Publications
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PDF Evolution of globalised business R&D: Features, drivers, impacts
This paper provides an overview of the evolution of globalised business R&D activities. An outline of business R&D investment trends… Show more is provided with quantitative information in the first part of the document. Then, in the light of recent empirical observations, the paper points out what are the drivers and the impacts - with a particular focus on the effects on competitiveness and employment - of the globalization of the business research. The possible policy implications from the main results of this work are presented in the last section of the document. Show less
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PDF Globalisation, industrial diversification and productivity growth in large European R&D companies
This paper aims to assess the impact of both geographic and industrial diversification of economic activities on the productivity performance… Show more of large European R&D Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Based on the worldwide subsidiaries of these firms, we measure the performance of the firms according to their level of industrial diversification and globalisation that we proxy with the presence and importance of subsidiaries in the EU, North America and Asia-Pacific regions. The sample consists of large R&D firms that represent about 80% of total European R&D. In general, the results indicate a positive impact from globalisation on firms' R&D productivity, especially in the US, while a negative impact for industrial diversification is found. Show less
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PDF Job Creation Effects of R&D Expenditures: Are High-tech Sectors the Key?
The objective of this paper is to assess the job creation effect of R&D expenditures, using a unique longitudinal database… Show more of 677 European companies over the period 1990-2008. A dynamic labour demand specification using a Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected (LSDVC) technique is estimated. The labour-friendly nature of R&D emerges from the empirical analysis on the overall sample. However, this positive significant effect corresponds to the high-tech sector and services, while the effect is not significant for traditional manufacturing. The results support the policy agenda of promoting structural change in European economies. Show less
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PDF The 2011 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard
The 2011 "EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard" collects information on the top 1000 EU companies and 1000 non-EU companies investing… Show more the largest sums in R&D in the last reporting year. The Scoreboard includes data on R&D investment along with other economic and financial data from the last four financial years. Show less
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PDF Measuring the internationalisation of EU corporate R&D: a novel complementary use of statistical sources
The report summarises the main results of a research activity aimed at testing a novel approach for the measurement of… Show more EU business R&D internationalisation. Such approach is based on the complementary use of two different sources of data: on the one hand, statistical data from private R&D expenditure taken from national surveys (BERD); on the other hand, data collected from companies' annual reports and accounts (as in the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard). The main objectives of the study were: To explore the methodological rationale for comparing the two sets of data; To test the robustness of the novel methodology through an analysis applied to four EU countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany and Italy); To provide indications of possible further research and follow up activities. Show less
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PDF The job creation effect of R&D expenditures
This paper using a unique database covering 25 manufacturing and service sectors for 15 European countries over the period 1996-2005,… Show more for a total of 2,295 observations, and apply GMM-SYS panel estimations of a demand-for-labour equation augmented with technology investigates the impact fo R&D expenditures on job-creating effects. Show less
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PDF Profits, R&D and Innovation: a Model and a Test
This paper aims at investigating in a quantitative way the main factors explaining: (i) the decision to engage in R&D… Show more activities; (ii) the innovation performance; and (iii) the determinants of profits. We found a postive effect of past profits of R&D investment, an overall significant role of demand in economic performance and a negative effect of the distance from the technological frontier in explaining R&D investment. Moreover, we argue that innovative activity is more complex than pure research. Show less
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PDF The More You Spend, the More You Get? The Effects of R&D and Capital Expenditures on the Patenting Activities of Biotechnology Firms
This paper aims at investigating in a quantitative way the main factors influencing the patent output of a sample of… Show more European and non-European biotechnology firms. Statistical models for count data are used to analyze the role exerted by the input of indirect knowledge acquired from capital expenditures and direct knowledge from in-house R&D. Results demonstrate that R&D and capital expenditures are complementary forces and determinants in the overall innovation process. Show less
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PDF Young Leading Innovators and EU's R&D intensity gap
The difference in industrial structures explains most of the EU's aggregate corporate R&D intensity gap with the US. Increasing the… Show more number of large European companies in high R&D intensity sectors would help to reach the overall EU R&D intensity targets. Bringing the age of the Scoreboard companies as an additional variable in this comparative analysis provides additional interesting insights concerning the origin of EU's R&D intensity gap. Younger companies (i.e. those created from 1975 onwards) show higher R&D intensity than the older ones and are more numerous in the US than in the EU. Moreover, the younger companies based in the EU are less R&D intensive than their US counterparts. Altogether these factors explain to a large extent the overall lower R&D intensity of the EU companies. Additional analysis on the factors behind these differences in structure and in company dynamics between the EU and the US might help to identify targeted policy measures aimed at boosting R&D corporate investment levels in Europe. Show less
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PDF Innovation and Employment: A firm level analysis with European R&D Scoreboard data
The article addresses the effect of R&D on employment at firm level. We derive a reduced form labour demand where… Show more R&D expenditures enter in a non linear form. We estimate it using company data from R&D Scoreboard covering 2000-2008. The use of panel data technique allows addressing the causality issue. The main findings can be summarized as follows. Our results confirm that R&D and innovation have positive employment impact at firm level. This impact varies according to how much the firm invests and also to its size, in terms of sales. The main implication is that the positive job creation effect increases when the R&D intensity of the firm increases. The policy implications of the results are the following ones: a) Policy simulations should include a proper calibration of the R&D employment elasticity. Since this appears to be non constant, then taking the average value can generate non robust predictions; b) Policy oriented towards the entrance of new R&D intensive firms are welcome for both their labour market effect and the competition effect they generate on existing big players. Show less