nep-ino New Economics Papers
on Innovation
Issue of 2013‒03‒30
fourteen papers chosen by
Steffen Lippert
University of Otago, Dunedin

  1. The Location of Industrial Innovation: Does Manufacturing Matter? By Isabel Tecu
  2. Competition, R&D and Innovation: Testing the Inverted-U in a Simultaneous System By Michael Peneder; Martin Wörter
  3. My Precious! The Location and Diffusion of Scientific Research: Evidence from the Synchrotron Diamond Light Source By Christian Helmers; Henry Overman
  4. Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Technological Breakthroughs: An analysis of U.S. state-level patenting By Carolina Castaldi; Koen Frenken; Bart Los
  5. In Defense of Trusts: R&D Cooperation in Global Perspective By Jeroen Hinloopen; Grega Smrkolj; Florian Wagener
  6. Sustainability and Competitiveness in Evolutionary Perspectives. Environmental Innovations, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics in the EU By Massimiliano Mazzanti; Francesco Nicolli; Marianna Gilli
  7. Transboundary pollution, R&D spillovers, absorptive capacity and international trade By Dinar, Zeineb
  8. Global dynamic timelines for IPRs harmonization against software piracy By Andrés, Antonio R; Asongu , Simplice A
  9. Understanding creativity and innovation in industrial design: an historical and empirical assessment By Bertacchini Enrico; Friel Martha
  10. Price Indexes for Clinical Trial Research: A Feasibility Study By Ernst R. Berndt; Iain M. Cockburn
  11. GRAVITY MODELING: INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND R&D By Josheski , Dushko; Fotov , Risto
  12. Innovation Drivers, Value Chains and the Geography of Multinational Firms in European Regions By Riccardo Crescenzi; Carlo Pietrobelli & Roberta Rabellotti
  13. Social activity and collective action for agricultural innovation: a case study of New Rural Reconstruction in China By Huanxiu GUO; Mary-Françoise RENARD
  14. The properties of local knowledge bases and entrepreneurship: Evidence from Italian NUTS 3 regions By Alessandra Colombelli; Francesco Quatraro

  1. By: Isabel Tecu
    Abstract: What explains the location of industrial innovation? Economists have traditionally attempted to answer this question by studying firm-external knowledge spillovers. This paper shows that firm-internal linkages between production and R&D play an equally important role. I estimate an R&D location choice model that predicts patents by a firm in a location from R&D productivity and costs. Focusing on large R&D-performing firms in the chemical industry, an average-sized plant raises the firm’s R&D productivity in the metropolitan area by about 2.5 times. The elasticity of R&D productivity with respect to the firm’s production workers is almost as large as the elasticity with respect to total patents in the MSA, while proximity to academic R&D has no significant effect on R&D productivity in this sample. Other manufacturing industries exhibit similar results. My results cast doubt on the frequently-held view that a country can divest itself of manufacturing and specialize in innovation alone.
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:13-09&r=ino
  2. By: Michael Peneder (WIFO); Martin Wörter
    Abstract: To address the relationship between innovation and competition we jointly estimate the opportunity, production, and impact functions of innovation in a simultaneous system. Based on Swiss micro-data, we apply a 3-SLS system estimation. The findings confirm a robust inverted-U relationship, in which a rise in the number of competitors at low levels of initial competition increases the firm's research effort, but at a diminishing rate, and the research effort ultimately decreases at high levels of competition. When we split the sample by firm types, the inverted-U shape is steeper for creative firms than for adaptive ones. The numerical solution indicates three particular configurations of interest: 1. an uncontested monopoly with low innovation, 2. low competition with high innovation, and 3. a "no innovation trap" at very high levels of competition. The distinction between solution 1. and 2. corresponds to Arrow's positive effect of competition on innovation, whereas the difference between outcomes 2. and 3. captures Schumpeter's positive effect of market power on innovation. Simulating changes of the exogenous variables, technology potential, demand growth, firm size and exports have a positive impact on innovation, while foreign ownership has a negative effect, and higher appropriability has a positive impact on the number of competitors.
    Date: 2013–03–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2013:i:448&r=ino
  3. By: Christian Helmers; Henry Overman
    Abstract: We analyze the impact of the establishment of a GBP 380 million basic scientific research facility in the UK on the geographical distribution of related research. We investigate whether the siting of the Diamond Light Source, a 3rd generation synchrotron light source, in Oxfordshire induced a clustering of related research in its geographic proximity. To account for the potentially endogenous location choice of the synchrotron, we exploit the availability of a `runner-up' site near Manchester. We use both academic publications and patent data to trace the geographical distribution of related knowledge and innovation. Our results suggest that the siting of the synchrotron in Oxfordshire created a highly localized cluster of related scientific research.
    Keywords: Synchrotron, location, innovation, patents
    JEL: R12 R58 O31 O38
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0131&r=ino
  4. By: Carolina Castaldi; Koen Frenken; Bart Los
    Abstract: We investigate how variety affects the innovation output of a region. Borrowing arguments from theories of recombinant innovation, we expect that related variety will enhance innovation as related technologies are more easily recombined into a new technology. However, we also expect that unrelated variety enhances technological breakthroughs, since radical innovation often stems from connecting previously unrelated technologies opening up whole new functionalities and applications. Using patent data for US states in the period 1977-1999 and associated citation data, we find evidence for both hypotheses. Our study thus sheds a new and critical light on the related-variety hypothesis in economic geography.
    Keywords: recombinant innovation, regional innovation, superstar patents, technological variety, evolutionary economic geography
    JEL: O31 R11
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1302&r=ino
  5. By: Jeroen Hinloopen (University of Amsterdam); Grega Smrkolj (University of Amsterdam); Florian Wagener (University of Amsterdam)
    Abstract: We examine the trade-off between the benefits of allowing firms to cooperate in R&D and the corresponding increased potential for product market collusion. For that we utilize a dynamic model of R&D whereby we consider all possible initial marginal cost levels (technologies), including those that exceed the choke price. This global analysis yields four possibilities: initial marginal costs are above the choke price and this technology is, or is not, developed further, and initial marginal costs are below the choke price and the technology is, or is not, (eventually) taken off the market. We show that an extension of the cooperative agreement towards collusion in the product market is not necessarily welfare reducing: if firms collude, they (i) develop further a wider range of initial technologies, (ii) invest more in R&D such that process innovations are pursued more quickly, and (iii) abandon the technology for a smaller set of initial marginal costs. We also dis cuss the implications of our analysis for antitrust policy.
    Keywords: Antitrust policy; Bifurcations; Collusion; R&D cooperatives; Spillovers
    JEL: D43 D92 L13 L41 O31 O38
    Date: 2013–03–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20130045&r=ino
  6. By: Massimiliano Mazzanti; Francesco Nicolli; Marianna Gilli
    Abstract: We take a sector based perspective to investigate the EU economic, environmental and innovation performances. We correlate the various sector performances taking into account the role of changing specialization. In addition, we examine sector environmental performances related factors through shift-share decomposition analysis. We show that vivid divergences in environmental, economic and innovation performances exist between EU countries. The leading role of Germany emerges, with strong underpinnings in its economic specialization rooted on manufacturing. France excels in some services, while Italy suffers. Germany and Sweden more than others present win win economic-environmental sector performances. On the basis of our investigation economic and environmental performances are effectively potentially interrelated. Examples of integrated innovation-economic-environmental performances appear. Nevertheless, the sector view highlights that the underpinnings of macro performance rely on various structural change and innovation elements. Further research could investigate how composition effects and innovation changes correlate towards the achievement of sustainable economic development.
    Keywords: Environmental innovation; economic performance; decomposition; meso economics
    JEL: Q53 Q55
    Date: 2013–01–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:2013042&r=ino
  7. By: Dinar, Zeineb
    Abstract: In this paper, we consider a non-cooperative and symmetric three-stage game model composed by two regulator-firm hierarchies. By means of adequate emission taxes, original and absorptive research and development (R&D) subsidies we prove that regulators can reach the non-cooperative social optimum. In the presence of free R&D spillovers between countries, as well as the investment in absorptive research, the competition of firms on a common market helps non-cooperating countries to better internalize transboundary pollution. We find that in autarky and common market cases the investment in absorptive R&D leads to multiple non-cooperative equilibria, which may necessitate competing regulators to coordinate an equilibrium. Interestingly, opening markets to international trade increases the per-unit emission-tax and the per-unit original research subsidy. It causes a higher investment in original research and production, and a lower emission ratio. --
    Keywords: Transboundary pollution,R&D spillovers,absorptive capacity,international trade
    JEL: C72 H21 O32 D62
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201323&r=ino
  8. By: Andrés, Antonio R; Asongu , Simplice A
    Abstract: This paper employs a recent methodological innovation on intellectual property rights (IPRs) harmonization to project global timelines for common policies against software piracy. The findings on 99 countries are premised on 15 fundamental characteristics of software piracy based on income-levels (high-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income and low-income), legal-origins (English common-law, French civil-law, German civil-law and, Scandinavian civil-law) and, regional proximity (South Asia, Europe & Central Asia, East Asia & the Pacific, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean and, Sub-Saharan Africa). The results broadly show that a feasible horizon for the harmonization of blanket policies ranges from 4 to 10 years.
    Keywords: Software piracy; Intellectual property rights; Panel data; Convergence
    JEL: F42 K42 O34 O38 O57
    Date: 2013–01–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45631&r=ino
  9. By: Bertacchini Enrico; Friel Martha (University of Turin)
    Abstract: In the last decades, industrial design has been increasingly recognized as a sector combining elements of both artistic creativity and economic innovation. Using a unique dataset encompassing information on 326 top designers, 242 firms and 935 products from 1913 to 2000, we investigate the main patterns of the industrial des ign industry. First, we analyze the worldwide evolution of the creative sector in terms of industry structure, changes in product materials and agglomeration dynamics of both firms and designers. Second, we provide a preliminary quantitative investigation of designers’ creativity life-cycles. The paper contributes to the cultural economics literature by shedding light on the relations between creativity and innovation in creative industries
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201311&r=ino
  10. By: Ernst R. Berndt; Iain M. Cockburn
    Abstract: We estimate hedonic price indexes for clinical trial research, an important component of biomedical R&D, using a large sample of agreements between trial sponsors and clinical investigators obtained from MediData Solutions Worldwide Inc. Nominal prices measured as total grant cost per patient rose by a factor of 4.5 between 1989 and 2011, while the NIH Biomedical R&D Price Index (BRDPI) focused on input costs rose only 2.2-fold. Most of the disparity appears to be attributable to changes in the nature and organization of clinical trials: during this period the average number of patients per site fell substantially while “site work effort” more than doubled. After controlling for these changes in the characteristics of investigator agreements using a variety of methods based on hedonic regressions, we find that the estimated rate of inflation in clinical trials costs tracks the BDRPI very closely. Results from this study suggest that it should be feasible for statistical agencies to develop a producer price index for this type of R&D activity, contributing to broader efforts to develop a deflator for contracted R&D services.
    JEL: E31 L65 O49
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18918&r=ino
  11. By: Josheski , Dushko; Fotov , Risto
    Abstract: In this paper issue of gravity modeling in international trade has been investigated. Standard gravity equation augmented with other variables to control for transportation cost, whether trade partners are neighbors and whether country is landlocked, or countries participants in trade have had colonial history together. Also in our model we control whether traded commodities are homogenous, differentiated or high tech, as well referenced. Variable to denote technology are: TAI index, which stands for technological achievement index, also variables for creation and diffusion of technology, as measured by the number of patents from the residents and royalty and license fees receipts, by the foreign citizens. Results are as expected and the show that trade is highly dependent on the exporters and importers levels of technology.
    Keywords: Key words: bilateral trade, gravity model, R&D, OLS, PPML
    JEL: F1 F14
    Date: 2013–03–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45550&r=ino
  12. By: Riccardo Crescenzi; Carlo Pietrobelli & Roberta Rabellotti
    Abstract: "This paper investigates the geography of multinational corporations’ investments in the EU regions. The ‘traditional’ sources of location advantages (i.e. agglomeration economies, market access and labour market conditions) are considered together with innovation and socio-institutional drivers of investments, captured by means of regional social filter conditions. The introduction of a wider set of attraction factors makes is possible to empirically assess the different role played by such advantages in the location decision of investments at different stages of the value chain and disentangle the differential role of national vs. local and regional factors. The empirical analysis covers the EU-25 regions and suggests that regional-socio economic conditions are crucially important for an understanding of the location investment decisions in the most sophisticated knowledge-intensive stages of the value chain."</HEAD
    Keywords: regions
    Date: 2012–10–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:leqsxx:p0053&r=ino
  13. By: Huanxiu GUO; Mary-Françoise RENARD
    Abstract: Since 2003, a grass-roots movement of New Rural Reconstruction (NRR) has emerged in China to experience alternative model of rural development. The movement adopts a particular approach for rural development on basis of rural social and cultural reconstruction. In order to understand this social approach, we investigate an original NRR experiment in a poor village of south China, where organic farming is promoted by means of basketball game. An in-depth household survey is conducted to qualitatively analyze this social approach and derive intuitive hypothesis of extended social network for empirical test. With a panel structure dataset collected by the survey, we quantitatively identify the causal effect of social network by exploiting the endogeneity of social network formation. Our identification result provides micro evidence for a large social multiplier effect in the diffusion of organic farming, whereas it is negative for organic experts. Also, our results highlight the role of women, education and labor force for the development of organic farming. On basis of these results, we conclude that organic farming is suitable but challenging for small villages in China, while social activity is a good lever to achieve farmers' collective action for its large diffusion.
    Keywords: New rural reconstruction; Social network; Organic farming; China. D71, O33, Q55
    JEL: Q55 O33 D71
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1423&r=ino
  14. By: Alessandra Colombelli; Francesco Quatraro
    Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between the creation of new firms and the properties of the local knowledge bases, like coherence, cognitive distance and variety. By combining the literature on the knowledge spillovers of entrepreneurship and that on the recombinant knowledge approach, we posit that locally available knowledge matters to the entrepreneurial process, but the type of knowledge underlying theses dynamics deserve to be analyzed. The analysis is carried out on 104 Italian NUTS 3 regions observed over the time span 1995-2011. The results confirm that local knowledge is important, and suggest that the creation of new firms in Italy is associated to the exploitation of well established technological trajectories grounded on competences accumulated over time, rather than to the commercialization of brand new knowledge.
    Keywords: Knowledge Coherence, Variety, Cognitive Distance, Italy, Knowledge-Spillovers Theory of Entrepreneurship, New Firms, Recombinant Knowledge
    JEL: L26 M13 R11 O33
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1303&r=ino

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