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on Innovation |
| By: | Dan Breznitz; Amos Zehavi |
| Abstract: | Despite the fact that the distributional impact of innovation has been recognized in the social science literature, hardly any work has been done on the distributional politics of innovation policy. This study offers a first step in this direction as well as asking whether a government’s ideology affects innovation policy from a distributional viewpoint. The paper uses both qualitative case study method and a statistical analysis of government R&D outlays for social purposes in twenty-six countries. In terms of innovation policy, neo-corporatist interest group representation is linked to relatively equitable public R&D investment and left-oriented governments are more likely to invest in social innovation than their rightist counterparts. Nevertheless, governments rarely consider innovation policy in distributive terms. Despite the significant distributional implications of innovation, it remains depoliticized in policy making. |
| JEL: | O38 D63 P50 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:303&r=ino |
| By: | Bartelsman, Eric (VU University Amsterdam); Dobbelaere, Sabien (VU University Amsterdam); Peters, Bettina (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how productivity effects of human capital and innovation vary at different points of the conditional productivity distribution. Our analysis draws upon two large unbalanced panels of 6,634 enterprises in Germany and 14,586 enterprises in the Netherlands over the period 2000-2008, considering 5 manufacturing and services industries that differ in the level of technological intensity. Industries in the Netherlands are characterized by a larger average proportion of high-skilled employees and industries in Germany by a more unequal distribution of human capital intensity. Except for low-technology manufacturing, average innovation performance is higher in all industries in Germany and the innovation performance distributions are more dispersed in the Netherlands. In both countries, we observe non-linearities in the productivity effects of investing in product innovation in the majority of industries. Frontier firms enjoy the highest returns to product innovation whereas the most negative returns to process innovation are observed in the best-performing enterprises of most industries. In both countries, we find that the returns to human capital increase with proximity to the technological frontier in industries with a low level of technological intensity. Strikingly, a negative complementarity effect between human capital and proximity to the technological frontier is observed in knowledge-intensive services, which is most pronounced for the Netherlands. Suggestive evidence for the latter points to a winner-takes-all interpretation of this finding. |
| Keywords: | human capital, innovation, productivity, quantile regression |
| JEL: | C10 I20 O14 O30 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7540&r=ino |
| By: | Enrico Moretti; Daniel Wilson |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effects of state-provided financial incentives for biotech companies, which are part of a growing trend of placed-based policies designed to spur innovation clusters. We estimate that the adoption of subsidies for biotech employers by a state raises the number of star biotech scientists in that state by about 15 percent over a three year period. A 10% decline in the user cost of capital induced by an increase in R&D tax incentives raises the number of stars by 22%. Most of the gains are due to the relocation of star scientist to adopting states, with limited effect on the productivity of incumbent scientists already in the state. The gains are concentrated among private sector inventors. We uncover little effect of subsidies on academic researchers, consistent with the fact that their incentives are unaffected. Our estimates indicate that the effect on overall employment in the biotech sector is of comparable magnitude to that on star scientists. Consistent with a model where workers are fairly mobile across states, we find limited effects on salaries in the industry. We uncover large effects on employment in the non-traded sector due to a sizable multiplier effect, with the largest impact on employment in construction and retail. Finally, we find limited evidence of a displacement effect on states that are geographically close, or states that economically close as measured by migration flows. |
| Keywords: | Public policy ; Biotechnology ; Technological innovations ; Research and development |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2013-17&r=ino |
| By: | Alston, Julian |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iatr13:152335&r=ino |
| By: | Zhou, Minyu; Sheldon, Ian |
| Abstract: | To investigate whether intellectual property rights (IPRs) promote or hinder seed technology diffusion through trade, we use panel data for 134 countries over the period 1985-2010 to evaluate the impact of a country’s IPRs on its seed imports from the U.S. by estimating a gravity equation using both linear and nonlinear (Poisson) fixed effects methods. In both the static and dynamic models, the variable for WTO member countries that have implemented the TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement consistently shows a significantly positive effect on seed imports. We improve on previous studies by focusing on one type of planting seeds - field crop seeds, also accounting for status of growing genetically modified crops, and utilizing an estimation technique (Poisson) that is more viable in the handling of zero trade observations. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property rights, seed trade, gravity equation, Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, F14, O34, Q17, |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iatr13:152368&r=ino |