Publications
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PDF R&D and Non-linear Productivity Growth in Heterogeneous Firms
The paper studies the relationship between R&D investment and firm productivity growth by explicitly accounting for non-linearities in the R&D-productivity… Show more relationship and inter-sectoral firm heterogeneity. In order to address these issues, we employ a two step estimation approach, and match two firm-level panel data sets for the OECD countries, which allows us to relax both the linearity and homogeneity assumptions of the canonical Griliches (1979) knowledge capital model. Our results suggest that: (i) R&D investment increases firm productivity with an average elasticity of 0.15; (ii) the impact of R&D investment on firm productivity is differential at different levels of R&D intensity – the productivity elasticity ranges from -0.02 for low levels of R&D intensity to 0.33 for high levels of R&D intensity; (iii) the relationship between R&D expenditures and productivity growth is non-linear, and only after a certain critical mass of R&D is reached, the productivity growth is significantly positive; (iv) there are important intersectoral differences with respect to R&D investment and firm productivity – high-tech sectors' firms not only invest more in R&D, but also achieve more in terms of productivity gains connected with research activities. Show less
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PDF The 2012 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard
The 2012 "EU Industrial R&D Scoreboard" contains economic and financial data of the world's top 1500 companies ranked by their… Show more investments in research and development (R&D). The sample consists of 405 companies based in the EU and 1095 companies based elsewhere. The Scoreboard data are drawn from the latest available company accounts, i.e. fiscal year 2011 for most companies. Show less
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PDF The growth of companies in the EU: the case for a more sophisticated research and innovation policy
This policy brief presents a literature review on the economics of research, innovation and competitiveness, focusing on the evidence available… Show more regarding the determinants for company creation and growth and the role played by Research, Development (R&D) and innovation. Furthermore, based on this, it draws a number of policy implications to design future research and innovation support instruments targeting innovative company growth in Europe. Show less
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PDF Is Smart Growth employment friendly?
This policy brief presents recent results from JRC-IPTS scientific analysis on the nexus between R&D driven innovation and employment. The… Show more new evidence drawn from this analysis confirms the labour friendly nature of R&D and points to some relevant policy implications to be considered when designing and implementing concrete measures under the new research and innovation agenda (Innovation Union flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 strategy). IRI is carrying on additional work on data gathering and analysis to further characterize the impact to keep into account additional factors. Show less
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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 Companies' growth in the EU: What is research and innovation policy's role?
Based on a thorough literature survey, this work builds a strong case for targeted policy interventions to support the growth… Show more of innovative companies. The analysis argue that such targeted support should take into consideration a combination of factors to define eligibility and identify types or groups of companies to be supported, such as: size, age, innovativeness, sector, business phase, country techno-economic characteristics and degree of internationalisation. Once identified relevant target groups, the specific support measures should be tailored accordingly. Finally, the paper claims that, to be effective, the design and implementation of measures, should be subject to systematic monitoring and analysis, including policy experimentation. Show less
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PDF Job creation in business services: innovation, demand, polarisation
The patterns and mechanisms of job creation in business services are investigated in this article by considering the role of… Show more innovation, demand, wages and the composition of employment by professional groups. A model is developed and an empirical test is carried out with parallel analyses on a group of selected business services, on other services and on manufacturing sectors, considering six major European countries over the period 1996-2007. Within technological activities, a distinction is made between those supporting either technological competitiveness, or cost competitiveness. Demand variables allow identifying the special role of intermediate demand. Job creation in business services appears to be driven by efforts to expand technological competitiveness and by the fast growing intermediate demand coming from other industries; conversely, process innovation leads to job losses and wage growth has a negative effect that is lower than in other industries. Business services show an increasingly polarised employment structure. Show less
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PDF Access to Finance for Innovation: The Role of Venture Capital and the Stock Market
Financial constraints for young and small firms can prevent them from supporting innovation and employment creation. We analyze two of… Show more the various institutional mechanisms which have been proposed to circumvent it: the development of venture capital market and the stock market access. We will use the information provided by two Scoreboards - used to monitor innovative activity in Europe: the Innovation Union Scoreboard and the R&D Scoreboard. With the first, we study the determinants of the venture capital/GDP intensity in Europe. With the second, we try to assess the contribution of stock market to R&D investment. In the first part, we show that venture capital market complements structural feature such as R&D intensity and market capitalization, is more volatile and seems not affected by anticompetitive regulations. In the second part, we show that unlisted SMEs are more research intensive. Show less
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PDF Intangible resources: the relevance of training for European firms' innovative performance
This paper assesses whether European firms' innovative performance is impacted by investments in training directly aimed at developing and/or introducing… Show more innovation, in addition to the scale of a firm's investments in innovation proxied by the number of R&D personnels. In particular, it explores the complementarity between these two factors (in the presence of a well-trained workforce, the knowledge created by a firm's R&D personnel can be better exploited), and their dependence on a firm's knowledge intensity (high versus low % of tertiary-educated workforce) and size (SMEs versus large firms). Using European CIS non-anonymised data for the period 1998-2000, this paper estimates a system of simultaneous equations in which investments in training and stock of R&D personnel are treated as endogenous in relation to the innovative sales on which they are presumed to have an effect. The choice to use this time period rather than more recent ones – to which I had access at the Eurostat Safe Centre – is data-driven. It has better information on training expenditures and it is the last period to provide firm-level information on the number of employees with tertiary education. Unlike the majority of CIS-based studies, the main variables of interest are continuous ones, while dummy variables are used as controls only. Empirical evidence confirms most previous results – investment in training and stock of R&D personnel positively affects firms' innovativeness – but also provides some important additional insights. Ceteris paribus, returns to training and R&D personnel are not affected by the knowledge intensity of the firm, while are always statistically significantly higher in large than in small and medium sized firms. However, while in the case of training the differences in returns between SME and large firms are small, in the case of R&D personnel are quite pronounced. Show less
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PDF The European Research Framework Programme and innovation performance of companies. An empirical impact assessment using a CDM model.
The effect of the EU Research Framework Programme (FP) on European company innovation performance is analysed for the period 1998-2000.… Show more The possibility of applying for the grant might make companies engage in new projects which they would not have considered if the fund was not there. In addition, the FP programme increases collaboration with other innovation agents (e.g., universities, research labs, governments and other firms). Both the existence of FP and collaboration are simultaneously modelled when innovation performance is studied. To measure innovation performance, an input indicator (level of R&D expenditure) is used in combination with an output indicator (increase in the innovation sales). Following Crepon et al. (1998) a simultaneous equations system is used with four equations (FP, collaboration, R&D and Innovation sales). The paper finds a positive impact for the FP on collaboration, and both factors positively affect the innovation performance (R&D and Innovation sales) of European firms. No crowding-out effect is found in the analysis. Show less