Sectoral Productivity Growth and R&D Spillovers in the Netherlands

This paper assesses empirically whether R&D spillovers are important and whether they originate from domestic or foreign activities. Data for eleven sectors are used to explain the impact on total factor productivity of R&D by the sector itself, by other Dutch sectors and by foreign sectors. We find that both domestic and foreign R&D are significant for the Dutch economy. The elasticity of total factor productivity with respect to R&D is approximately 37% for R&D by a sector, 15% for R&D by other Dutch sectors and 3% for R&D by foreign sectors. Our findings suggest moreover that more R&D speeds up the adoption of foreign technologies. Thus, even for a small open economy as the Netherlands, promoting investment in R&D is appropriate as it both stimulates adoption and generates spillovers.     

The Effects of Trade on Research and Development

This paper examines how U.S. manufacturing firms' research budgets respond to international trade. Using a simple dynamic model of R&D investment and dynamic heterogeneous panel estimation techniques developed by Peseran, Shin, and Smith (1999), firm-level data reveal that increased import competition tends to reduce the research efforts of purely domestic U.S. manufacturing firms. Firms with foreign sales, however, respond very weakly to import competition, and increase research efforts in response to real exchange rate depreciation.     

研发投入能否降低企业产出波动

文章基于内生技术进步的理论框架分析了研发投入对企业产出波动的影响,构建了包含技术种类扩展和质量阶梯升级的内生技术进步理论模型,发现研发投入对企业产出波动的影响同时受到多样化效应和“创新性毁灭”效应两种效应的作用。文章利用工业企业数据实证分析验证,结果表明：企业研发投入与产出波动之间存在非线性关系,当研发强度较低时,研发强度增加将有利于降低企业产出波动;随着研发强度的增大,生产率提升、“创新性毁灭”效应更加明显,企业增加研发强度抑制产出波动的作用逐渐变弱。研发投入带来的技术多样化效应具有抑制产出波动的作用。因此,企业应保持适度的研发强度便于抑制产出波动、保障生产供给侧稳定。     

Technological factors and total factor productivity in China: Evidence based on a panel threshold model

This study investigates the effects of technological factors, including indigenous research and development (R&D) investments, technology spillovers coming from foreign direct investments, export, and import, on China's total factor productivity (TFP). Using provincial panel data of China, covering 30 provinces over the period 2000–2014, our results confirm that indigenous R&D investments play a leading role in promoting TFP. Linear analysis suggests that, except for export, the technology spillovers through openness are beneficial for TFP growth. However, a further discussion based on a panel threshold model suggests that the different behaviours of these technology spillovers are dependent on the technological absorptive capacity affecting factors, such as human capital and indigenous R&D investments. The human capital will strengthen the spillover effects of each technology spillover. However, R&D intensity initially tends to hamper their spillover effects. Once the R&D intensity exceeds a certain level, the negative spillover effect of export on TFP tends to be alleviated, and the positive spillover effect of foreign direct investment and import on TFP will increase.     

Foreign Ownership and Productivity: New Evidence from the Service Sector and the R&D Lab

This paper examines the relationship between foreign ownershipand productivity, paying particular attention to two issuesneglected in the existing literature—the role of multinationalsin service sectors and the importance of R&D activity conductedby foreign multinationals. We review existing theoretical andempirical work, which largely focuses on manufacturing, beforepresenting new evidence using establishment-level data on production,service, and R&D activity for Great Britain. We find thatmultinationals play an important role in service sectors andthat entry of foreign multinationals by takeover is more prevalentthan greenfield investment. We find that British multinationalshave lower levels of labour productivity than foreign multinationals,but the difference is less stark in the service sector thanin the production sector, and that British multinationals havelower levels of investment and intermediate use per employee.We also find that foreign-owned multinationals conduct a substantialamount of British R&D. We discuss the implications of theseand other findings for the policy debate on incentives to influencemultinational firms' location choices.     

R&D Subsidies and Foreign Direct Investment

We devise a model in which domestic firms do applied R&D, which can be subsidized by the government, and foreign firms with superior technology can enter in the domestic market. Foreign Direct Investment can act as a substitute of subsidies to improve domestic R&D, the share of domestic leading firms and consumption. Relatively closed economies may benefit from R&D subsidization while relatively open economies may not. For relatively low growth of the technological frontier, it is optimal to subsidize R&D and close the economy to foreign investment but the opposite happens for relatively high growth. Numerical simulations show the economy dynamics after policy experiments.     

Global outsourcing or foreign direct investment: Why apple chose outsourcing for the iPod

A simple model is presented, where a firm's productivity is endogenized by its R&D investment. It shows that the most productive firms may prefer international outsourcing to foreign direct investment (FDI) in industries with a high innovation share. The high innovation share motivates the firms to economize on organizational cost in order to save resources for R&D investment, making outsourcing preferable to FDI because the former incurs a smaller organizational cost. This model helps explain why Apple Inc., belonging to the electronics industry, which has a particularly high innovation share, launched its innovative iPod through international outsourcing instead of FDI.     

In search of FDI-transmitted R&D spillovers: A study based on Swedish data

In Search of FDI-Transmitted R& D Spillovers: A Study Based on Swedish Data. — This paper analyzes empirically whether inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) work as channels for international R&D spillovers. The authors utilize firm-level and industry-level data for Swedish manufacturing. Hardly any evidence of FDI-related R&D spillovers is found. But while the results do not provide support for the hypothesis that the activity level of MNEs’ affiliates matters for the extent of FDI-transmitted international spillovers, they suggest that utilizing foreign affiliates’ employment as a weighting scheme may be too crude a measure. The authors’ analysis shows indeed that the type of activity — R&D or assembly — carried out in the affiliates matters significantly for technology sourcing.     

Debt,R&D investment and technological progress: A panel study of Japanese manufacturing firms' behavior during the 1990s

Based on a panel data set of Japanese manufacturing firms in research-intensive industries, we investigate quantitatively the extent to which outstanding debt affected firms' R&D activities during the 1990s. We find that massive amounts of outstanding debt had a significant, negative effect on R&D investment during that time. We also find that R&D expenditures were closely linked to firm-level total factor productivity growth over the same period. In fact, a ten-percentage-point increase in the debt–asset ratio lowered the rate of firm-level total factor productivity growth by 0.26 percentage points between 1999 and 2001, because it reduced R&D activities. J. Japanese Int. Economies 21 (4) (2007) 403–423.     

R&D Spillovers for Public R&D Productivity

ABSTRACT

This paper empirically investigates whether the productivity of a public (government-funded) R&D project improves when the aggregate R&D investment in the same technology field increases. Based on the unique project level data that cover almost entire public R&D projects in Korea, this paper shows that aggregate investment in other public R&D projects in the same technology field increases a public R&D project’s outputs both independent of its project expenditure (additive spillover effects) and interactive with its project expenditure (multiplicative spillover effects). The spillover effects from the aggregate private R&D investment in the same technology field also exist, but to a much lesser extent.     

Strategic R&D Location in European Manufacturing Industries

We empirically test a model of foreign research and development (R&D) investments that takes into account strategic interaction in R&D location decisions by multinational firms in the context of R&D cross-investments, R&D spillovers and foreign technology sourcing strategies. We find support for most of the predictions of the model in an empirical analysis of the location of patented innovations by the largest European manufacturing firms in 22 ISIC industries during 1996–1997. For technology leaders in Europe, foreign R&D ratios respond positively to host country product market competition, while technology laggards avoid these locations. Foreign R&D by technology laggards increases more strongly with the efficiency of (reverse) international technology transfer while leaders are attracted more strongly to countries with better intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection. Foreign R&D of both technology leaders and technology laggards increases with the size of the local knowledge pool and the size of manufacturing operations in the host country. JEL no.  D21, F23, L16     

Exchange rate exposure of sectoral returns and volatilities: Evidence from Japanese industrial sectors

Most studies of exchange rate exposure of stock returns do not address three relevant aspects simultaneously. They are, namely: sensitivity of stock returns to exchange rate changes; sensitivity of volatility of stock returns to volatility of changes in foreign exchange market; and the correlation between volatilities of stock returns and exchange rate changes. In this paper, we employ a bivariate GJR-GARCH model to examine all such aspects of exchange rate exposure of sectoral indexes in Japanese industries. Based on a sample data of fourteen sectors, we find significant evidence of exposed returns and its asymmetric conditional volatility of exchange rate exposure. In addition, returns in many sectors are correlated with those of exchange rate changes. We also find support for the “averaged-out exposure and asymmetries” argument. Our findings have direct implications for practitioners in formulating investment decisions and currency hedging strategies.     

Is R&D cash flow sensitive? Evidence from Chinese industrial firms

We hypothesize that research and development (R&D) is sensitive to cash flow fluctuations due to asymmetric information and agency problems in the credit market. We adopt a variant of the Q model for R&D investment using the value of the firm, physical capital and employment to capture firm fundamentals as proxies for investment opportunities. We add cash flow to this specification, and estimate the augmented model separately for R&D participation and spending decisions using data on Chinese industrial firms for the period 2001–2006. We find that R&D participation and spending are sensitive to cash flow fluctuations, conditional on firm fundamentals. We also find that the cash flow sensitivity of R&D varies across firms depending on ownership.     

Firm-Specific Characteristics and the Timing of Foreign Direct Investment Projects

This paper uses a proportional hazard model to study foreign direct investment by Japanese manufacturers in Europe between 1970 and 1994. We divide each firm’s investment total into a sequence of individual investment decisions and analyze how firm-specific characteristics affect each decision. We find that total factor productivity is a significant determinant of a firm’s initial and subsequent investments. Parent-firm size does not have a significant influence on the initial decision to invest. Large firms simply have more investments than smaller firms. Other firm-specific characteristics, such as the R&D intensity, export share and keiretsu membership, also play a role in the investment process. JEL no. F23, L20     

Exchange rate volatility and first-time entry by multinational firms

The model and related empirical examination in this paper demonstrate one reason why previous studies document both positive and negative correlations between exchange rate volatility and observed levels of foreign direct investment. Using a simple model of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, it argues that the source of the volatility is important in resolving the puzzle. An empirical analysis of mergers and acquisitions by individual firms reveal that first-time foreign direct investment is discouraged by monetary volatility originating from the source-country, but can be encouraged by monetary volatility originating in the host country, especially when compared to domestic investment or expansion by existing multinationals. The regressions also reveal a large and positive “euro effect” on the number of first-time cross-border mergers within the European Monetary Union, even when controlling for domestic merger activity.     

R&;D,trade, and productivity growth in korean manufacturing

This paper investigates the effects of both R&D spillovers and trade patterns on productivity in Korean manufacturing, using industry-level data. The results show that domestic and foreign R&D capital stocks played an important R&D in improving the total factor productivity of Korean manufacturing. Moreover, productivity is higher in export industries and the more open industries, and the effects of foreign R&D capital are stronger in the industries with large import shares or large intra-industry trade shares. JEL no. F10, O32, O47.     

Growth accounting for a technology follower in a world of ideas: The case of Singapore

We account for the sources of Singapore's growth by being explicit about the channels through which Singapore benefits from international R&D spillovers. We find that 61.5% of Singapore's real GDP per worker growth over the 1970–2004 period is due to multifactor productivity growth. More specifically, 52.1% of the growth is explained by an increase in the effectiveness of accessing ideas through improvement in Singapore's educational quality as well as increases in machinery imports and foreign direct investment from the G5 countries. Taking account of technology transfer raises the average rate of return to capital to 12.5%.     

R&D and patenting activities of foreign firms in China: The case of Japan

This study investigates the research and development (R&D) and patenting activities of foreign firms in China. Utilizing a panel dataset of Japanese affiliates during the period 2001–2007, we first examine the determinants of R&D activity and find that local market-oriented firms place more emphasis on R&D, whereas process export-oriented firms are less likely to conduct R&D. Affiliates within a large business group that has more affiliates have a higher propensity to undertake R&D. Using only firms with positive R&D expenditures, we next estimate the patent production function. Results indicate that the patent elasticity of R&D for Japanese affiliates is high, suggesting that they are more productive on patent production than other firms. Moreover, local market-oriented firms do need more patents to protect their products, whereas scientific firms demonstrate a lower willingness to register patents in China.     

The determinants of geographic configuration of value chain activities: Foreign multinational enterprises in Japanese manufacturing

This paper attempts to identify the determinants of the multinational enterprises decision to locate value chain activities, such as R&D, procurement, production, and distribution, among the source and the host countries. Using data of foreign firms in Japanese manufacturing, the statistical analysis found that the determinants of direct investment in one business activity are not necessarily the same as the determinants for another activity, while they are linked each other through complex mechanisms. For example, foreign subsidiaries in R&D intensive industries in Japan are more likely to import intermediate goods, use contractors for production, and distribute through fragmented distribution system. It appears that the traditional transaction-cost model is less consistent with the pattern of investments in R&D, productions, and distribution at least for the sample used in this paper.I would like to thank Werner Pascha and the editors, Paul Welfens and David Audretsch, for thoughtful comments and suggestions.     

Exporting, R&D, and absorptive capacity in UK establishments

This paper models the determinants of exporting (both in termsof export propensity and export intensity), with a particularemphasis on the importance of absorptive capacity and the endogenouslink between exporting and undertaking R&D. Based on a mergeddataset of the 2001 Community Innovation Survey and the 2000Annual Respondents Database for the UK, our results suggestthat establishment size plays a fundamental role in explainingexporting. Meanwhile, alongside other factors, undertaking R&Dactivities and having greater absorptive capacity (for scientificknowledge, international co-operation, and organizational structure)significantly reduce entry barriers into export markets, havingcontrolled for self-selectivity into exporting. Nevertheless,conditional on entry into international markets, only greaterabsorptive capacity (associated with scientific knowledge) seemsto further boost export performance in such markets, whereasspending on R&D no longer has an impact on exporting behaviouronce we have taken into account its endogenous nature.