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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Margit Molnar; Hui Xu |
| Abstract: | China has surpassed the United States in patent applications and has become world leader. Strong patenting activity, however, did not lead to strong productivity growth. The delinking of patenting activity from productivity growth could be explained by quality and relevance issues. Although the number of patents has been soaring, few are genuine inventions. Relatively low utilisation rates of patents point to a low degree of relevance. This paper uses a representative survey of Chinese patenting firms to provide a detailed picture of the patenting landscape along the dimensions of geographical areas, detailed industrial sectors, traditional and modern industries as defined by the Chinese government, firm age, size and ownership. It also overviews government subsidies across firms. Transport equipment makers hold most patents per firm, followed by electronics manufacturers. State-owned firms spend more on R&D per patent, but hold fewer patents per researcher than private or foreign-invested firms. High patenting performance and government support are not necessarily linked to high utilisation of patents. Smaller, younger and private firms expect a higher return on their patents and so do exterior design patent holders. Furthermore, the paper examines what drives patenting activity. Higher R&D spending by the firm and higher share of researchers in its workforce tend to be associated with higher patents per employee. Smaller and older firms tend to patent more, and government support also appears to matter. Exterior design patents are associated with different firm characteristics: R&D intensity is lower and government support matters less. Most firms consider IPR protection insufficient and the share of firms having experienced patent infringement is the greatest among the largest firms. Many of them do not do anything once their rights are infringed as they do not expect effective remedy. Instead of patenting, which may not provide sufficient protection from imitators, they adopt other strategies like reaping the first mover advantage to market their goods or sign confidentiality agreements with their staff or contracts on commercial secrets. This Working Paper relates to the 2019 Economic Survey of China (http://www.oecd.org/economy/china-econo mic-snapshot/). |
| Keywords: | Chinese patenting, firm-level analysis, government subsidies, invention patents, IPR |
| JEL: | O31 O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2019–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1583-en&r=all |
| By: | F Baum, Christopher (Boston College, DIW Berlin & Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies); Lööf, Hans (Royal Institute of Technology & Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies); Stephan, Andreas (Jönköping University, DIW Berlin & Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies); Viklund-Ros, Ingrid (Royal Institute of Technology & Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of knowledge spillovers on innovation in newly founded firms. Analyzing patent statistics for 12 cohorts of about 7,600 Swedish startups, we apply a recursive bivariate probit model to identify a causal impact from board members of existing innovators on potential new innovators. The results show that new entrants with members of the board linked to innovative firms are more likely to apply for patents than other young entrepreneurial firms. The spillover effect is even stronger when we substitute trademarks for patents as an innovation indicator. |
| Keywords: | start-ups; board of directors; knowledge diffusion; innovation; endogeneity |
| JEL: | C36 D24 L21 M13 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0483&r=all |
| By: | Mabel Sánchez Barrioluengo (Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. Alliance Manchester Business School. University of Manchester) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how the adoption of digital technologies has changed the employment structure of UK firms. While the scientific literature traditionally has shown inconclusive results about who is winning the race between man and machine, we argue that currently there are reasons to be less pessimistic about the effect of technology on labor. Drawing on an employer-employee panel survey in 2004 and 2011 in the UK, this study shows that the effect of the firms’ routine exposure on employment and wages varies according to the skill content of occupations and by sectors. Our results suggest that firms’ concentration on routine cognitive jobs does not generate outright job-losses and could even have a positive effect on overall employment at firm-level. On the other hand, firms exposed to routine manual task jobs are more at risk of generating a negative impact on firms’ labor, mainly decreasing their workforce. While the concentration of routine occupations has a job-creating effect in the tertiary sector, this does not necessarily imply consistent job-losses within the secondary sector. Finally, we conclude that the investment in routine workforce without the appropriate technological adoption is not enough to generate positive effects on labor at firm-level, specifically in the manufacturing sector. |
| Keywords: | digitalisation, employment, wages, digital technologies, routine jobs, firm, UK. |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:2019-24&r=all |
| By: | Roth, Felix |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys a wide range of studies on the impact of capital investment in intangible assets on labour productivity growth and highlights their main findings on. Surveying the literature at the country, industry and firm level, this paper finds evidence of the increasing importance of business investment in intangible assets in explaining the dynamics of labour productivity growth. Moreover, the findings reported in the literature surveyed suggest that in order to fully reap the benefits of investment in information and communication technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI), it is essential for businesses to make complementary investment in intangible assets. In addition, the literature on the drivers of business capital investment in intangibles highlights the importance of having in place a well-endowed infrastructure of public intangibles. Judging from the wide range of economic literature surveyed, this paper finds that the contemporary economic debate now broadly acknowledges the importance of intangibles for the transformation of developed economies towards becoming fully-fledged knowledge economies. |
| Keywords: | Intangible Capital,Labour Productivity Growth,Total Factor Productivity Growth,Information and Communication Technology,Artificial Intelligence,European Union |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:uhhhdp:4&r=all |
| By: | Lin, Ping; Zhang, Tianle |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of product liability on the incentives of product and safety innovation. We first develop a monopoly model in which a firm chooses both product novelty and safety in an innovation stage followed by a production stage. A greater product liability directly increases the marginal benefit of producing a safer product and thus increases product safety. However, as product liability increases, product novelty may increase or decrease, depending on the relative strengths of demand-shifting and cross-R&D effects identified in the model. Consequently, a greater product liability may decrease consumer welfare and thus total welfare. We extend the results to an oligopoly model with differentiated products and study the effects of competition measured by the number of firms and the degree of product substitutability. We find that equilibrium product novelty and safety decrease with the number of firms but exhibit non-monotonic relationships with the degree of product substitutability. |
| Keywords: | Product Liability, Safety, Novelty, Innovation Incentive |
| JEL: | D4 K13 L13 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:97078&r=all |
| By: | Morgan Raux (PSE - Paris School of Economics, AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that firms' demand for high-skilled foreign workers partly results from their hiring difficulties. Relying on a within-firm identification strategy, I compare recruitment decisions made by a given employer for similar jobs differing in recruitment difficulties. I quantify how the time to fill a vacancy affects the employer's probability to look for recruiting a foreign worker. To identify this relationship, I have collected and assembled a new and original dataset at the job level. It matches online job postings to administrative data on H-1B visas applications in the US. I find that a standard deviation increase in job posting duration increases employers' probability to look for a foreign worker by 1.5 percentage points. This effect is mainly driven by firms sending only a few visa applications. It increases to 3 to 4 percentage points for architects, engineers and computer scientists. |
| Keywords: | H-1B Work Permit,Hiring difficulties,Web Scraping |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02364921&r=all |
| By: | Barge-Gil, Andrés; Vivas-Augier, Carlos |
| Abstract: | This manuscript contributes to the literature on firm cooperation with universities and KIBS by framing the analysis according to the literature on causal effects, comparing the effect of the two different agents and exploring which firms benefit more from cooperation with a specific partner. Results shows that the lower bound for the effect is around 27-30% increase in sales from new products for both types of partners. After covariates and fixed effects are used, it is found that this effect is not likely driven by time-varying unobservable factors. Moreover, we show that firms that benefit the most from cooperation with universities are different from those firms that benefit the most from cooperation with KIBS. |
| Keywords: | firm cooperation; universities; KIBS; treatment effects; heterogeneity; policy matching. |
| JEL: | L24 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–11–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:96949&r=all |
| By: | Chang-Tai Hsieh; Peter J. Klenow; Ishan B. Nath |
| Abstract: | In the wake of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, both the U.S. and Canada experienced a sustained increase in job reallocation, including firms moving into exporting. The change involved big firms as much as small firms. To mimic these patterns,we formulate a model of innovation by both domestic and foreign firms. In the model, trade liberalization quickens the pace of creative destruction, thereby speeding the flow of technology across countries. The resulting dynamic gains from trade liberalization are an order of magnitude larger than the gains in a standard static model. |
| JEL: | F11 F14 F43 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26461&r=all |
| By: | Giorgio Barba Navaretti; Lionel Fontagné; Gianluca Orefice; Giovanni Pica; Anna Cecilia Rosso |
| Abstract: | Trade shocks in export markets may affect the employment composition and the organization of exporting firms. In particular, the imposition of new technological standards in destination markets may force exporters to adjust the firm's organization to comply and cope with the additional complexity of the new production process. This paper investigates the effects on firms' organization of shocks induced by the introduction of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) in exporting countries. It relies on the Specific Trade Concern (STC) data released by the WTO to identify trade-restrictive TBT measures, combined with matched employer-employee data for the population of French exporters over the period 1995-2010. It also exploits information on the list of product-destinations served by each French exporter. Controlling for tariffs and for a given state of technology in the sector of the firm, it finds that exporters respond to increased complexity associated with restrictive Technical Barriers to Trade at destination by raising the share of managers at the expense of blue collars, white collars and professionals. This paper is related to the growing literature exploring how firms organize production in hierarchies to economize on their use of knowledge. It is also related to the well beaten literature on the labour market effects of trade, but from the perspective of exports rather than imports. |
| Keywords: | Skill Composition;Labor Demand;Job Polarization;Trade Barriers |
| JEL: | F13 F14 J53 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2019-14&r=all |
| By: | Bertani, Filippo; Ponta, Linda; Raberto, Marco; Teglio, Andrea; Cincotti, Silvano |
| Abstract: | During the last decades, we have witnessed a strong development of intangible digital technologies. Software, artificial intelligence and algorithms are increasingly affecting both production systems and our lives; economists have started to figure out the long-run complex economic implications of this new technological wave. In this paper, we address this question through the agent-based modelling approach. In particular, we enrich the macroeconomic model Eurace with the concept of intangible digital technology and investigate its effects both at the micro and macro level. Results show the emergence of the relevant stylized facts observed in the business domain, such as increasing returns, winner-take-most phenomena and market lock-in. At the macro level, our main finding is an increasing unemployment level, since the sizeable decrease of the employment rate in the mass-production system, provided by the higher productivity of digital assets, is usually not counterbalanced by the new jobs created in the digital sector. |
| Keywords: | Intangible assets, Digital transformation, Technological unemployment, Agent-based economics |
| JEL: | C63 D24 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:97071&r=all |
| By: | Dany Bahar; Hillel Rapoport; Riccardo Turati |
| Abstract: | We empirically investigate the relationship between a country’s economic complexity and the diversity in the birthplaces of its immigrants. Our cross-country analysis suggests that birthplace diversity is strongly and positively associated with economic complexity. This holds particularly for diversity among highly educated migrants and for countries at intermediate levels of economic complexity. The results are robust to accounting for previous trends in birthplace diversity as well as to using alternatives diversity measures. We address endogeneity concerns by instrumenting diversity through predicted stocks from a pseudo-gravity model as well as from a standard shift-share approach. Finally, we provide evidence suggesting that birthplace diversity boosts economic complexity by increasing the diversification of the host country’s export basket. |
| Keywords: | economic complexity, birthplace diversity, immigration, growth |
| JEL: | F22 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7950&r=all |