nep-ino New Economics Papers
on Innovation
Issue of 2015‒04‒19
eighteen papers chosen by
Steffen Lippert
University of Auckland

  1. Intellectual Property Rights and appropriability of innovation capital: evidence from Polish manufacturing firms By Tomasz Kijek
  2. Measuring Innovation Using Patent Data By Svensson, Roger
  3. Innovation in Russia: the territorial dimension By Riccardo Crescenzi; Alexander Jaax
  4. Moving People with Ideas - Innovation, Inter-regional Mobility and Firm Heterogeneity By Riccardo Crescenzi; Luisa Gagliardi
  5. Tax incentives for innovation By Joanna Stryjek
  6. Regulatory push-pull effects on innovation: an evaluation of the effects of the REACH regulation on patents in the chemical sector By Claudia Ghisetti; Francesco Quatraro
  7. An Empirical Examination of Patent Hold-up By Alexander Galetovic; Stephen Haber; Ross Levine
  8. Taxonomy of implemented policy instruments to foster the production of green technologies and improve environmental and economic performance By Francesco Crespi; Claudia Ghisetti; Francesco Quatraro
  9. Eco-innovations in the business practice of the companies traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange – an overview of selected results. By Bogna Janik; Krzysztof Kolodziejczyk
  10. Social Capital, Innovation and Economic Growth By Maria Thompson
  11. Knowledge Spillovers, Absorptive Capacity and Growth: An Industry-level Analysis for OECD Countries By Bournakis, Ioannis; Christopoulos, Dimitris; Mallick, Sushanta
  12. A Survey of the Literature on Environmental Innovation Based on Main Path Analysis By Nicolò Barbieri; Claudia Ghisetti; Marianna Gilli; Giovanni Marin; Francesco Nicolli
  13. Restraining High and Rising Cancer Drug Prices: Need for Accelerating R&D Productivity and Aligning Prices with Value By Bhardwaj, Ramesh
  14. Exploring the Opaqueness of the Patent System - Evidence from a Natural Experiment By Harhoff, Dietmar; Stoll, Sebastian
  15. China's “Great Leap Forward” in Science and Engineering By Richard B. Freeman; Wei Huang
  16. Public-private Partnerships in Biomedical Research and Health Innovation for Alzhemier's Disease and other Dementias By OECD
  17. The contribution of public and private R&D to UK productivity growth By Haskel, J; Goodridge, P; Hughes, A; Wallis, G
  18. Fundamental Research in Modern Russia and Their Role in the Development of Russian National Innovation System By Kleeva, Lyudmila; Nikitova, Anna; Kleev, Ivan; Krotov, Alexander

  1. By: Tomasz Kijek (University of Life Sciences in Lublin)
    Abstract: This paper tries to find how firms use IPRs in the form of patents to protect innovation capital and find determinants of their effectiveness. The research is based on a large sample of 2960 Polish manufacturing firms that were engaged in developing and/or implementing a product or process innovation in the years 2010-2012. Besides descriptive statistics which show firms’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of patents and their determinants, I apply the knowledge production functionto find a link between patent propensity, R&D and innovation performance. Descriptive analyses show that Polish manufacturing firms rarely use patents as the appropriability mechanism which results in the low level of their perceived effectiveness. It also turns out that the perceived effectiveness of a patent depends on a firm’s size, theinnovation type and technological opportunities. In turn, the results of the knowledge production function estimationallow me to conclude that an increase in patent propensity affects the firm’s innovation performancepositively.
    Keywords: innovation capital;appropriability mechanism; intellectual property rights;patent;knowledge production function
    JEL: O31 O34
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2015:no60&r=ino
  2. By: Svensson, Roger (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))
    Abstract: Firms and governments spend billions of dollars on R&D every year. To increase social welfare, the results of R&D must be commercialized so that consumers can benefit from improved products and lower prices. One measure of R&D output is patents; however, most patent databases contain no information on whether patents have been commercialized, i.e., whether innovations have been introduced in the market. This paper applies a new method to identify innovations in patent databases by relating traditional patent quality indicators (patent renewal, patent equivalents and forward citations) to patent commercialization variables. For this purpose, I use a unique database on Swedish patents that includes information on whether patents are commercialized and whether the commercialization is profitable. The estimations show that commercialization is strongly positively correlated with both patent renewal and patent equivalents but only moderately positively correlated with forward citations. Further, successful innovations are most positively related to patent renewal. Based on the traditional patent quality indicators and estimated parameters in the model, probabilities of commercialization and successful innovations can be predicted. The developed parameters may be used to identify innovations across sectors and regions in other patent databases.
    Keywords: Patents; Commercialization; Innovations; Profitability; Patent renewal; Patent equivalents; Forward citations; Predicted probabilities
    JEL: O31 O34
    Date: 2015–04–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1067&r=ino
  3. By: Riccardo Crescenzi; Alexander Jaax
    Abstract: The debate on Russia’s innovation performance has paid little attention to the role of geography. This paper addresses this gap by applying an ‘augmented’ regional knowledge function approach to examine the territorial dynamics of innovation in Russia. The empirical results suggest that regional R&D investments are strong predictors of local innovative performance. However, R&D activities are inadequately connected to regional human capital resources. The activities of foreign firms play a fundamental role as ‘global knowledge pipelines’. Different territorial dynamics of innovation are observed in the European and the Asian part of Russia, with regions to the East of the Urals less likely to benefit from interregional knowledge spillovers. The historical legacy from the Soviet era still emerges as a strong predictor of current innovative performance, shedding light on the importance of long-term path dependency in the Russian geography of innovation.
    Keywords: Innovation, R&D, geography, regions, Russia
    JEL: R11 R12 O32 O33
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1509&r=ino
  4. By: Riccardo Crescenzi; Luisa Gagliardi
    Abstract: This paper looks at the link between inter-regional mobility, innovation and firms' behavioural heterogeneity in their reliance on localised external sources of knowledge. By linking patent data (capturing inventors' inter-regional mobility) with firm-level data (providing information on firms' innovation inputs and behaviour) a robust identification strategy makes it possible to shed new light on the geographical mobility-innovation nexus. The analysis of English firms suggests that firm-level heterogeneity - largely overlooked in previous studies - is the key to explain the innovation impact of inter-regional mobility over and above learning-by-hiring mechanisms. A causal link between inflows of new inventors into the local labour market and innovation emerges only for firms that make the use of external knowledge sources an integral part of their innovation strategies.
    Keywords: Innovation, Labour Mobility, Inter-regional Migration, Spillovers
    JEL: O31 O15 J61 R23
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0174&r=ino
  5. By: Joanna Stryjek (Warsaw School of Economics)
    Abstract: Tax incentives for innovation, including in particular the incentives for R&D investments, are universally used policy tools. Their availability and generosity have significantly increased over the past three decades. The observed proliferation of R&D tax incentives raises the question of the effectiveness (as well as other potential unknown advantages) of these policy instruments. The purpose of this paper is to carry out an analysis of the reasons (1) why R&D tax incentives became such a popular policy tool and (2) why there was an increase in generosity of this kind of incentives in recent years. As far as the theoretical base for the analysis is concerned, the paper refers particularly to (1) the inter-jurisdictional competition theories relating to tax competition and (2) the (quasi-) public-good nature of knowledge and innovation. The analysis is carried out with the use of the existing data and research on the subject. The results indicate that these are the changes (processes taking place) in the international environment that have considerably stimulated the proliferation and the increase in generosity of R&D tax incentives.
    Keywords: innovation; R&D; tax incentives; tax credit; tax competition
    JEL: O31 O38 H21
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2015:no109&r=ino
  6. By: Claudia Ghisetti; Francesco Quatraro
    Abstract: The Europe 2020 Strategy has identified the key goal of smart, more inclusive and sustainable growth. In this direction, redirecting firms’ innovation activities towards ecological targets without hampering their competitiveness is of paramount importance. The double externality issue related to environmental innovations makes the policy intervention crucial in order to avoid sub-optimal commitment of resources to the innovation process and ensure the reduction of polluting agents emissions However, the positive outcome of any policy inducement mechanisms is not guaranteed, as different policy frameworks may generate different innovative outcomes. An in depth analysis of environmental policy instruments is therefore all the more necessary in order to gain knowledge on the state of the art and evaluate the scenarios for further improvements. In this perspective, the proposed research project will focus on two main research questions: 1. What are the main existing EU policy instruments explicitly designed to trigger environmental innovations? Which are their main features? 2. Which are the possible avenues leading to successful policy design? The first research question will be tackled by performing a desk research aiming at analyzing the main environmental regulations introduced in Europe so as to produce a clear and comprehensive taxonomy to shed light on common dimensions and main differences. The second research question will be addressed by carrying out empirical analyses based on simulation and econometric techniques. We will focus on a specific environmental policy in the chemical domain so as to draw useful insights on the effect of the policy aiming at redirecting innovation activities to environmental targets and also to highlight the main policy best practices.
    Keywords: Academic research, Industrial policy, Innovation, Innovation policy, Patents
    JEL: O33 Q53 Q55 Q56 R11
    Date: 2015–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2015:m:3:d:0:i:91&r=ino
  7. By: Alexander Galetovic; Stephen Haber; Ross Levine
    Abstract: A large literature asserts that standard essential patents (SEPs) allow their owners to “hold up” innovation by charging fees that exceed their incremental contribution to a final product. We evaluate two central, interrelated predictions of this SEP hold-up hypothesis: (1) SEP-reliant industries should experience more stagnant quality-adjusted prices than similar non-SEP-reliant industries; and (2) court decisions that reduce the excessive power of SEP holders should accelerate innovation in SEP-reliant industries. We find no empirical support for either prediction. Indeed, SEP-reliant industries have the fastest quality-adjusted price declines in the U.S. economy.
    JEL: K11 O31 O34 O38
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21090&r=ino
  8. By: Francesco Crespi; Claudia Ghisetti; Francesco Quatraro
    Abstract: The Europe 2020 Strategy has identified the key goal of smart, more inclusive and sustainable growth. In this direction, redirecting firms’ innovation activities towards ecological targets without hampering their competitiveness is of paramount importance. The double externality issue related to environmental innovations makes the policy intervention crucial in order to avoid sub-optimal commitment of resources to the innovation process and ensure the reduction of polluting agents emissions However, the positive outcome of any policy inducement mechanisms is not guaranteed, as different policy frameworks may generate different innovative outcomes. An in depth analysis of environmental policy instruments is therefore all the more necessary in order to gain knowledge on the state of the art and evaluate the scenarios for further improvements. In this perspective, the proposed research project will focus on two main research questions: 1. What are the main existing EU policy instruments explicitly designed to trigger environmental innovations? Which are their main features? 2. Which are the possible avenues leading to successful policy design? The first research question will be tackled by performing a desk research aiming at analyzing the main environmental regulations introduced in Europe so as to produce a clear and comprehensive taxonomy to shed light on common dimensions and main differences. The second research question will be addressed by carrying out empirical analyses based on simulation and econometric techniques. We will focus on a specific environmental policy in the chemical domain so as to draw useful insights on the effect of the policy aiming at redirecting innovation activities to environmental targets and also to highlight the main policy best practices.
    Keywords: Academic research, Industrial policy, Innovation, Innovation policy, Patents
    JEL: O33 Q53 Q55 Q56 R11
    Date: 2015–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2015:m:3:d:0:i:90&r=ino
  9. By: Bogna Janik (Poznan School of Banking); Krzysztof Kolodziejczyk (Poznan School of Banking)
    Abstract: The main objective of our study is to identify and assess chosen aspects of eco-innovativeness of the companies listed within the indices: WIG Energy, WIG Oil & Gas, WIG Basic Materials on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The scope of this analysis encompasses selected results which facilitate achieving environmental benefits. Our investigation, however, does not cover the expenditure on eco-innovative activities as well as the instruments measuring the influence of eco-innovation. The analysis of the investigated dilemma was based mainly on two research methods, namely survey analysis and digital and documentary source analysis. The results indicate a relatively high eco-innovativeness of the companies in terms of organizational and marketing activities, and low in product and services eco-innovativeness.
    Keywords: Eco-innovation, green economy, sustainability, environment
    JEL: O13 O30 O32
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2015:no56&r=ino
  10. By: Maria Thompson (Universidade do Minho, NIPE)
    Abstract: Multidisciplinary innovation is the engine of growth of an increasing number of economies. Innovation output depends increasingly on information sharing and cooperation between creative agents. Sharing and cooperation requires the existence of generalised trust. Social capital consists of trust and trust-based networks. Our main goal is to illustrate theoretically the importance of social capital to the growth of an innovation economy.
    Keywords: Innovation, Social Capital, Economic Growth
    JEL: O00 O31 O41
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:3/2015&r=ino
  11. By: Bournakis, Ioannis; Christopoulos, Dimitris; Mallick, Sushanta
    Abstract: Given the decline in growth momentum in the manufacturing sector in many OECD countries, the role of knowledge-based capital has emerged as a key driver for sustained growth. While empirical studies on estimating knowledge spillovers have usually been undertaken at the country level, the spillover effects can be more definitive only if the analysis is conducted at the industry-level. The effectiveness of international spillovers is conditional on recipient country’s absorptive capacity and this is an important component of the spillover mechanism that has not attracted significant attention so far. This paper therefore assesses the effect of spillovers in driving per capita output growth taking into account the role of absorptive capacity. Our main findings are first, the confirmation of the robust positive relationship between human capital and output growth for 14 OECD countries at industry level. Second, the gains from international spillover are conditional to the level of human capital and the degree of protection of intellectual property rights. Third, countries that improve absorptive capacity can potentially increase gains from spillovers via either trade or FDI (including vertical FDI). Finally, significant heterogeneity is found between high and low-tech industries. The former group is more effective in absorbing spillovers while the latter has failed to reach the critical level of technological advancement in order to absorb foreign and domestic knowledge.
    Keywords: Growth; R&D; Knowledge Spillovers; Absorptive Capacity; Human Capital; Intellectual Property Rights
    JEL: E24 F1 O3 O4
    Date: 2015–02–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63542&r=ino
  12. By: Nicolò Barbieri (Deptartment of Economics. University of Bologna, Italy.); Claudia Ghisetti (Deptartment of Economics and Management. University of Ferrara, Italy.); Marianna Gilli (Deptartment of Economics and Management. University of Ferrara, Italy.); Giovanni Marin (IRCrES-CNR, Italy; OFCE-SciencesPo, France.); Francesco Nicolli (IRCrES-CNR, Italy; Department of Economics and Management, University of Ferrara, Italy.)
    Abstract: This paper reviews the literature on environmental innovation (EI) and systematizes it by means of an original methodology identifying the main directions in which the literature on EI has developed over time. In order to do so, two algorithms are adopted and used to analyze a citation network of journal articles and books. The main path analysis reveals that this literature revolves around the following topics: i) determinants of EI; ii) economic effects of EI; iii) environmental effects of EI; and iv) policy inducement in EI. Each of these topics is discussed and implications from the main findings as well as possible future research extensions are outlined.
    Keywords: Environmental Innovations; Green Technologies; Citation Network Analysis; Main Path Analysis
    JEL: O32 Q55
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0715&r=ino
  13. By: Bhardwaj, Ramesh
    Abstract: ABSTRACT The high price of cancer drugs has become a world-wide phenomenon. In recent decades, studies have produced ample evidence of rising research and clinical testing costs underlying pharmaceutical innovations. There is a general concurrence that the current model of drug development needs a thorough streamlining. It is also alleged that the prices of new anticancer agents seem to be decided by pharmaceutical companies, according to what the market will bear, in a producer-dominated market. Studies have noted with concern that there is a little correlation between the actual efficacy of a new drug (in terms of prolonging a patient’s life in years, or quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and its price. The present study is an attempt to address some major challenges which are: (i) how to increase the overall pace of innovation (R&D productivity); (ii) how to control the costs and prices of new innovative drugs; (iii) how to direct more innovation to areas where social returns are highest; and (iv) how to improve patients’ timely access to innovative medicines while balancing ‘safety’ concerns. Primary proposals suggested in recent literature to deal with the above challenges include, among others, (a) modernization of the drug development process through ‘open models’ of strategic partnerships (between government, academia, and industry), (b) adoption of a value-based pricing system, (c) promotion of ‘Personalized/targeted Medicine’, (d) introduction of evidence-based decision making by stakeholders based upon ‘comparative effectiveness research’(CER) analysis, and (e) implantation of regulatory reforms in drugs’ evaluation and approval practices. The present study makes an attempt to shed light on the above challenges and proposals.
    Keywords: Cancer Drugs Prices, R&D Productivity, Oncology, Drugs Development, Comparative Effectiveness Research, Personalized/targeted Medicine’, Evidence-based Decision Making, Regulatory Reforms, Drugs Approval, Adaptive licensing, R&D Effectiveness, Attrition Rates, Clinical Trial Designs, Value Based Pricing
    JEL: I1 I10 I11 I13 I15 I18 I19
    Date: 2015–04–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63405&r=ino
  14. By: Harhoff, Dietmar; Stoll, Sebastian
    Abstract: One of the objectives of patent systems is to disclose information which other agents can build on in further inventions and in their decision-making. While some observers take it as given that real-world patent systems serve this objective, we argue in this article that patent systems are highly opaque and likely to be of limited value as a source of information. We use data from a natural experiment to explore this issue. Requests for accelerated examination used to be publicly observable at the European Patent Office (EPO). Starting in December 2001, the EPO started to treat these requests as confidential information. Using data on acceleration requests which were historically known only to the applicant and the EPO, and later provided to us, we test whether the change in the information regime impacted the actions of applicants and their rivals. We develop a theoretical model of acceleration requests and patent opposition to identify the extent to which the patent system is opaque. We confirm empirically that opposition and acceleration rates of high-value patents change significantly in most technological areas once acceleration requests become unobservable. We interpret these results as evidence that the system is highly opaque in many fields.
    Keywords: patent value; opaqueness; accelerated examination; patent opposition; European Patent Office (EPO)
    JEL: K40 L00
    Date: 2015–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:496&r=ino
  15. By: Richard B. Freeman; Wei Huang
    Abstract: In the past two decades China leaped from bit player in global science and engineering (S&E) to become the world's largest source of S&E graduates and the second largest spender on R&D and second largest producer of scientific papers. As a latecomer to modern science and engineering, China trailed the US and other advanced countries in the quality of its universities and research but was improving both through the mid-2010s. This paper presents evidence that China's leap benefited greatly from the country's positive response to global opportunities to educate many of its best and brightest overseas and from the deep educational and research links it developed with the US. The findings suggest that global mobility of people and ideas allowed China to reach the scientific and technological frontier much faster and more efficiently.
    JEL: I2 I23 J0 J24 O3
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21081&r=ino
  16. By: OECD
    Abstract: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), through its Working Party on Biotechnology, undertook a project on “Healthy Ageing and Biomedical Innovation for Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease”. The project was conducted under Output Result 2.1 of the WPB Programme of Work and Budget 2013-14 and aimed to identify good practices to strengthen effective co-operation at a global level for the governance of biomedical technologies and health innovation in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. This report is in line with recommendations of the G8 Summit Declaration to strengthen collaboration for innovation and cross-sector partnerships focused on social impact investment, new care and prevention models, and academia/ industry partnerships. It had been informed by a literature review and information on public-private partnership case studies provided by members of the Working Party on Biotechnology.
    Date: 2015–04–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaac:20-en&r=ino
  17. By: Haskel, J; Goodridge, P; Hughes, A; Wallis, G
    Date: 2015–04–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imp:wpaper:21171&r=ino
  18. By: Kleeva, Lyudmila (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)); Nikitova, Anna (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)); Kleev, Ivan (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)); Krotov, Alexander (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA))
    Abstract: This work is devoted to modern trends in the development of fundamental science in Russia. Statistical analysis of the dynamics characterizing the development of indicators is complemented by a thematic analysis of research conducted in the Institute. It is shown that, despite the fact that the fundamental science develops according to its own laws, the subject of research in its framework meets the objectives of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation and the main trends of development of world science. Identification in the long-term and short-term factors in the development of fundamental science, as well as the reasons that underpin its weak impact on the socio-economic development of Russia, is complemented by the SWOT-analysis of modern development of fundamental science in Russia. Conclusions of the work may be useful to all readers interested in the problems of the Russian fundamental science and can contribute to the formation of an effective scientific and innovational state policy.
    Keywords: fundamental research, statistical analysis, socio-economic development of Russia, SWOT-analysis
    Date: 2015–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:ppaper:mak1&r=ino

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