R&D,public innovation policy,and productivity: The case of danish manufacturing

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between private R&D, public innovation support transferred to the private sector, and productivity in Danish manufacturing. Two main conclusions are established. First, public innovation support has a positive and significant effect on private R&D expenditures with an estimated elasticity of 0.062. Second, the indirect effect on productivity from public innovation support is reflected in a positive point estimate which is found to be robust to different specifications of R&D capital.     

Link between innovation and productivity in Canadian manufacturing industries

Empirical studies commonly use research and development (R&D) to measure innovation and often find, especially in Canada, no strong link between productivity and innovation. In this article, we model innovation as an unobservable latent variable that underlies four indicators: R&D, patents, technology adoption, and skills. We find that these indicators are reasonably good measures of innovation for aggregate manufacturing. However, except for skills, the reliability of the indicators for innovation differs among individual industries. Our innovation indexes, based on the latent variable model, show that most manufacturing industries became more innovative over the 1980–1997 period. The pace of innovation in the electrical and electronic products industry accelerated during the 1990s. In addition, we show that the new measure of innovation has a positive and statistically significant impact on productivity. It takes from 1 to 3 years, depending on the industry, for innovation to generate an impact on productivity.     

中国工业增长因素的实证研究

使用参数估计法与隐型变量法估算了1952-2009年中国工业的增长因素。研究发现,1952-2009年我国工业总体上表现为典型的粗放型增长方式,但在不同时期各增长因素的重要性表现出阶段性特征,特别是1996年后,智力要素对产出增长的贡献度第一次超过了初级要素投入的贡献度,成为推动中国工业产出增长的首要因素,表明中国工业的增长方式开始由粗放型向集约型转变。要进一步推动我国工业的集约型增长,需要遏制资本产出弹性的下降趋势,并充分发挥人力资本的作用。     

Decomposing productivity growth and divergence: an index number approach

We propose a cross-country productivity growth decomposition that allows us to quantify the industry-level contributors to an aggregate productivity growth differential. We deploy this cross-country decomposition to quantify—for the first time—the disaggregate contributors to the divergence in market sector productivity growth between Australia and New Zealand. The results suggest that large contributions to the divergence arise from differences in labour growth across the two countries and that cross-country structural differences are large, and generally act to reduce the divergence. Most of the industries are found to add to the divergence, with particularly large contributions coming from differences across the mining and wholesale trade industries. The views expressed in the paper are entirely my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. I would like to thank Les Oxley and Kevin Fox for useful comments on earlier drafts. All errors and omissions are my own.     

Capital goods,measured TFP and growth: The case of Spain

The effect of investing in equipment and/or structures on TFP and long run growth is investigated here. We argue that economies can grow in spite of stagnant TFP if the investment rate is inefficiently high. We study the case of Spain where real GDP per worker grew at 2.74 percent annually and TFP was stagnant during 1996–2007. We show that low Spanish TFP is due to low ISTC and an inefficiently high investment in residential structures. We quantify the effect of the housing boom of the 2000s, the total cost of subsidies to residential structures in terms of TFP and income growth.     

Informality,enforcement and growth

This paper develops a two-sector growth model with formal and informal sectors for an economy that cares about redistribution and illustrates its relationship with the enforcement level. The technology gap and labour rigidity explicate the duality. The state can tax the formal sector to subsidise informal income and finance public infrastructure. Alternatively, enforcement, which is costly and corresponds to a variety of discrete components from the security of property rights and integrity of contracts to control of corruptions, can be chosen to favour the formal sector and discourage the informal sector. It is observed that weaker enforcement required to accommodate some degree of informality, which releases tax burden from the formal sector needed for redistribution, can accelerate growth rate. However, sufficiently weaker enforcement dampens the formal sector expansion and growth rate. The growth rate registers an inverted-U shaped relationship against the enforcement level. The optimum enforcement can, however, be higher without formal labour union and subsidisation. This must be higher for welfare maximisation than that of growth rate, especially when the consumer cares about the quality of enforcement.     

研发创新全要素生产率的空间趋同分析

利用非参数的Malmquist生产率指数方法对1999—2008年中国研发创新全要素生产率(TFP)的变动进行测算,运用趋同理论深入分析了差异的演变规律和内在机制,同时探求造成TFP增长空间差异的影响因素。研究表明:中国研发创新TFP增长存在显著的空间差异;研发创新TFP不仅存在绝对趋同,而且形成东、中、西三大俱乐部趋同,此外还存在明显的条件趋同,信息化水平、利用外资水平、人力资本等是影响中国研发创新活动发展空间差异的重要因素。     

Regulations and productivity: Long run effects and nonlinear influences

This study examines the impact of product market regulations on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and explores whether regulatory reforms exert a nonlinear influence on TFP growth. It also distinguishes between short run and long run effects of regulation. The obtained empirical evidence reveals that lower regulations in the long run exert a significantly positive effect on TFP of OECD countries. Short run effects of regulation are not always statistically significant. The influence of regulatory changes is higher in countries with high levels of regulation. Also, the damaging effects of regulation are more intense in countries with low technology gaps. These results hold across a wide array of econometric specifications and variables that measure regulation and TFP.     

Informality and mobility

Informality is a defining characteristic of labour markets in developing and transition countries. This paper analyzes patterns of mobility across different forms of formal and informal employment in Russia. Using the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey household panel we estimate a dynamic multinomial logit model with individual heterogeneity and correct for the initial conditions problem. Simulations show that structural state dependence is weak and that transition rates from informal to formal employment are not lower than from non-employment. These results lend support to the integrated view of the labour market.     

城市化、创新与全要素生产率增长——基于省际面板数据的经验研究

本文首先采用Malmquist指数方法测算我国29个省份1991-2007年间全要素生产率增长情况,研究城市化、创新与全要素生产率之间的协整关系,并基于面板误差修正模型考察短期波动的影响。得出结论:(1)城市化、创新与全要素生产率具有长期均衡关系,城市化和创新对全要素生产率增长具有长期的正向影响,城市化通过创新中介效应显著地驱动全要素生产率增长,这种影响在沿海和内陆之间存在差异;(2)城市化对全要素生产率具有积极的短期影响,且滞后一期影响强度大于当期,而创新对全要素生产率并不产生短期正向影响。     

Endogenous innovation and imitation in a model of equilibrium growth

This paper provides a growth model in which innovation as well as imitation occurs. Economic growth is due to product innovations. Innovators driven by the possibility to appropriate monopoly profits do not remain in their monopolistic position forever. Latecoming imitators get into possession of the private knowledge of production through investments in R & D. Imitated products are marketed in oligopolistic markets. Imitation proves to be profitable despite a single factor market and positive imitation costs. A steady-state equilibrium with positive imitation and innovation rates as well as different market structures can be derived. Finally, the effects of industrial policy measures are discussed.     

转变乡镇企业增长方式的思考——基于全要素生产率的乡镇企业增长因素分析

本文在现代经济学生产理论和经济增长因素分析方法的基础上,采用索洛增长核算框架,寻求乡镇企业增长的主要动力源泉,从而对乡镇企业的增长类型做出一个基本判断。研究表明：从各增长因素的贡献来看,资本和劳动投入对于乡镇企业增长的贡献将近70％,而全要素生产率增长的贡献作用相对较小,即乡镇企业产出增长动力主要来源于要素投入的增加,表明乡镇企业总体上呈现出一定的粗放经营特征。为推动乡镇企业持续、快速、平稳发展,应尽快实现其增长方式的转变。     

Firm heterogeneity in TFP,sectoral innovation and location. Evidence from Italy

Sectoral and territorial specificities affect a firm’s capabilities of being productive. While there is a wide consensus on this, a quantitative measure of these effects has been lacking. To this end, we combine a data-set of Italian firms with some meso regional and sectoral variables and apply a cross-classified model that allows for a clear distinction between firm, region-specific and sector-specific effects. After observing a marked TFP heterogeneity across firms, the paper addresses the issue of understanding how much differences in firms’ productivity depend on regional localisation and sector specificities. Results refer to 2004–2006 and have three aspects. First, they confirm that the main source of firm variety is mostly due to differences revealed at individual level. Secondly, we find that the sector is more important than location in explaining firms’ TFP. Lastly, the results show that firm TFP increases when it belongs to more innovative sectors. Similarly, companies get benefits from belonging to sectors where there is a high proportion of firms using R&D public support and a high propensity to collaborate in innovative projects.     

R&D and productivity growth: Evidence from the UK

Although the econometric evaluation of R&D has attracted wide interest in many countries, it has not attracted much in the UK. The main objective of this paper is to fill this void, i.e., to estimate the impact of R&D on productivity growth of the UK manufacturing sector. However, there are some additional objectives. Firstly, we estimate the impact of R&D on productivity growth of large and small firms and we discuss a number of theoretical arguments regarding the role of firm size. Secondly, given that the technological infrastructure influences the innovative capacity of a firm, we compare the impact of R&D on productivity growth of high-tech firms with the corresponding impact on productivity growth of low-tech firms. Thirdly, we investigate whether the contribution of R&D to productivity growth has changed over time.

Based on firm-level data (78 firms, 1989–2002), we find that the contribution of R&D is approximately 0.04. Although the R&D-elasticity of large firms (0.044) is higher than the corresponding elasticity of small firms (0.035), the difference is small. In contrast, the R&D-elasticity is considerably high for high-tech sectors (0.11), but statistically insignificant for low-tech sectors. Finally, the investigation of the elasticity of R&D over time revealed an interesting discontinuity showing that although until 1995 the R&D-elasticity was approximately zero, after 1995 it increased dramatically to 0.09. We investigate the potential causes of such non-linearity and we suggest a number of possible explanations.     

Entrepreneurship and productivity: The slow growth of the planned economies

Trends in gross domestic product (GDP) and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the former socialist economies seem to indicate that these economies were converging to unusually low long-run growth rates in the late 1980s. In this paper we develop an endogenous growth model of entrepreneurship that is able to account for the difference in long-run performance between centrally planned economies and market-oriented ones. Long-run growth rates of output and productivity are determined by the growth of the stock of managerial knowledge, which in turn depends on the share of the population involved in entrepreneurial activities and on the time that spent on those activities. We analyze the effect of two characteristics of centrally planned economies on their growth performance. First, in centrally planned economies factors of production are distributed by the central planner to the firms' managers through a contest that uses up some of the managers' productive effort. Second, the leadership is “egalitarian,” in the sense that it treats individuals with different abilities equally. We show that these two features reduce the fraction of people becoming entrepreneurs/managers, as well as their managerial effort, which in turn reduces long-run output and TFP growth. Furthermore, we find that centrally planned economies have lower income inequality and slightly higher capital–output ratios, which is consistent with these countries' experiences.     

Risk,variety and volatility: growth,innovation and stock prices in early industry evolution

The paper studies the patterns of volatility in firm growth rates and stock prices during the early phase of the life-cycle of an old economy industry, the US automobile industry from 1900-1930, and a new economy industry, the US PC industry from 1974-2000. In both industries, firm growth rates are more volatile in the period in which innovation is the most radical. This is also the period in which stock prices are more volatile. The comparison sheds light on the co-evolution of industrial and financial volatility and the relationship between this co-evolution and mechanisms of Schumpetarian creative destruction. Results provide insight into the debate on whether the statistical behavior of firm growth rates is well represented by Gibrats Law.JEL Classification: L11, 030, G12I thank Massimiliano Tancioni for his excellent research assistance. Support from the following grants is much appreciated: European Commission Key Action Improving the socio-economic knowledge basecontract HPSE-CT-2002-00146, and the Open University RDF Grant contract no. 793.     

Dynamic models of R & D,innovation and productivity: Panel data evidence for Dutch and French manufacturing

This paper introduces dynamics in the R&D-to-innovation and innovation-to-productivity relationships, which have mostly been estimated on cross-sectional data. It considers four nonlinear dynamic simultaneous equations models that include individual effects and idiosyncratic errors correlated across equations and that differ in the way innovation enters the conditional mean of labor productivity: through an observed binary indicator, an observed intensity variable or through the continuous latent variables that correspond to the observed occurrence or intensity. It estimates these models by full information maximum likelihood using two unbalanced panels of Dutch and French manufacturing firms from three waves of the Community Innovation Survey. The results provide evidence of robust unidirectional causality from innovation to productivity and of stronger persistence in productivity than in innovation.     

Micro-heterogeneity and aggregate productivity development in the German manufacturing sector

A decomposition of aggregate productivity growth of German manufacturing firms that pertain to 11 different industries at a roughly two-digit level observed over the period 1981–1998 is performed. Productivity is measured by a nonparametric frontier function approach. The decompositions of productivity allow for an explanation of the aggregate outcomes by the quantification of the effect of structural change and the contributions of entering and exiting firms. Our results show that these forces drive aggregate productivity to a considerable extent. Remarkably, the large productivity improvements after the German reunification are mainly driven by structural change.

R&D两面性、技术引进与浙江省高技术产业全要素生产率增长

基于DEA-Malmquist指数测算浙江省高技术产业全要素生产率,运用一阶差分模型和加权最小二乘法检验了R&D两面性、技术引进对浙江省高技术产业全要素生产率增长的影响。研究发现:1998-2012年,浙江省高技术产业全要素生产率整体低于全国平均水平,处于负增长状态;R&D创新能力对浙江省高技术产业全要素生产率促进作用不显著,而R&D吸收能力和技术引进抑制作用显著,其吸收能力未能与技术引进互为补充共同促进浙江省高技术产业全要素生产率增长。研究结果表明:以中小型高技术企业为主的浙江省高技术产业急需全面推进创新驱动发展战略,继续以自主R&D为主、技术引进为辅,持续加大R&D投入,增强R&D创新能力和吸收能力。     

人力资本与区域全要素生产率分析

本文采用Malmquist指数分析了我国30个省级行政区1996—2003年的全要素生产率(TFP)增长,并将其分解为技术进步指数和效率变化指数。为了减少计算偏差,我们在使用承认无效率项存在的生产前沿技术的同时,引入了人力资本要素。本文的分析结果表明我国的人力资本水平增长迅速,30个省区的经济增长效率差距逐年扩大。同时我们发现在引入人力资本要素后,1996—2003年区域全要素生产率的增长得益于技术进步;如果不考虑人力资本存量,则低估了同期的效率提高程度,而高估了期间的技术进步指数。