nep-tid New Economics Papers
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics
Issue of 2022‒09‒19
eleven papers chosen by
Fulvio Castellacci
Universitetet i Oslo

  1. Research Joint Ventures: The Role of Financial Constraints By Philipp Brunner; Igor Letina; Armin Schmutzler
  2. Disruptive innovation and spatial inequality By Kemeny, Tom; Petralia, Sergio; Storper, Michael
  3. Patent collateral and access to debt By Bracht, Felix; Czarnitzki, Dirk
  4. Regional diversification and intra-regional wage inequality in the Netherlands By Nicola Cortinovis; Dongmiao Zhang; Ron Boschma
  5. Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Trade: An Empirical Analysis By Auriol, Emmanuelle; Biancini, Sara; Paillacar, Rodrigo
  6. Invention Value, Inventive Capability and the Large Firm Advantage By Ashish Arora; Wesley M. Cohen; Honggi Lee; Divya Sebastian
  7. Assessing the Impact of Patent Attributes on the Value of Discrete and Complex Innovations By Mohd Shadab Danish; Pritam Ranjan; Ruchi Sharma
  8. Green & non-green relatedness: challenges and diversification opportunities for regional economies in Argentina By Belmartino, Andrea
  9. Overconfidence and Technology Adoption in Health Care By Diego A. Comin; Jonathan S. Skinner; Douglas O. Staiger
  10. The Next Wave of Energy Innovation: Which Technologies? Which Skills? By David Popp; Francesco Vona; Myriam Gregoire-Zawilski; Giovanni Marin
  11. Language Barriers and the Speed of Knowledge Diffusion By Kyle HIGHAM; NAGAOKA Sadao

  1. By: Philipp Brunner; Igor Letina; Armin Schmutzler
    Abstract: This paper provides a novel theory of research joint ventures for financially constrained firms. When firms choose R&D portfolios, an RJV can help to coordinate research efforts, reducing investments in duplicate projects. This can free up resources, increase the variety of pursued projects and thereby increase the probability of discovering the innovation. RJVs improve innovation outcomes when market competition is weak and external financing conditions are bad. An RJV may increase the innovation probability and nevertheless lower total R&D costs. RJVs that increase innovation tend to be profitable, but innovation-reducing RJVs also exist. Finally, we compare RJVs to innovation-enhancing mergers.
    Keywords: Innovation, Research Joint Ventures, Financial Constraints, Mergers, Intensity of Competition, Licensing
    JEL: L13 L24 O31
    Date: 2022–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ube:dpvwib:dp2205&r=
  2. By: Kemeny, Tom; Petralia, Sergio; Storper, Michael
    Abstract: Although technological change is widely credited as driving the last 200 years of economic growth, its role in shaping patterns of inequality remains under-explored. Drawing parallels across two industrial revolutions in the United States, this paper provides new evidence of a relationship between highly disruptive forms of innovation and spatial inequality. Using the universe of patents granted between 1920 and 2010 by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), we identify disruptive innovations through their rapid growth, complementarity with other innovations and widespread use. We then assign more and less disruptive innovations to subnational regions in the geography of the United States. We document three findings that are new to the literature. First, disruptive innovations exhibit distinctive spatial clustering in phases understood to be those in which industrial revolutions reshape the economy; they are increasingly dispersed in other periods. Second, we discover that the ranks of locations that capture the most disruptive innovation are relatively unstable across industrial revolutions. Third, regression estimates suggest a role for disruptive innovation in regulating overall patterns of spatial output and income inequality.
    Keywords: industrial revolutions; inequality; innovation; regional development; technological change
    JEL: J31 O30 O33 O51
    Date: 2022–07–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:115953&r=
  3. By: Bracht, Felix; Czarnitzki, Dirk
    Abstract: We investigate how intangible capital in form of intellectual property, such as patents, might mitigate financing constraints. While scholars have already argued that patents might have a signalling value reducing information asymmetries between borrowers and lenders, we quantify the value of using patents as collateral with regard to capital access. Although this mechanism of patents in financing further R&D is not new, we are the first to provide a treatment effects study of patent collateral and access to capital. We make use of mandatory collateral registry data in Sweden and the Netherlands to construct panels combining firm-level financial data and patent measures. Estimating conditional difference-in-difference regressions on firms' debt allows deducting treatment effects of using patents as collateral. We find that patent pledging enables Swedish (Dutch) firms to borrow about 21% (26%) more than in the counterfactual situation in which no patents would have been used as collateral. We also find that the collateral value of patents is higher than their signalling value, and a back-of-the-envelope scenario calculation shows that Dutch (Swedish) firms could raise more than € 7 (€ 10) billion additional debt capital if the complete patent portfolios would be pledged, all else constant.
    Keywords: Financing Constraints,Collateral,Intangible Assets,Patents,Treatment Effects Estimation
    JEL: O30 O34 G31
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:22033&r=
  4. By: Nicola Cortinovis; Dongmiao Zhang; Ron Boschma
    Abstract: The literature has drawn little attention to the relationship between industrial dynamics (i.e. the rise and fall of industries) and intra-regional wage inequality. This explorative study examines the relationship between industry dynamics and wage inequality in NUTS-3 regions in the Netherlands in the period 2010-2019. While the literature has shown that related diversification in more complex industries enhances economic growth in regions but also inequality between regions, our study shows that related diversification in less complex industries tends to reduce wage inequality within a region. This implies it remains a policy challenge to combine smart and inclusive growth in regions. Our study also showed that there is no significant relationship between exit of industries and regional inequality, with one exception: unrelated low-complex exits tend to increase intra-regional wage inequality. Overall, these findings suggest that related diversification in less complex industries tends to bring benefits in terms of inclusive growth, while unrelated exits in less complex industries tend to do the opposite.
    Keywords: intra-regional inequality, regional inequality, relatedness, structural change, inclusive growth
    JEL: O18 O31 O33 R11
    Date: 2022–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2216&r=
  5. By: Auriol, Emmanuelle; Biancini, Sara; Paillacar, Rodrigo
    Abstract: The paper proposes an empirical analysis of the determinants of the adoption of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and their impact on innovation in manufac- turing. The analysis is conducted with panel data covering 112 countries. First we show that IPR protection is U-shaped with respect to a country’s market size and inverse-U-shaped with respect to the aggregated market size of its trade partners. Second, reinforcing IPR protection reduces on-the-frontier and inside-the-frontier innovation in developing countries, without necessarily increasing innovation at the global level.
    Keywords: Intellectual Property Rights; Innovation; Developing Countries; Market Potential; Trade
    JEL: F12 F13 F15 L13 O31 O34
    Date: 2022–09–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:127263&r=
  6. By: Ashish Arora; Wesley M. Cohen; Honggi Lee; Divya Sebastian
    Abstract: Do large firms produce more valuable inventions, and if so, why? After confirming that large firms indeed produce more valuable inventions, we consider two possible sources: a superior ability to invent, or a superior ability to extract value from their inventions. We develop a simple model that discriminates between the two explanations. Using a sample of 2,786 public corporations, and measures of both patent quality and patent value, we find that, while average invention value rises with size, average invention quality declines, suggesting, per our model, that the large firm advantage is not due to superior inventive capability, but due to the superior ability to extract value. We provide evidence suggesting that this superior ability to extract value is due to greater commercialization capabilities of larger firms.
    JEL: O31 O32 O33 O34
    Date: 2022–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30354&r=
  7. By: Mohd Shadab Danish; Pritam Ranjan; Ruchi Sharma
    Abstract: This study assesses the degree to which the social value of patents can be connected to the private value of patents across discrete and complex innovation. The underlying theory suggests that the social value of cumulative patents is less related to the private value of patents. We use the patents applied between 1995 to 2002 and granted on or before December 2018 from the Indian Patent Office (IPO). Here the patent renewal information is utilized as a proxy for the private value of the patent. We have used a variety of logit regression model for the impact assessment analysis. The results reveal that the technology classification (i.e., discrete versus complex innovations) plays an important role in patent value assessment, and some technologies are significantly different than the others even within the two broader classifications. Moreover, the non-resident patents in India are more likely to have a higher value than the resident patents. According to the conclusions of this study, only a few technologies from the discrete and complex innovation categories have some private value. There is no evidence that patent social value indicators are less useful in complicated technical classes than in discrete ones.
    Date: 2022–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2208.07222&r=
  8. By: Belmartino, Andrea
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the role of relatedness in the development of new green specializations for the Argentinean provinces between 2008-2019. The development of products with environmental benefits (called green products) is considered one step towards a sustainable transition. These products present a growing demand that may provide an opportunity in terms of green development. The empirical strategy draws on the evolutionary economic geography through indices that capture knowledge bases in the region. The aim is to analyze the role of green and non-green relatedness in the development of new green specializations and to identify potential diversification opportunities. Empirical results show that the green economy has an uneven spatial distribution across the country, that remains stable over time. Furthermore, the development of a new green specialization is positively related to the productive knowledge bases present in the region (proxied by relatedness density). Both, green and non-green relatedness are relevant to develop new specializations in green products. Potential diversification opportunities are also in favor of wealthier regions. Finally, the results reveal a path dependence process on the development of new specialization in green products.
    Keywords: Diversificación de la Producción; Economía Regional; Economía Verde; Argentina; 2008-2019;
    Date: 2022–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3697&r=
  9. By: Diego A. Comin; Jonathan S. Skinner; Douglas O. Staiger
    Abstract: Variation in technology adoption is a key driver of differences in productivity. Previous studies sought to explain variations in technology adoption by heterogeneity in profitability, costs of adoption, or other factors. Less is known about how adoption is affected by bias in the perceived skill to implement the technology. We develop a Bayesian framework in which the use of the technology depends on perceived skill, while the outcomes from using it depend on actual skill. We study the determinants of adoption in the case of implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) for which we document large differences across hospitals in the rate of adoption between 2002-2006, and a strong reversal from 2006-2013. We find that perception bias explains two-thirds of the cross-hospital variation in ICD use. A dynamic version of the model with learning about bias predicts accurately the subsequent decline in ICD use between 2006-2013. These results suggest an important role for misperception in explaining the wide variation in the adoption of new technologies.
    JEL: I1 O3 O33
    Date: 2022–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30345&r=
  10. By: David Popp; Francesco Vona; Myriam Gregoire-Zawilski; Giovanni Marin
    Abstract: The costs of low-carbon energy fell dramatically over the past decade, leading to rapid growth in its deployment. However, many challenges remain to deploy low-carbon energy at a scale necessary to meet net zero carbon emission targets. If net zero goals are to be met, developing complementary technologies and skills will be a necessary part of the next wave of low-carbon energy innovation. These include both improvements in physical capital, such as smart grids to aid integration of intermittent renewables, and human capital, to develop the skills workers need for a low-carbon economy. We document recent trends in energy innovation and discuss the lessons learnt for policy. We then discuss the potential role for complementary innovation in both physical capital—using smart grids as an example of how policy can help—and human capital, where we show how a task approach to labor informs policy and research on the worker skills needed for the energy transition.
    JEL: J24 O31 O38 Q42 Q55
    Date: 2022–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30343&r=
  11. By: Kyle HIGHAM; NAGAOKA Sadao
    Abstract: While language barriers are well-known obstacles to knowledge diffusion, quantitative research on this topic is sparse. In this work, we attempt to fill this gap by providing causal evidence on their effects on the speed of knowledge diffusion by exploiting the introduction of pre-grant publications by the American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) in 2000. We find that this policy significantly accelerated, relative to Japanese inventors, US inventors’ use of Japan-originating technical knowledge in their patents. Our analysis controls for biases of patent citations as proxies of knowledge flow, including preference for citing local prior art. Consistent with incentives for translation, this acceleration is much larger for small firms and the firms with little investment in the Japanese market. Consistent with high uncertainty of foreign patents before translation, we see much larger effects of the AIPA on the patent applications with higher quality. Our findings suggest that pre-grant publication provides a significant public good for cumulative innovation through earlier translations of foreign patents.
    Date: 2022–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:22074&r=

This nep-tid issue is ©2022 by Fulvio Castellacci. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.