Technology transfer via foreign patents in Germany, 1843–77

This article analyses the spread of innovation in mid‐nineteenth‐century Germany using foreign patents as an indicator for technology transfer. It introduces a new dataset of over 1,400 patents granted in the Grand Duchy of Baden between 1843 and 1877. The data show that Baden's technology import via foreign patents from German and non‐German inventors was important. This technology transfer was broadly based, although technologies related to the textile and machine‐building industries are prominent in the data. The decision to file a patent in Baden was driven by competition and the risk of imitation. Using a gravity model with city‐level data, we find evidence that technology transfer through patents reflected existing trade links. The strong correlation between technologies filed by foreigners and domestic inventors provides further evidence that the risk of imitation fostered patent‐based technology transfer during the mid‐nineteenth century. Furthermore, we show that foreigners filed patents predominantly in industries that accounted for a high share of the workforce in Baden.     

Technological and geographical knowledge spillover in the German empire 1877–1918

We use a newly developed data set of 39,343 high‐value patents granted between 1877 and 1918 to demonstrate that technological progress during German industrialization occurred in at least four different technological waves. We distinguish the railway wave (1877–86), the dye wave (1887–96), the chemical wave (1897–1902), and the wave of electrical engineering (1903–18). Evidence is presented that inter‐industry knowledge spillovers between technologically, economically, and geographically related industries were a major source for innovative activities during German industrialization. We also show that technological change affected the geographical distribution of innovative regions. Using an index of technologically revealed comparative advantage we find that regions that increased their innovativeness during the waves of technological progress revealed special strength in technological clusters like electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or chemicals.     

Global knowledge flow and Japanese multinational firms’ offshore R&D allocation and innovation

This paper examines whether allocating more research and development (R&D) activities to a country-industry pair with a higher intensity of knowledge flows improves the innovation performance of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We use firm-patent-matched data for Japanese manufacturing MNEs, including data on MNEs’ offshore R&D expenditure and information on patents filed by both parent firms and overseas affiliates. Moreover, as a proxy for the intensity of knowledge flows, we use the eigenvector centrality of each country-industry pair in the global knowledge flow network, utilizing patent citation information.We find that the quality-adjusted number of patent applications tends to be higher for MNEs that allocate more R&D activities to country-industry pairs that are more central in the network of global knowledge flows. However, we did not find any significant relationship between the country and industry distribution of offshore R&D and the number of patent applications.     

产业关联、技术差距与外商直接投资的技术溢出

本文运用非均衡面板数据的广义矩估计,从产业关联和技术差距的角度考察了外商直接投资对中国纺织业的技术溢出效应.经验分析结论表明,外商直接投资主要通过水平关联和后向关联对纺织业内资企业产生溢出效应;外商直接投资是否通过水平关联促进内资企业生产效率的改善还取决于内外资企业间的技术差距,只有当内外资企业技术差距小于门限值时,外...     

The innovation process of Huawei and ZTE: Patent data analysis

This study compares the innovation process of Huawei and ZTE in China using their patent data. By using patent statistics and raw data, this study provides more detailed findings than what statistics alone can provide. Huawei and ZTE were selected for this study mainly because they were the only Chinese firms that ranked among the top 100 PCT applicants in 2011. This study investigates the difference in the innovation process in R&D between Huawei and ZTE by analyzing (1) domestic and international patent application patterns, (2) granted patents, (3) co-applicants and inventors, (4) knowledge accumulation inside Huawei and ZTE, and (5) knowledge spillover to domestic and foreign firms.     

Liberalisation, FDI, and productivity spillovers--an analysis of Indian manufacturing firms

The objective of the intensification of reforms in India's trade,technology and industry policies in 1991 was to make Indianindustry competitive. In the light of these attempted changes,the present paper tested two hypotheses, namely (a) whetherliberalisation has improved the productivity of local firms;and (b) whether the spillovers from technology transfer haveincreased in the liberal regime. To test these, techniques frompanel data and stochastic production frontier were employedon 487 firms belonging to 24 three-digit manufacturing industriesfor the period 1989–90 to 1996–97. The results showedthat after liberalisation, the productivity of Indian industry,especially the foreign owned firms, has improved. The econometricresults suggested that only ‘scientific’ non-FDIfirms have benefited from the liberalisation. For the ‘non-scientific’firms, the impact is found to be productivity depressing. Withrespect to spillovers, only those domestic firms, which investedin R&D to decode the spilled knowledge, could benefit.     

Innovation and Corporate Tax Planning: The Distinct Effects of Patents and R&D*

Using a large US sample, we find a significant and positive relation between patents and corporate tax planning, and the effect is incremental to the effect of R&D on tax planning. We employ a quasi‐natural experiment based on staggered industry‐level innovation shocks to identify the positive causal effect of patents on corporate tax planning. We also find that patents are not associated with tax planning for domestic firms, but their association with tax planning is concentrated in multinational firms, which have the ability to shift domestic income to low‐tax countries. Moreover, we find that the identified effect mainly exists in the post–check‐the‐box (CTB) rule period when shifting income among affiliates becomes more flexible and convenient. Finally, we use two income‐shifting models and find that patents, rather than R&D, facilitate tax planning through an income‐shifting channel. Overall, our results suggest that R&D and patents facilitate firms' tax planning in distinct ways: R&D facilitates tax planning as intended through tax credits and deductions, whereas patents are used by taxpayers to avoid taxes aggressively through income shifting.     

Effects of Knowledge Spillovers on Knowledge Production and Productivity Growth in Korean Manufacturing Firms

Using Korean firm‐level data, this paper studies the effects of knowledge spillovers on knowledge production and productivity growth. Data from 213 Korean firms for the years 1985 to 2007 are used, and the number of patent applications is used as a proxy variable for knowledge. The results show that all the growth rates of output, patents, and productivity are higher in high‐technology firms. Regression results show that the spillover effect on knowledge production and productivity growth is very significant, and that the spillover effect is larger in small firms than in large firms. Moreover, spillover effects on productivity growth are larger after 1995, when Korean intellectual property rights were strengthened. Our findings suggest that the effects of knowledge spillover on productivity are positively correlated with strong intellectual property rights.     

Voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital items in?roadshows and investor conferences: an empirical analysis of DAX30-companies

We analyze firms’ voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital in a setting of presentations to analysts and investors. Firms use presentations to analysts and investors as an additional means of reporting. Due to lesser restrictions of this kind of reporting and also due to the private channel disclosure setting of such presentations, firms are able to highlight certain issues which they think to be important for interpretation and forecasting of firm success. In such a setting we can assess the benefit-cost relation underlying these disclosure decisions. The sample consists of German DAX30 firms, which are analyzed for the years 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007, resulting in a total of 271 observations. We calculate quantitative and qualitative disclosure indices and also analyze whether time, industry and type of presentation influence intellectual capital disclosure. Findings show that customer capital, human capital, and process capital are reported more often than other intellectual capital categories. Industry and type of presentation are strongly related to disclosure indices. There is also a weak significant relation between time and disclosure index. Overall, firms tend to prefer qualitative voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital and only carefully disclose quantitative data. This suggests that the benefit-cost relation of quantitative reporting is negative.     

Lenders’ Response to Peer and Customer Restatements

We investigate whether restatements announced by economically related firms influence the contract terms a borrower receives from lenders. A restatement by a major customer firm increases the loan spread of a borrower by 11 basis points, on average. The contagion effects of customer restatements are higher (45 basis points) when a borrower's switching costs are high. Restatements by peer firms in the same industry also increase a borrower's loan spread, and this increase occurs regardless of restatement severity. Moreover, the sensitivity of loan spread to peer restatements is significantly greater when the restating peer firms are also in the bank's lending portfolio, suggesting that a lender's personal experience with restatements in an industry makes it more attuned to the potential implications of these restatements for the borrowing firm. Finally, our results suggest that lenders utilize information from peer restatements to anticipate future restatements by the borrowing firm.     

Transatlantic trade and investment partnership: sectoral and macroeconomic perspectives for Germany,the EU and the US

The EU and the US have started negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP) which could bring a considerable increase of exports and output as well as changes in the composition of output and employment. Thus export simulation studies in combination with input output analysis and employment analysis is useful. In the analysis presented the focus is mainly on sectoral output and employment effects where the key sectors are the automotive sector, chemical industry, information and communication technology production, pharmaceuticals and machinery and equipment. Backward sector links are analysed and found to be quite important in the automotive sector, the chemical industry, the machinery and equipment sector in both Germany and the US; in Germany also in ICT production. However, most of the observed sectors have weak forward linkage. Input output analysis is also used to identify employment effects in various sectors: the pure employment effect of a 20 % export expansion in Germany amounts to about 800 000 new jobs. Looking only at the US and German perspective turns out to be misleading—the high imports of intermediate inputs of German firms from EU partner countries suggests that a comparison EU-US is analytically required for some key issues and that considering the effects on EU partners is also useful. There is a host of key policy issues, including the issue of extended sustainability reporting.     

Business Cycles and FDI: Evidence from German Sectoral Data

Globalization has affected business cycle developments in OECD countries and has increased activities of firms across national borders. This paper analyzes whether these two developments are linked. We use a new firm-level data set on the foreign activities of German firms to test whether foreign activities are affected by business cycle developments. We aggregate the data by the sector of the reporting firm, the sector of the foreign affiliate, and the host country. Data are annual and cover the period 1989–2002. We find that German outward FDI increases in response to positive cyclical developments abroad and in response to a real depreciation of the domestic currency. JEL no. E3, F23     

Knowledge capital,innovation, and growth in China

We study the relationship between industry-level investments in intangible knowledge capital (KC) and three key economic indicators in China. We find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that investments in KC are productivity-enhancing among domestically owned and foreign invested enterprises (FIEs). Consistent with other research, we find that China's KC generates new patents, but fewer than in major industrialized economies. Finally, we find that China's comparative advantage has shifted toward those sectors where domestic firms have made larger investments in KC, but this trend appears to be independent of the KC accumulated by FIEs.     

Technological catching-up between two ASEAN members and China: A metafrontier approach

This paper examines the dynamics of the productivity gaps across Indonesia, Vietnam, and China. Based on establishment-level panel datasets in the textile and electronics industries for the period 2000–2007, empirical results obtained from the meta-frontier approach show that there is a technological falling-behind rather than catching-up between Indonesia and China, as well as between Vietnam and China. This widening gap is witnessed in both the labor-intensive textile industry and the capital-intensive electronics industry, because China has experienced faster productivity growth and has upgraded its technological frontier after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. A comparison of the two latecomers finds that Indonesia firms exhibit better productivity performance than do Vietnamese firms.     

Adjusting to Trade Liberalisation: The Case of Firms in the South African Textile Sector

This paper examines the responses of firms in the textile industryof South Africa to that country's rapid liberalisation of tradesince the early 1990s. The data reveal that there have beenincreased exports accompanied by reductions in employment andcontraction of production of yarns and fabrics. Drawing on asurvey of companies, followed by interviews, it documents howcompetitive pressures from imports have led firms to increasetheir exports. Exporting is not, however, directly associatedwith better performance. This is due to its being a responseby many firms to weak domestic demand and the need to maintainproduction capacity. But, liberalisation has also been accompaniedby much upgrading of equipment and by increased specialisationand vertical disintegration in order to develop competitiveniches despite South Africa's manufacturing wage levels beinghigher than those of many of its international competitors.Firms focusing on non-price factors of export competitivenesshave been better performing. Firms have also been most successfulwhere technological capabilities based on the domestic marketprovided a foundation for export competitiveness. There areindications that with the restructuring induced by liberalisationthe sector is in a position more effectively to exploit itscompetitive strengths in international markets. In addition,the United States' African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)offers some stimulus for the textile industry to supply fabricsto firms in the export garment sector which previously importedthem.     

Human capital inflow,firm innovation and patent mix

In this article, a theoretical model of heterogeneous firms is built that emphasizes how human capital inflow (HCI) affects a firm’s innovation. The model shows that when HCI increases, the cost of a firm’s innovation decreases, the relative innovation efficiency gap between any two patents decreases, and the quality of each existing patent increases, which makes firms produce more patents, improve the quality of innovation and reduce the skewness of the patent mix. Empirical tests with data from Chinese Listed Companies are consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model, and robust to various estimation specifications. Moreover, the impacts of HCI vary across different types of patents, that is, both the quantity and quality of invention patents increase with HCI, while the skewness of the patent mix decreases. However, there is no evidence that HCI influences utility model patents.     

智能制造对纺织产业升级的影响机制研究

智能制造为纺织产业升级提供了新的路径。选取2006—2019年8个省份的相关数据,在分析二者间相关性和理论机制的基础上构建智能制造指数和纺织产业升级指数进行实证检验,验证二者之间的中介效应。实证结果表明,智能制造对纺织产业升级具有显著促进作用;智能制造有效地促进地区人力资本结构优化升级,进而促进地区纺织产业升级。研究认为,将智能技术同纺织产业融合有助于促进地区纺织产业升级,加快制造业转型升级步伐。     

Going out to innovate more at home: Impacts of outward direct investments on Chinese firms' domestic innovation performance

This study explores the effects of cross-border mergers & acquisitions (CBMA) on domestic innovation of Chinese firms. We build a new panel dataset that matches information on CBMA and innovation activities for China's publicly listed firms. We rely on matching techniques combined with a difference-in-differences estimator to study the causal effects of CBMA respectively on firms' investments in innovation, innovation outputs, and financial performance. The main findings reveal that CBMA has both a positive impact on firms' R&D spending and number of patent applications, no statistically significant effect on the number of granted patents or on the quality of those patents, and a negative effect on firms' financial performance. These results depend, however, on the type of CBMA (horizontal or vertical), destination country (OECD or non-OECD), and the technological intensity (high-tech or not) of the acquirer and target firm. Overall, the findings bring into question whether CBMAs, and China's going-out strategy, will significantly boost its indigenous innovation capabilities.     

Offshoring and firm performance: self-selection,effects on performance,or both?

This paper uses unique new data for German manufacturing enterprises from matched regular surveys and a special purpose survey to investigate the causal effect of relocation of activities to a foreign country on firm performance. Compared to non-offshoring firms, firms that relocated activities were larger and more productive, and had a higher share of exports in total sales. These differences existed the year before some firms started to relocate, and this points to self-selection of “better” firms into offshoring. To investigate the causal effects of offshoring, six different variants of a matching approach are used. Contrary to what is often argued we find no evidence for a large negative causal effect of offshoring on employment in Germany.     

Innovation and Market Value in Newly-Industrialized Countries: The Case of Taiwanese Electronics Firms

The relationship between patents, research and development (R&D), and market value in newly industrialized countries is examined for a panel data of Taiwanese electronics firms. Empirical results show that the market value of electronics firms is strongly related to patent count and R&D expenditure in Taiwan. Controlling potential heterogeneity of patents and allowing the value of Tobin's q to vary across firms, the estimated results are quite consistent, which is encouraging for Taiwan's government as it has implemented many policies encouraging firms to commit to R&D. In addition, the significant and positive impact of the sales growth rate might refiect the expectation feature of the stock market.