|
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Hall, Bronwyn H. (University of California at Berkeley and University of Maastricht; NBER, IFS London, and NIESR); Sena, Vania (Essex Business School, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | We use an extended version of the wellestablished Crepon, Duguet and Mairesse model (1998) to model the relationship between appropriability mechanisms, innovation and firmlevel productivity. We enrich this model in several ways. First, we consider different types of innovation spending and study the differences in estimates when innovation spending (rather than R&D spending) is used to predict innovation in the CDM model. Second, we assume that a firm simultaneously innovates and chooses among different appropriability methods (formal or informal) to protect the innovation. Finally, in the third stage, we estimate the impact of the innovation output conditional on the choice of appropriability mechanisms on firms’ productivity. We find that firms that innovate and rate formal methods for the protection of Intellectual Property (IP) highly are more productive than other firms, but that the same does not hold in the case of informal methods for the protection of a firm’s IP, except possibly for large firms as supposed to SMEs. We also find that this result is strongest for firms in the services, trade, and utility sectors, and negative in the manufacturing sector. |
| Keywords: | productivity; innovation; intellectual property; appropriability; patents; CDM |
| JEL: | L25 O30 O34 |
| Date: | 2015–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0411&r=tid |
| By: | Hombert, Johan; Matray, Adrien |
| Abstract: | We study whether R&D-intensive firms are more resilient to trade shocks. We correct for the endogeneity of R&D using tax-induced changes to the cost of R&D. On average across US manufacturing firms, rising imports from China lead to slower sales growth and lower profitability. These effects are, however, significantly smaller for firms with a larger stock of R&D -- by about half when moving from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile of the R&D stock distribution. As a result, while the average firm in import-competing industries cuts capital expenditures and employment, R&D-intensive firms downsize considerably less. |
| Keywords: | China; import competition; innovation; R&D tax credit |
| JEL: | F14 L25 L60 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10666&r=tid |
| By: | HOSONO Kaoru; HOTEI Masaki; MIYAKAWA Daisuke |
| Abstract: | Research and development (R&D) expenditures are affected potentially by the present and past use of R&D tax credits through two channels. While the present use of R&D tax credits promotes R&D investment through a reduction in capital cost, the past use promotes the investment through an increase in internal funds. We empirically investigate how these two channels affect the R&D investment of Japanese manufacturing firms by using firm-level data. Our results can be summarized as follows. First, the effect of the present use of R&D tax credit on R&D investment is smaller for firms that are more likely to depend on external finance (i.e., firms that operate in industries with higher dependence on external finance) than for those that are less likely to depend on external finance, suggesting that higher agency cost associated with the larger use of external finance partially mitigates the effect of R&D tax credits. Second, the past use of R&D tax credits does not necessarily lead to significant increase in the internal funds for firms that are more likely to depend on external finance, which implies that the use of R&D tax credits does not contribute to the promotion of firms' R&D investment. These results jointly imply that the effect of R&D tax credits on R&D investment is limited for financially constrained firms. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:15030&r=tid |
| By: | Baier, Elisabeth (PTV Group AG, Karlsruhe, Germany); Rammer, Christian (ZEW, Mannheim, Germany); Schubert, Torben (CIRCLE, Lund University & Fraunhofer ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of captive offshoring of innovation activities on the ability of the firms to adapt their organizational structures. Basing our arguments on complexity theory, we use three consecutive waves of the German part of the Community Innovation Survey to test our hypotheses. We find an inverted u-shape of innovation offshoring on the effectiveness of organizational adaptability, implying an optimal threshold value of innovation offshoring. This value is 11% for share of offshored R&D, 15% for downstream innovation activities such as local market adaptation, and 34% for design activities. We also analyze several contingency variables. In particular, we show that the costs of innovation offshoring in terms of reduced organizational adaptation are increased by a regional dispersion of the offshoring activities and strong embeddedness in onshore networks. We also show that smaller firms find it easier to deal with the management complexity induced by geographical dispersion of innovation activities. |
| Keywords: | Internationalization; Offshoring; Innovation; Organizational Adaptation; Organizational Adaptability |
| JEL: | O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2015–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_022&r=tid |
| By: | Yasuyuki Todo (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University); Petr Matous (Complex Systems Research Group, School of Engineering, University of Sydney); Dagne Mojo (Holetta Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Holetta, Ethiopia) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of social network structure on the diffusion of agricultural technologies using household-level panel data from Ethiopia. We correct for possible biases due to the endogeneity of social networks using a social experiment in which we provide mobile phones to randomly selected households. We find that the effect of social networks varies depending on the network structure and characteristics of the technologies considered. The diffusion of information on a simple technology is determined by whether farmers know an agricultural extension agent. However, the diffusion of information on a more complex technology is not promoted by simply knowing an extension agent but by knowing an agent that a particular household can rely on and by clustered networks in which most friends of the household are friends of each other. This finding suggests that knowing and understanding more complex technologies require strong external ties and flows of the same information from multiple sources. |
| Keywords: | knowledge diffusion, technology adoption, agriculture, social network, Ethiopia |
| JEL: | O13 O33 Q16 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wap:wpaper:1505&r=tid |
| By: | Ivan Haščič; Jérôme Silva; Nick Johnstone |
| Abstract: | Patent data provide an increasingly used means to analyse innovation performance worldwide including in countries with incomplete data coverage, such as some developing countries. This paper discusses the specific issues associated with using patent data for measuring and analysing innovation in narrow technological fields, such as many environment-related technologies. To improve cross-country comparability of patent statistics, the paper advocates the use of indicators based on patent family size because they are more flexible and can be adapted to various applications. The paper also examines certain idiosyncratic characteristics of patent databases and proposes approaches to mitigate potential biases in empirical cross-country analyses. While doing so is particularly important for analyses of narrow technological fields such as many environment- and climate-related technologies, some of these issues are relevant for patent analysis more broadly. |
| Keywords: | innovation, indicators, environmental technologies |
| JEL: | O3 O31 O34 Q2 Q4 Q5 |
| Date: | 2015–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2015/5-en&r=tid |
| By: | Dobbelaere, Sabien (VU University Amsterdam); Lauterbach, Rodolfo (Maastricht University); Mairesse, Jacques (CREST-INSEE) |
| Abstract: | Institutions, social norms and the nature of industrial relations vary greatly between Latin American and Western European countries. Such institutional and organizational differences might shape firms' operational environment in general and the type of competition in product and labor markets in particular. Contributing to the literature on estimating simultaneously product and labor market imperfections, this paper quantifies industry differences in both types of imperfections using firm-level data in Chile –a non-OECD member under the considered time period– and France. We rely on two extensions of Hall's econometric framework for estimating price-cost margins by nesting three labor market settings (perfect competition or right-to-manage bargaining, efficient bargaining and monopsony). Using an unbalanced panel of 1,737 firms over the period 1996-2003 in Chile containing unique data on firm-level output price indices and 14,270 firms over the period 1994-2001 in France, we first classify 20 comparable manufacturing industries in 6 distinct regimes that differ in the type of competition prevailing in product and labor markets. We then investigate industry differences in the estimated product and labor market imperfections. Consistent with differences in institutions and in the industrial relations system in the two countries, we find important regime differences across the two countries. In addition, we observe cross-country differences in the levels of product and labor market imperfections within regimes. |
| Keywords: | rent sharing, monopsony, price-cost mark-ups, production function, panel data |
| JEL: | C23 D21 J51 L13 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9125&r=tid |