allows to uncover a particular structure that comes out during the Portuguese adjustment program. The evolution of the industrial networks shows an important structural change in 2011-2014, confirming the usefulness of inducting similarity networks from output tables and the consequent promising power of the graph formulation for the analysis of inter-industry relations. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1612.06291&r=tid |
| By: | Piva, Mariacristina (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Tani, Massimiliano (University of New South Wales); Vivarelli, Marco (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate the productivity impact of business visits, relative to traditional drivers of productivity enhancement, namely capital formation and R&D. To carry out the analysis, we combine unique and novel data on business visits sourced from the U.S. National Business Travel Association with OECD data on R&D and capital formation. The resulting unbalanced panel covers on average 16 sectors per year in 10 countries during the period 1998-2011 (2,262 observations). Our results suggest that mobility through business visits is an effective mechanism to improve productivity. The estimated effect is about half as large as investing in R&D, supporting viewing business visits as a form of long-term investment rather than pure consumption expenditure. In a nutshell, our outcomes support the need to recognize the private and social value of business mobility. |
| Keywords: | business visits, labour mobility, knowledge, R&D, productivity |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10421&r=tid |
| By: | Nabil Abou Lebdi (CREA, Université du Luxembourg); Katrin Hussinger (CREA, Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | By the notion of creative destruction, a crisis can stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation through reallocation of unproductive assets to new ventures that exploit emerging opportunities. However, a crisis can also hamper innovation by exacerbated credit market imperfections that affect new innovative ventures disproportionately. This study investigates the innovation behavior of German startups founded during the past economic crisis in 2009. Empirical results show that crisis startup foundations in high-tech sectors are less likely to introduce innovations to the market than ventures started in the pre-crisis period. Yet, the degree of novelty of these product or service innovations is significantly higher as compared to products and services introduced by start-ups founded in pre-crisis years. Moreover, we do not find evidence for necessity entrepreneurship in German low-tech industries. |
| Keywords: | creative destruction, economic crisis, entrepreneurship, innovation, startups |
| JEL: | L26 M13 O31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:16-27&r=tid |
| By: | Kotiranta, Annu; Pajarinen, Mika; Rouvinen, Petri |
| Abstract: | In this study, we analyze the characteristics and development of Finnish startups based on firm-level data available in public databases. By startups we refer to young, small, and independent firms holding basic elements for growth. Some 4 000–5 000 of such firms are being established annually, of which 6–7% grow to employ at least 10 workers in three years and have had simultaneously increased their employment by at least 20% per annum. About one third of all startups operate in knowledge intensive services and altogether around 70% in services; only few dozen of new startups are in high-tech manufacturing industries. Approximately 70% of startups survive for at least five years. During this period, their employment has on average doubled. The most intensive growth spurt emerges usually in the very first years after establishing the business. Only a few percent of startups get venture capital investments or public innovation subsidies. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, growth firm, start-up, enterprise policy |
| JEL: | D92 L26 L53 M13 |
| Date: | 2016–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:report:66&r=tid |
| By: | Harry Bloch; Mita Bhattacharya |
| Abstract: | Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play a substantial role in Australian growth and job creation. We discuss approaches to understanding the drivers of innovation and then review evidence on the determinants of innovation by Australian SMEs. We also examine the role of these firms in job creation. Against this evidence and the conceptual underpinnings, we then discuss some issues that arise with the government’s current innovation agenda. |
| Keywords: | Australia; Research and development; SMEs; innovation; innovation policy |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2016-17&r=tid |
| By: | Fazlıoğlu, Burcu; Dalgıç, Başak; Yereli, Ahmet Burçin |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effects of firms’ innovation activities on their productivity changes systematically for Turkish manufacturing firms differentiating between different typologies of innovation. To do so, we utilize a recent and comprehensive firm level dataset over the period 2003-2014, mainly constructed on the four consecutive waves of the “Community Innovation Surveys”. We employ endogenous switching methodology controlling for endogeneity and selection bias issues as well as analyzing counterfactual scenarios. The main finding of the study points to firm heterogeneity in terms of both propensity to innovate and their benefiting from innovation activities. Our results indicate that all types of innovation activity have positive effects on the productivity of firms with respect to non-innovating firms. Further, we find robust evidence for the differential impact of innovation on firm productivity across different innovation types. |
| Keywords: | Internal and External R&D, Product and Process Innovation, Organizational and Marketing Innovation, Firm Productivity |
| JEL: | D22 L25 O30 |
| Date: | 2016–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75773&r=tid |
| By: | Björn Jindra (Copenhagen Business School); Iciar Dominguez Lacasa (University of Bremen); Slavo Radosevic (UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies) |
| Abstract: | This working paper explores patterns of technology upgrading as a three-dimensional process which consists of (i) intensity of technology upgrading, (ii) structural change, and (iii) interaction with the global economy. The specificity of our report is that we depict patterns of technology upgrading by relying entirely on patent data. We derive patent indicators to capture the three dimensions. Patent indicators for intensity of technology upgrading trace technological capabilities at the technology frontier (transnational patents) and behind the technology frontier (domestic/resident direct applications to national offices). Structural change in technological knowledge is depicted by the share of transnational patent applications in high technology fields and knowledge-intensive activities and by calculating a technological diversification index. To capture interaction with global economy in the upgrading process indicators measure technological knowledge sourcing across countries and interactions between foreign and indigenous actors. Based on 7 patent indicators covering the three upgrading dimensions the comparative analysis focuses on EU27 and its subregions and on the BRICS countries. According to the results, in 2011 CEECs were quite homogenous in their upgrading paths. A typical CEE economy in 2011 is well behind EU12 in terms of frontier technology intensity, domestic technology intensity, share of high tech patents and technology sourcing abroad. Moreover, its organizational capabilities are often less advanced. The CEE profile is much less coherent in terms of technology diversification/specialization and share of joint inventions. However, differences among CEECs are not significant. Still there are some notable national features. Poland, Romania and Slovenia have above average domestic technological intensity which reflects partly their sizes (Romania and Poland) and specific model of innovation system reliant on domestic R&D intensive firms (Slovenia). Latvia and Lithuania are specific in terms of high share of HTKI patents. CEE technology upgrading as depicted by patents is within the BRIC pattern (with exception of China which in terms of technology upgrading has de facto delinked from BRICS). In the BRIC context, the CEE characterize very open innovation system with a high share of coinventions and foreign actors exploiting local inventions. This reveals weak organizational capabilities to commercialize its own inventions. According to the results CEE grew during 1990s/2008 based on production, not technological capability. Their future growth will increasingly depend on building technological capabilities at world frontier level. Our analysis shows that the basis for such growth exists only to a limited extent and that speed of upgrading towards world frontier activities is well beyond required for catching up. Equally, our analysis shows that solutions for improved technology upgrading will need to be found with their existing innovation model of small open economies integrated into the EU. |
| Keywords: | Technology upgrading; Central Europe; Eastern Europe |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:see:wpaper:2015:135&r=tid |
| By: | Daniel Gama e Colombo |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effects of tax incentives for technological innovation in Brazil established by the Law 11,196/05 ("Lei do Bem"), to test whether they have increased resources for business innovation projects and had any significant impact on their results. The average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) is estimated using microdata on the firm level from the Brazilian Industrial Innovation Survey (PINTEC) conducted by IBGE, and applying a propensity score matching (PSM) technique, used in recent similar analyzes. Results suggest the policy positively affects R&D expenditures, number of research staff and the base of firms investing in innovation. Average impact on spending, nevertheless, falls short of the volume of tax break per firm. Moreover, benefited firms have more chances to innovate and experience higher growth in terms of overall number of employees. Such results are in accordance with findings of most of the empirical literature on innovation tax incentives. The study provides empirical support in favor of tax incentives as part of a government strategy to boost entrepreneurial innovation in the country. |
| Keywords: | Tax incentives; technological innovation; impact assessment; “Lei do Bem”. |
| JEL: | O38 O54 H25 |
| Date: | 2016–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2016wpecon30&r=tid |
| By: | Conti, Chiara; Mancusi, Maria Luisa; Francesca, Sanna-Randaccio; Roberta, Sestini; Elena, Verdolini |
| Abstract: | A major concern regarding innovation in clean technologies in the EU is that the fragmentation of its innovation system may hinder knowledge flows and, consequently, spillovers across member countries. A low intensity of knowledge flows across EU states can negatively impact their technological base, suppressing opportunities for further innovations and hindering the movement towards the technological frontier. This paper evaluates the fragmentation of the EU innovation system in the field of renewable energy sources (RES) by examining the intensity and direction of knowledge spillovers over the years 1985-2010. We modify the original double exponential knowledge diffusion model to provide information on the degree of integration of EU countries’ innovation efforts and to assess how citation patterns changed over time. We show that EU RES inventors have increasingly built “on the shoulders of the other EU giants”, intensifying their citations to other member countries and decreasing those to domestic inventors. Furthermore, the EU strengthened its position as source of RES knowledge for the US. Finally, we show that this pattern is peculiar to RES, with other traditional (i.e. fossil-based) energy technologies behaving in a completely different way. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge Spillovers, Renewable Energy Technologies, Fossil Energy Technologies, EU Innovation, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q55, Q58, Q42, O31, O33, |
| Date: | 2016–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemmi:250256&r=tid |
| By: | Andreas P. Cornett; Nils Karl Sørensen |
| Abstract: | The purpose of the current paper is to analyze the impact of regional potentials on the process of growth. How are different types of regions (e.g. medium sized [city] regions, rural regions, urban regions or metropolitan and high-tech cluster regions) affected by improved performance, and to what extent can differences be explained by ex-ante difference in income? Based on data from the regional innovation scoreboard (RIS) is this issue addressed relative to the income level, previous growth performance and convergence. In the first part of the paper, the innovation performance of the regions is modelled relative to the income level and the underlying influencing factors are identified. Hereby, we are able to identify strengthens and weaknesses of the innovation structure in different regions. In addition the issues of returns to scale will be considered. In the second part of the paper the innovation performance is related to the process of convergence and divergence. Earlier research has shown that although convergence is present at aggregated European Union level a much more diversified picture is revealed at the disaggregated level. Here it is frequently observed that the more wealthy and central regions move away from the other regions. One of the results is that the economic crisis has reinforced not only intraregional divergence within countries but also the traditional divide between the stronger Northwest European countries and the South and East of Europe. Finally, the paper discusses and evaluates the impact of different types of innovation performance and the level of income on the perspectives of economic growth for different types of regions. A number of scenarios a sketched for the perspectives of the regions depending on endogenous as well as external factor endowment and dynamics. |
| Keywords: | Innovation- regional income differences - economic growth ? concentration - convergence & divergence |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa16p97&r=tid |
| By: | Tsvetkova, Alexandra; Thill, Jean-Claude; Conroy, Tessa |
| Abstract: | This paper distinguishes between internal (produced within the firm) and external (produced by other firms) knowledge and studies the effects of both knowledge types on survival in a cohort of computer and electronic product manufacturing companies started in 1991 in the continental US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Estimation results suggest that innovative companies face lower hazard but this effect seems to be driven by company’s initial characteristics, as producing more knowledge measured by successful patent applications does not translate into a higher likelihood of survival. In contrast, an innovative environment decreases survival likelihood in the whole sample, yet this result appears to be driven by non-patenting establishments. In the subset of non-patenting firms an innovative environment has a strong negative effect on survival whereas no significant relationship is identified in the subset of innovative firms. |
| Keywords: | Business survival, knowledge creation, patents, innovative environment |
| JEL: | L63 O3 O51 |
| Date: | 2016–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:75783&r=tid |
| By: | Calá, Carla Daniela |
| Abstract: | We analyse the determinants of firm dynamics in developing countries using Argentina as an illustrative case. We explain firm entry and exit at the regional level, distinguishing three groups of manufacturing activities: low, medium and high tech. We find that both region -and sector- specific determinants explain firm dynamics, but the impact is not homogeneous across sectors. In particular, for low tech industries, there is a need for explanatory variables that proxy for the specificities of developing economies (poverty, informal economy and idle capacity). We also find evidence of a core-periphery pattern according to which agglomeration economies and previous entries/exits have different effects in core and peripheral regions. These results are relevant for policy makers in developing countries, who should take into account not only the specificities of such economies, but also the regional heterogeneity both in terms of the level of development and industrial composition within the country. |
| Keywords: | Dinámica Empresarial; Creación de Empresas; Cese de Actividad; Relación Centro-Periferia; Modelo de Panel; Argentina; |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:2587&r=tid |
| By: | Enrica Di Stefano (Bank of Italy); Daniela Marconi (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Market frictions prevent the efficient allocation of factors of production, slow down structural transformation and lead to costs in terms of lower output and aggregate total factor productivity (TFP). We use a theoretical framework developed by Aoki (2012) featuring sector-specific frictions on capital and labor à la Chari, Kehoe and McGrattan (2007), and compute capital and labor misallocations in China and India using data for 26 sectors over the period 1980-2010. Our findings show that large factor misallocations exist in the two countries. We estimate the potential gains in terms of aggregate TFP stemming from an efficient allocation of factors to range from 25% to 35% in China and from 35% to 40% in India. Finally, we discuss the implications for structural transformation and the relationship between the observed allocation inefficiencies and the evolution of the business environment in the two countries. |
| Keywords: | structural transformation, frictions, resource allocation, productivity, China, India |
| JEL: | E23 O11 O41 O47 O53 O57 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1093_16&r=tid |
| By: | Tasso Adamopoulos; Loren Brandt; Jessica Leight; Diego Restuccia |
| Abstract: | We use household-level panel data from China and a quantitative framework to document the extent and consequences of factor misallocation in agriculture. We find that there are substantial frictions in both the land and capital markets linked to land institutions in rural China that disproportionately constrain the more productive farmers. These frictions reduce aggregate agricultural productivity in China by affecting two key margins: (1) the allocation of resources across farmers (misallocation) and (2) the allocation of workers across sectors, in particular the type of farmers who operate in agriculture (selection). We show that selection can substantially amplify the static misallocation effect of distortionary policies by affecting occupational choices that worsen the distribution of productive units in agriculture. |
| Keywords: | agriculture, misallocation, selection, productivity, China. |
| JEL: | O11 O14 O4 |
| Date: | 2017–01–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-574&r=tid |