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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Cristina Fernández; Roberta García; Paloma Lopez-Garcia; Benedicta Marzinotto; Roberta Serafini; Juuso Vanhala; Ladislav Wintr |
| Abstract: | This paper illustrates the main features of the Labour Module of the CompNet dataset which provides indicators of firm growth over the period 1995-2012 across 17 EU (13 euro area) countries and 9 macro-sectors. It also includes information on a large set of micro-aggregated characteristics of firms growing at different speed such as their financial position and labour and total factor productivity. The paper shows that during the Great Recession the share of shrinking firms sharply increased in countries under stress, while firm growth slowed down in non-stressed countries. In the former, the construction sector suffered the most, while in the latter manufacturing and services related to transportation and storage were mainly affected, possibly as a result of the trade collapse. While we find that, all else equal, more productive firms had a higher probability of growing, the process of productivity-enhancing reallocation was muted during the Great Recession. |
| Keywords: | Firm-level data, Firm growth, Job creation. |
| JEL: | J23 L11 L25 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcl:bclwop:bclwp107&r=tid |
| By: | Laurent Gobillon (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics); Wolff Francois Charles (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - UN - Université de Nantes, INED - Institut national d'études démographiques) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the effect on quality, quantity and prices of an innovative fishing gear introduced for a subsample of vessels on a single wholesale fish market in France. Estimations are conducted using transaction data over the 2009-2011 period during which the innovation was introduced. Using a difference-in-differences approach around the discontinuity, we find that for the treated the innovation has a large effect on quality (29.2 percentage points) and prices (23.2 percentage points). A shift in caught fish species is observed and new targeted species are fished very intensively. We also quantify the treatment effect on the treated market from aggregate market data using factor models and a synthetic control approach. We find a sizable effect of the innovation on market quality which is consistent with non-treated vessels adapting their fishing practices to remain competitive. The innovation has no effect on market quantities and prices. |
| Keywords: | fish,innovation,product quality,product prices,discontinuity,difference in differences,synthetic controls,factor models |
| Date: | 2017–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01431160&r=tid |
| By: | Philippe Aghion; Nicholas Bloom; Brian Lucking; Raffaella Sadun; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | What is the optimal form of firm organization during “bad times”? Using two large micro datasets on firm decentralization from US administrative data and 10 OECD countries, we find that firms that delegated more power from the Central Headquarters to local plant managers prior to the Great Recession out-performed their centralized counterparts in sectors that were hardest hit by the subsequent crisis. We present a model where higher turbulence benefits decentralized firms because the value of local information and urgent action increases. Since turbulence rises in severe downturns, decentralized firms do relatively better. We show that the data support our model over alternative explanations such as recession-induced reduction in agency costs (due to managerial fears of bankruptcy) and changing coordination costs. Countries with more decentralized firms (like the US) weathered the 2008-09 Great Recession better: these organizational differences could account for about 16% of international differences in post-crisis GDP growth. |
| JEL: | E0 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23354&r=tid |
| By: | Paolo Sgrignoli; Rodolfo Metulini; Zhen Zhu; Massimo Riccaboni |
| Abstract: | The relationship between international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the main features of globalization. In this paper we investigate the effects of FDI on trade from a network perspective, since FDI takes not only direct but also indirect channels from origin to destination countries because of firms' incentive to reduce tax burden, to minimize coordination costs, and to break barriers to market entry. We use a unique data set of international corporate control as a measure of stock FDI to construct a corporate control network (CCN) where the nodes are the countries and the edges are the corporate control relationships. Based on the CCN, the network measures, i.e., the shortest path length and the communicability, are computed to capture the indirect channel of FDI. Empirically we find that corporate control has a positive effect on trade both directly and indirectly. The result is robust with different specifications and estimation strategies. Hence, our paper provides strong empirical evidence of the indirect effects of FDI on trade. Moreover, we identify a number of interplaying factors such as regional trade agreements and the region of Asia. We also find that the indirect effects are more pronounced for manufacturing sectors than for primary sectors such as oil extraction and agriculture. |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1705.02187&r=tid |
| By: | Lee, Tim; Shin, Yongseok |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of technological change in a novel framework that integrates an economy's skill distribution with its occupational and industrial structure. Individuals become managers or workers based on their managerial vs. worker skills, and workers further sort into a continuum of tasks (occupations) ranked by skill content. Our theory dictates that faster technological progress for middle-skill tasks not only raises the employment shares and relative wages of lower- and higher-skill occupations among workers (horizontal polarization), but also raises those of managers over workers as a whole (vertical polarization). Both dimensions of polarization are faster within sectors that depend more on middle-skill tasks and less on managers. This endogenously leads to faster TFP growth of such sectors, whose employment and value-added shares shrink if sectoral goods are complementary (structural change). We present several novel facts that support our model, followed by a quantitative analysis showing that task specific technological progress|which was fastest for occupations embodying routinemanual tasks but not interpersonal skills|is important for understanding changes in the sectoral, occupational, and organizational structure of the U.S. economy since 1980. |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:30867&r=tid |
| By: | Fu, Shihe; Viard, Brian; Zhang, Peng |
| Abstract: | We provide comprehensive estimates of air pollution’s effect on short-run labor productivity for manufacturing firms in China from 1998 to 2007. An emerging literature estimates air pollution’s effects on labor productivity but only for small groups of workers of particular occupations or sets of firms to ensure causality. To provide more comprehensive estimates necessary for policy analysis, we estimate effects for all but some small firms (90% of manufacturing output in China) and capture all channels by which pollution influences productivity. We instrument for reverse causality between pollution and output using thermal inversions. Our causal estimates imply that a one |
| Keywords: | air pollution; productivity; environmental costs and benefits; firm competitiveness |
| JEL: | D62 Q51 Q53 R11 |
| Date: | 2017–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:78914&r=tid |
| By: | FUJII Hidemichi; MANAGI Shunsuke |
| Abstract: | Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can play a critical role in economic development, resource conservation, and environmental protection by increasing efficiency. This study is the first to apply a decomposition framework to clarify the determinants of AI technology invention. Exploiting data from the World Intellectual Property Organization, this study clarifies the determining factors that contribute to AI technology patent publications based on technology type. Consisting of 13,567 AI technology patents for the 2000-2016 period, our worldwide dataset includes patent publication data from the United States, Japan, China, Europe, and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). We find that priority has shifted from biological- and knowledge-based models to specific mathematical models and other AI technologies, particularly in the United States and Japan. Our technology type and country comparison shows that the characteristics of AI technology patent publication differ among companies and countries. |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:17066&r=tid |
| By: | Cristina Guillamón (Banco de España); Enrique Moral-Benito (Banco de España); Sergio Puente (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | Using a panel of Spanish firms over the period 2002-2012, we investigate the interactions between high growth episodes in terms of size and productivity. We find that high growth in productivity (size) increases the likelihood of high growth in size (productivity). However, the effect from size to productivity is smaller than the effect from productivity to size. We also explore the potential role of firm-level financial constraints using information from the Central Credit Register (CIR) of Banco de España. Our results indicate that credit constraints hamper high growth episodes in terms of both size and productivity. |
| Keywords: | keyword, high-growth firms, high-impact firms, productivity, panel firm-level data |
| JEL: | L25 L11 D24 C23 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1718&r=tid |
| By: | David Autor; David Dorn; Lawrence F. Katz; Christina Patterson; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | The fall of labor's share of GDP in the United States and many other countries in recent decades is well documented but its causes remain uncertain. Existing empirical assessments of trends in labor's share typically have relied on industry or macro data, obscuring heterogeneity among firms. In this paper, we analyze micro panel data from the U.S. Economic Census since 1982 and international sources and document empirical patterns to assess a new interpretation of the fall in the labor share based on the rise of “superstar firms.” If globalization or technological changes advantage the most productive firms in each industry, product market concentration will rise as industries become increasingly dominated by superstar firms with high profits and a low share of labor in firm value-added and sales. As the importance of superstar firms increases, the aggregate labor share will tend to fall. Our hypothesis offers several testable predictions: industry sales will increasingly concentrate in a small number of firms; industries where concentration rises most will have the largest declines in the labor share; the fall in the labor share will be driven largely by between-firm reallocation rather than (primarily) a fall in the unweighted mean labor share within firms; the between-firm reallocation component of the fall in the labor share will be greatest in the sectors with the largest increases in market concentration; and finally, such patterns will be observed not only in U.S. firms, but also internationally. We find support for all of these predictions. |
| JEL: | D33 J31 L11 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23396&r=tid |
| By: | Fleisher, Belton M. (Ohio State University); McGuire, William H. (University of Washington Tacoma); Wang, Xiaojun (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Zhao, Min Qiang (Xiamen University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of factor-priced-induced innovation in mediating the employment impact of expanding production in China. Our empirical approach implements concepts developed in Acemoglu (2010) and complements the approaches summarized by Wei, Xie, and Zhang (2017) that focus on directly observable aspects of innovation (R&D, patent activity, etc.); labor-force characteristics including the availability of "surplus" labor, investments in human capital; and investments in physical capital. It complements work on the causes of a decline in labor's share in total output as documented in Bai and Qian (2010) and in Molero-Simarro (2017). Our empirical results to date support the hypothesis that wage-induced technology change has influenced productivity growth in China, at least in the decade of the 1990s, but perhaps less so or not at all after the middle of the next decade. |
| Keywords: | endogenous innovation, China, factor shares |
| JEL: | O30 D22 D24 D33 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10749&r=tid |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Sanandaji, Tino (Institute for Economic and Business History Research (EHFF), Stockholm School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We examine whether Europe has an “entrepreneurship deficit” compared to other industrialized regions. Cross-country comparisons are difficult due to the lack of standard empirical definitions of entrepreneurship. Measures focusing on small business activity and startup rates suggest that Europe has the same or higher rates of entrepreneurship than the U.S. and East Asia. However, most business activity is not entrepreneurial in the Schumpeterian sense. We rely on empirical measures that more closely tally Schumpeterian entrepreneurship. These include top global firms founded in recent decades, highly valued unicorn startups, venture capital investments as a share of GDP, and the number of self-made dollar billionaires per capita who earned their wealth by creating new firms. Western Europe is shown to underperform in all four measures of high-impact Schumpeterian entrepreneurship relative to the U.S. Once we account for Europe’s strong performance in technological innovation, an “entrepreneurship deficit” relative to China and East Asia becomes apparent. This underperformance is missed by most standard measures, but captured by the GEM measure China is found to perform surprisingly well in Schumpeterian entrepreneurship, especially compared to Eastern Europe. |
| Keywords: | Billionaire entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Institutions; Regulation; Self-employment |
| JEL: | L50 M13 O31 P14 |
| Date: | 2017–05–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1170&r=tid |
| By: | IINO Takashi; INOUE Hiroyasu; SAITO Yukiko; TODO Yasuyuki |
| Abstract: | Using worldwide patent data and considering co-assignment as collaboration between firms, we compare the characteristics of international collaboration. Then, we examine the effect of knowledge propagation through collaboration on the quality of innovation. Introducing indices proposed in network science to capture firms' status in networks is the feature of this paper. We found collaborations of Japanese firms are less internationalized compared to other countries while Japanese firms tend to collaborate more than others, i.e., they intensively collaborate within a country. However, intensive collaboration within the country doesn't necessary improve the quality of innovation. Instead, firms bridging firms in different groups and creating various connections produce high-quality innovation. This is contrary to U.S. firms which benefit from various type of connections, including intensity of networks. This implies that it is difficult to improve innovation quality by knowledge propagation through collaboration for firms in many countries including Japan. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:17034&r=tid |
| By: | Blit, Joel (University of Waterloo); Skuterud, Mikal (University of Waterloo); Zhang, Jue (University of Waterloo) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of changes in skilled-immigrant population shares in 98 Canadian cities between 1981 and 2006 on per capita patents. The Canadian case is of interest because its 'points system' for selecting immigrants is viewed as a model of skilled immigration policy. Our estimates suggest unambiguously smaller beneficial impacts of increasing the university-educated immigrant population share than comparable U.S. estimates, whereas our estimates of the contribution of Canadian-born university graduates are virtually identical in magnitude to the U.S. estimates. The modest contribution of Canadian immigrants to innovation is, in large part, explained by the low employment rates of Canadian STEM-educated immigrants in STEM jobs. Our results point to the value of providing employers with a role in the immigrant screening process. |
| Keywords: | immigration, innovation, immigration policy |
| JEL: | J61 J18 O31 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10689&r=tid |
| By: | David Byrne; Stephen Oliner; Daniel Sichel |
| Abstract: | Two recent papers have made compelling cases that mismeasurement of prices of high tech products cannot explain the slow pace of labor productivity growth that has prevailed since the mid-2000s. Does that result indicate that mismeasurement of high-tech products has limited implications for patterns of economic growth? The answer in this paper is “no.” We demonstrate that the understatement of price declines for high-tech products in official measures has a dramatic effect on the pattern of MFP growth across sectors. In particular, we show that correcting this mismeasurement implies faster MFP growth in high-tech sectors and slower MFP advance outside the high-tech sector. If MFP growth is taken as a rough proxy for the pace of innovation, our results suggest that innovation in the tech sector has been more rapid than the rate that would be inferred from official statistics (and less rapid outside high-tech). These results deepen the productivity puzzle. If the pace of innovation in high-tech sectors has been more rapid than indicated by official statistics, then it is perhaps even more puzzling that overall labor productivity growth has been so sluggish in recent years. |
| JEL: | E01 E22 E24 L63 L86 O3 O33 O4 O41 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23369&r=tid |