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on Innovation |
| By: | Gaetan de Rassenfosse (Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne); Gabriele Pellegrino (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart); Emilio Raiteri (Eindhoven University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides empirical evidence suggesting that patents may facilitate knowledge disclosure. The analysis exploits the Invention Secrecy Act, which grants the U.S. Commissioner for Patents the right to prevent the disclosure of new inventions that represent a threat to national security. Using a two-level matching approach, we document a negative and large relationship between the enforcement of a secrecy order and follow-on inventions, as captured with patent citations and text-based measures of invention similarity. The effect carries over to after the lift of the secrecy period, suggesting a lost generation of inventions. The results bear implications for innovation and intellectual property policy. |
| Keywords: | disclosure; follow-on invention; knowledge diffusion; patent |
| JEL: | O31 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iip:wpaper:26 |
| By: | Alexander M. Petersen; Felber Arroyave; Fabio Pammolli |
| Abstract: | Measuring the rate of innovation in academia and industry is fundamental to monitoring the efficiency and competitiveness of the knowledge economy. To this end, a disruption index (CD) was recently developed and applied to publication and patent citation networks (Wu et al., Nature 2019; Park et al., Nature 2023). Here we show that CD systematically decreases over time due to secular growth in research and patent production, following two distinct mechanisms unrelated to innovation -- one behavioral and the other structural. Whereas the behavioral explanation reflects shifts associated with techno-social factors (e.g. self-citation practices), the structural explanation follows from `citation inflation' (CI), an inextricable feature of real citation networks attributable to increasing reference list lengths, which causes CD to systematically decrease. We demonstrate this causal link by way of mathematical deduction, computational simulation, multi-variate regression, and quasi-experimental comparison of the disruptiveness of PNAS versus PNAS Plus articles, which differ only in their lengths. Accordingly, we analyze CD data available in the SciSciNet database and find that disruptiveness incrementally increased from 2005-2015, and that the negative relationship between disruption and team-size is remarkably small in overall magnitude effect size, and shifts from negative to positive for team size $\geq$ 8 coauthors. |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2406.15311 |
| By: | Francesca Guadagno (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Oliver Reiter (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Robert Stehrer (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | Increasing production of green technologies in the EU holds great potential for the European economy. This study uses trade data and input-output tables to estimate the impacts on GDP and employment of reshoring to the EU the production of five major green technologies photovoltaics, wind turbines, batteries, electric motors and electric vehicles. Our findings show that reshoring these five technologies would increase EU GDP by EUR 18.4 billion, or 0.13% of EU GDP, and create 242, 728 new jobs. The same shift of imports to EU production would have had roughly half of the impact in 2010. We also find significant spillover effects on other sectors of the economy, particularly for metal products, wholesale and retail, professional, scientific and technical activities, and administrative and support services. To make the most from the transition, we argue that EU green industrial policy should put more emphasis on manufacturing capacities and innovation to meet the targets of the Net Zero Industry Act, remain internationally competitive, and reduce strategic dependencies. |
| Keywords: | green transition; photovoltaics; batteries; electric vehicles; GDP; employment |
| JEL: | Q55 Q56 F14 O25 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:pnotes:pn:80 |
| By: | Angelino, Pierluigi; Czarnitzki, Dirk; Volckaert, Astrid |
| Abstract: | The Flemish government launched its Spearhead Cluster (SHC) policy in 2017. The aim is to boost strategic sectors by setting up cluster initiatives which coordinate collaborative R&D initiatives. In this paper, we analyze whether becoming a member of such a cluster initiative has an impact on the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of the firm. We exploit firm-level data between 2013 and 2020 to estimate TFP and apply a difference-in-differences approach to assess the programs' treatment effects. We find that becoming a member of a cluster has an average positive impact on firmlevel TFP of between 1 to 4.4 percent, depending on the econometric specification. These results are the first to provide an insight into the impact of the Flemish SHC policy on productivity. |
| Keywords: | cluster associations, cluster policy, innovation policy, total factor productivity, conditional difference-in-difference |
| JEL: | D24 L25 L52 L53 O25 O38 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:300010 |
| By: | Savona, Roberto (University of Brescia); Alberini, Cristina Maria (Center for Neural Science, New York University); Alessi, Lucia (European Commission); Baussano, Iacopo (International Agency for Research on Cancer); Dellaportas, Petros (University College London and Athens University of Economics and Business); Guerra, Ranieri (National Academy of Medicine, Italy); Khozin, Sean (Laboratory for Financial Engineering, MIT); Modena, Andrea (University of Mannheim); Pecorelli, Sergio (University of Brescia); Rasi, Guido (University of Rome Tor Vergata); Siviero, Paolo Daniele (Farmindustria); Stein, Roger M. (New York University) |
| Abstract: | A major gap exists between the conceptual suggestion of how much a nation should invest in science, innovation, and technology, and the practical implementation of what is done. We identify 4 critical challenges that must be address in order to develop an environment conducive to collaboration across organizations and governments, while also preserving commercial rewards for investors and innovators, in order to move towards a new Research Ecosystem. |
| Keywords: | research ecosystem, Covid 19 |
| JEL: | O3 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrs:wpaper:202402 |
| By: | Ofori, Pamela E.; Ofori, Isaac K.; Castelnovo, Paolo |
| Abstract: | The Sustainable Development Goal 5 emphasises the need to achieve gender parity in economic participation. Perusing the extant scholarship on female economic inclusion in Africa, we identify two pressing gaps. First, we find that previous studies have not explored how innovation affects female economic inclusion (FEI). Second, we note that prior studies have not examined the interactive effect of innovation and economic freedom on FEI. This study addresses these gaps by using macro data from 1995-2022 for a sample of 51 African countries. Findings from the two-step system GMM estimator reveal the following: (1) innovation reduces FEI, whereas economic freedom increases it, and (2) economic freedom moderates innovation to promote FEI. Further, we find that this positive total effect of innovation on FEI is remarkable at higher thresholds of economic freedom. We conclude that for innovation to promote FEI in Africa, investments in promoting economic freedom are critical. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Innnovation, Economic freedom, Female economic inclusion, GMM |
| JEL: | O31 O55 E24 J16 J21 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:298786 |
| By: | Anabela Marques Santos; Francesco Molica; Carlos Torrecilla Salinas (European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Sevilla, Spain; European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Brussels, Belgium; European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Sevilla, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Artificial Intelligence (AI) is seen as a disruptive and transformative technology with the potential to impact on all societal aspects, but particularly on competitiveness and growth. While its development and use has grown exponentially over the last decade, its uptake between and within countries is very heterogeneous. The paper assesses the geographical distribution at NUTS2-level of EU-funded investments related to AI during the programming period 2014-2020. It also examines the relationship between this specialization pattern and regional characteristics using a spatial autoregressive model. Such an analysis provides a first look at the geography of public investment in AI in Europe, which has never been done before. Results show that in the period 2014-2020, around 8 billion EUR of EU funds were targeted for AI investments in the European regions. More developed regions have a higher specialization in AI EU-funded investments. This specialization also generates spillover effects that enhance similar specialization patterns in neighboring regions. AI-related investments are more concentrated in regions with a higher concentration of ICT activities and that are more innovative, highlighting the importance of agglomeration effects. Regions that have selected AI as an innovation priority for their Smart Specialization Strategies are also more likely to have a higher funding specialization in AI. Such findings are very relevant for policymakers as they show that AI-related investments are already highly spatially concentrated. This highlights the importance for less-developed regions to keep accessing to sufficient amounts of pre-allocated cohesion funds and to devote them for AI-related opportunities in the future. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence; Public subsidy; Territorial specialization; Europe |
| JEL: | O31 R58 R12 O52 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mde:wpaper:181 |
| By: | Galasso, Alberto; Schankerman, Mark |
| Keywords: | patents; licensing; patent pool; pharmaceuticals; HIV; public health; developing countries |
| JEL: | I18 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2022–09–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:123932 |
| By: | Fatih Guvenen; Gueorgui Kambourov; Burhan Kuruscu; Sergio Ocampo-Diaz |
| Abstract: | When is a wealth tax preferable to a capital income tax? When is the opposite true? More generally, can capital taxation be structured to improve productivity, incentivize innovation, and ultimately increase welfare? We study these questions theoretically in an infinite-horizon model with entrepreneurs and workers, in which entrepreneurial firms differ in their productivity and are subject to collateral constraints. The stationary equilibrium features heterogeneous returns and misallocation of capital. We show that increasing the wealth tax increases aggregate productivity. The gains result from the “use-it-or-lose-it” effect of wealth taxes when returns are heterogeneous, which causes a reallocation of capital from entrepreneurs with low productivity to those with high productivity. Furthermore, if the capital income tax is adjusted to balance the government's budget, aggregate capital, output, and wages also increase. We then study the welfare maximizing combination of wealth and capital income taxes and show that the optimal mix shifts towards a higher wealth tax and a lower capital income tax as the capital intensity of production increases. For a range of plausible parameter values, the optimal wealth tax is positive, whereas the capital income tax can be positive or negative (a subsidy). We then endogenize the entrepreneurial productivity distribution by introducing either ex ante innovation or entrepreneurial effort in production and show that this strengthens our results: by allowing entrepreneurs to keep more of the upside relative to a capital income tax, a wealth tax incentivizes more innovation and entrepreneurial effort, leading to larger increases in productivity, output, and welfare. |
| JEL: | E21 E25 E60 H21 H24 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32585 |
| By: | Jose M. Gonzalez-Varona; Natalia Martin-Cruz; Fernando Acebes; Javier Pajares |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we apply a case study approach to advance current understanding of what effects public co-funding of R&D projects have on project team members' perceived complexity. We chose an R&D project carried out by an industrial SME in northern Spain. The chosen research strategy was a qualitative approach, and sixteen employees participated in the project. We held in-depth semi-structured interviews at the beginning and end of the co-funded part of the project. NVivo data analysis software was used for qualitative data analysis. Results showed a substantial increase in perceived complexity. We observed that this was due to unresolved tension between the requirements of the project's co-financing entity and normal SME working procedures. New working procedures needed to be developed in order to comply with the co-financing entity's requirements. However, overall perceived complexity significantly decreased once the co-financed part of the project was completed. |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2406.00076 |
| By: | Adrian Odenweller; Falko Ueckerdt |
| Abstract: | Green hydrogen is critical for decarbonising hard-to-electrify sectors, but faces high costs and investment risks. Here we define and quantify the green hydrogen ambition and implementation gap, showing that meeting hydrogen expectations will remain challenging despite surging announcements of projects and subsidies. Tracking 137 projects over three years, we identify a wide 2022 implementation gap with only 2% of global capacity announcements finished on schedule. In contrast, the 2030 ambition gap towards 1.5{\deg}C scenarios is gradually closing as the announced project pipeline has nearly tripled to 441 GW within three years. However, we estimate that, without carbon pricing, realising all these projects would require global subsidies of \$1.6 trillion (\$1.2 - 2.6 trillion range), far exceeding announced subsidies. Given past and future implementation gaps, policymakers must prepare for prolonged green hydrogen scarcity. Policy support needs to secure hydrogen investments, but should focus on applications where hydrogen is indispensable. |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2406.07210 |
| By: | Lee, Neil; Ni, Metta; Boey, Augustin |
| Abstract: | The Singaporean state has played a crucial role in the country’s economic development. This led to concerns that a state-steered economy would be unable to develop fast-changing, disruptive sectors that are reliant on individual entrepreneurship, such as digital technology. Yet Singapore has become a world leader in the scaling of digital technology firms. In this paper, we consider how this happened. We show that advances in ICT opened a window of locational opportunity in digital tech, which was spotted by Singaporean policymakers open to experimentation. A distinctive ‘Singapore model’ developed to take advantage of this opportunity, exploiting Singapore’s geographical position, open economy, and business environment but combining this with active state intervention. To address coordination problems in the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, Singaporean policymakers worked through a process we term ‘network coordination’ across the whole of government. While overall rates of entrepreneurship remain low, the country has been successful at scaling firms in the digital technology sector. These primarily focused on consumer applications and non-Singaporean markets, but there has been little development in frontier ‘deep tech’. |
| Keywords: | digital technology; Singapore; developmental states; industrial policy; entrepreneurial ecosystems |
| JEL: | R14 J01 L81 |
| Date: | 2024–06–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:123885 |