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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
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Issue of 2014‒07‒05
eight papers chosen by Fulvio Castellacci Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) |
| By: | Ashish Arora; Wesley M. Cohen; John P. Walsh |
| Abstract: | Recent accounts suggest the development and commercialization of invention has become more “open.” Greater division of labor between inventors and innovators can enhance social welfare through gains from trade and greater economies of specialization. Moreover, this extensive reliance upon outside sources for invention also suggests that understanding the factors that condition the extramural supply of inventions to innovators is crucial to understanding the determinants of the rate and direction of innovative activity. This paper reports on a recent survey of over 6000 American manufacturing and service sector firms on the extent to which innovators rely upon external sources of invention. Our results indicate that, between 2007 and 2009, 18% of manufacturing firms had innovated – meaning had introduced a product that was new to the market. Of these, 49% report that their most important new product had originated from an outside source, notably customers, suppliers and technology specialists. We also estimate the contribution of each source to innovation in the US economy. Although customers are the most frequent outside source, inventions acquired from customers tend to be economically less significant than those from technology specialists. As a group, external sources of invention make a significant contribution to the overall rate of innovation in the economy. Indeed, results from a multinomial logit model suggest that, were the outside availability of innovation to be removed, the percentage of innovating firms in the U.S. manufacturing sector would drop from 18% to 10%. |
| JEL: | L1 O3 O30 O31 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20264&r=tid |
| By: | Federica Cerina (Department of Physics, University of Cagliari); Zhen Zhu (IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies); Alessandro Chessa (IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies); Massimo Riccaboni (IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies) |
| Abstract: | Economic systems, traditionally analyzed as almost independent national systems, are increasingly connected on a global scale. Only recently becoming available, the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) is one of the first efforts to construct the multi-regional input-output (MRIO) tables at the global level. By viewing the world input-output system as an interdependent network where the nodes are the individual industries in different economies and the edges are the monetary goods ows between industries, we study the network properties of the so-called world input-output network (WION) and document its evolution over time. We are able to quantify not only some global network properties such as assortativity, clustering coeficient, and degree and strength distributions, but also its subgraph structure and dynamics by using community detection techniques. Over time, we detect a marked increase in cross-country connectivity of the production system, only temporarily interrupted by the 2008-2009 crisis. Moreover, we find a growing input-output regional community in Europe led by Germany and the rise of China in the global production system. Finally, we use the network-based PageRank centrality and community coreness measure to identify the key industries and economies in the WION and the results are different from the one obtained by the traditional final-demand-weighted backward linkage measure. |
| Keywords: | Complex Networks; Input-Output; PageRank Centrality; Community Detection |
| JEL: | C67 F10 F15 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ial:wpaper:6/2014&r=tid |
| By: | Tavassoli, Sam (CSIR, Blekinge Inst of Technology); Jienwatcharamongkhol, Viroj (Department of Economics, Lund University, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | It is well known that exporters are productive firms. But the source of their productivity is left unexplained. This paper aims to endogenize the productivity heterogeneity of exporting firms by incorporating innovation in a structural model framework. In doing so, we close the gap between the innovation-productivity and productivity-export literature. Two waves of Swedish Community Innovation Survey (CIS) are merged. This allows for a setup that takes into account the links from innovation input to innovation output and also from innovation output to productivity and exports. The main findings highlight that exporters are productive firms with innovation output in the past, which in turn was driven by prior R&D and other innovation activity investments. |
| Keywords: | innovation; productivity; export; firm-level; structural model; community innovation survey |
| JEL: | C31 L60 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bthcsi:2014-006&r=tid |
| By: | Szabolcs Blazsek; Álvaro Escribano |
| Abstract: | Dynamic interactions among stock return, Research and Development (R&D) expenses, patent applications based on R&D investment, and the propensity to patent are studied in this work for a panel of firms from the United States. The panel includes technologically similar firms, neck-to-neck, mostly from the drugs product-market sector. Firms’ propensity to patent is modeled by a dynamic latent-factor patent count data model that separates patented and non patented R&D. Patent innovation leader and follower firms are identified according to their knowledge stock. Significant and positive dynamic spillover effects are obtained among patent application leaders and followers. We observe that neck-to-neck firms in patent innovation activity produce an inverted-U relationship between market competition and innovation. Furthermore, firms’ propensity to patent is positively correlated with market competition and there is a positive feedback in both directions. Increasing the degree of competition in the market enhances innovation and patent applications, in order to help firms to appropriate part of the benefits of their R&D investments. On the other hand, firms by increasing their patent applications defend themselves from competitors, trying to improve their market share. However, due to the diffusion of knowledge through patent applications, knowledge spills over to competitors therefore, the degree of competition and innovation increases in the market. |
| Keywords: | propensity to patent, competition, technological proximity, patent innovation leaders and followers, latent factor patent count data model, panel vector autoregression, simulated quasi maximum likelihood, efficient importance sampling |
| JEL: | C15 C31 C32 C33 C41 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we1412&r=tid |
| By: | Masayuki Morikawa |
| Abstract: | This paper, using Japanese firm-level data, presents findings about innovative activities in the service sector and the role of patents and trade secrets on innovation. According to the analysis, first, service firms have fewer product innovations than do manufacturing firms, but the productivity of innovative service firms is very high. Second, service firms have a low propensity for holding patents, but their holding of trade secrets is comparable to that of the manufacturing firms. Third, patents and trade secrets have positive relationships with product innovations, and the effects are quantitatively similar in magnitude, in both the manufacturing and the service sectors. On the other hand, a positive relationship between trade secrets and process innovations is found only in the manufacturing sector. These results suggest a pivotal role of the law protecting trade secrets on innovation and productivity growth in the service sector. |
| Keywords: | innovation, service sector, patent, trade secret |
| JEL: | O31 O34 L80 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2014-48&r=tid |
| By: | Dietmar Harhoff; Georg von Graevenitz; Stefan Wagner |
| Abstract: | Post-grant validity challenges at patent offices rely on the private initiative of third parties to correct mistakes made by patent offices. We hypothesize that incentives to bring post-grant validity challenges are reduced when many firms benefit from revocation of a patent and when firms are caught up in patent thickets. Using data on opposition against patents at the European Patent Office we show that opposition decreases in fields in which many others profit from patent revocations. Moreover, in fields with a large number of mutually blocking patents the incidence of opposition is sharply reduced, particularly among large firms and firms that are caught up directly in patent thickets. These findings indicate that post-grant patent review may not constitute an effective correction device for erroneous patent grants in technologies affected by either patent thickets or highly dispersed patent ownership. |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:49&r=tid |
| By: | L. Lambertini; J. Poyago-Theotoky; A. Tampieri |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the relationship between competition and innovation in an industry where production is polluting and R&D has the aim to reduce emissions. We build up an oligopoly model where n firms compete in quantities and decide their investment in green R&D. When environmental taxation is exogenous, the investment in green R&D always increases with the number of firms in the industry. We analyse next the case where taxation is endougenously determined by a regulator with the aim to maximise social welfare. An inverted-U relationship exists under reasonable conditions, and it is driven by the presence of spillovers. |
| JEL: | Q55 Q56 O30 L13 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp951&r=tid |
| By: | Daniel L.Tortorice (International Business School, Brandeis University); Gary H. Jefferson (International Business School, Brandeis University); Renai Jiang (Xi'an Jiaotong University) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the impact of the Chinese government’s initiative begun in 1999 to restructure the country’s approximately 3,500 research institutes. The paper reviews the evolution of China’s research sector over the period 1995 to 2010, identifying certain issues that are analyzed using a panel of sample research institutes. The econometric analysis is based on a balanced sample of these institutes, both converted and unconverted, spanning 1998, the year prior to the restructuring initiative, to 2005. In order to control for potential endogeneity and selection bias, the paper employs various econometric methods to evaluate the impact of the restructuring program on the performance of these institutes. We find that the restructuring program appears to have achieved its fundamental goals, that is, shifting the relevant resources toward a more commercial mission for the converted S&T enterprises and a more researchoriented mission, involving the use of government grants, for the non-profit research institutes. The results show modest gains in the efficiency of patent production, but given the lengthy gestation period, a longer duration is needed to assess how the patent production of China’s research institutes will adapt to the shift in their missions and reassignment of government resources. |
| Keywords: | Technological Innovation, R&D, Invention, Research Policy |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brd:wpaper:72&r=tid |