0000000000542336
AUTHOR
Amparo Sanchis
THE ROLE OF SUNK COSTS IN THE DECISION TO INVEST IN R&D
We present a dynamic empirical model of a firm's R&D decisions that is consistent with the existence of sunk R&D costs, taking into account that these costs may differ between small and large firms, and among different technological regimes. We estimate a multivariate dynamic discrete choice model using firm-level data of Spanish manufacturing for 1990–2000. Conditional on firm heterogeneity and serially correlated unobservable factors, we find that R&D history matters. This true state dependence allows inferring the existence of sunk R&D costs associated with performing R&D. Sunk R&D costs are found to be higher for large, high-tech firms.
Competitive Pressure and Innovation at the Firm Level
This paper provides empirical evidence on the relationship between market competitive pressure and firms' innovation using panel data of Spanish manufacturing firms for 1990–2006. We depart from standard measures of competition, and construct variables capturing the fundamentals of competitive pressure (product substitutability, market size and entry costs) to test the theoretical predictions of Vives [2008, The Journal of Industrial Economics] for free entry. Our results line up favourably with these predictions. We obtain that greater product substitutability and higher costs of entry lead to more process innovation but less product innovation, whereas market enlargement spurs both produc…
The impact of the Great Recession on TFP convergence among EU countries
ABSTRACTThis article provides evidence on the effect of the Great Recession on productivity convergence among European Union (EU) economies. We use firm data, aggregated at the country-year level, to analyse the evolution of beta-convergence on total factor productivity (TFP) for 2003–2014. We obtain a positive impact of the recession on TFP (unconditional and conditional) beta-convergence across EU economies. These results support the existence of a catching-up process within the EU during the recent financial crisis. Other macroeconomic and institutional characteristics are important in fostering TFP growth, namely R&D intensity and quality of governance.
Does persistence in using R&D tax credits help to achieve product innovations?
Despite the generosity of its tax system, Spain is far from EU countries in terms of R&D spending and innovation outcomes. A policy instrument commonly used to foster firms’ R&D investment are tax incentives. The use of this instrument is not generalized in firms spending on R&D, and only a fraction of firms are regular claimants. This paper investigates whether persistence in using tax credits is positively related to product innovations, beyond R&D investments. We consider that firms investing in qualified R&D and using tax credits regularly are likely to be firms aiming at innovating. By contrast, occasional tax credit users may be firms investing in R&D for different reasons, such as ex…
Learning through experience in Research & Development: An empirical analysis with Spanish firms
In this paper we analyse the role of learning through experience in Research and Development (R&D) activities in strengthening firms' capabilities to achieve innovation outcomes and, subsequently, in obtaining rewards in terms of firms' performance. First, using an innovation production function approach, we estimate a count-data model and find that the number of years of engagement in R&D activities, or R&D experience, has a positive effect on the expected number of product innovations, although at a decreasing rate. In addition, our results suggest that, whereas large firms are more efficient than SMEs in converting R&D investment into product innovations, SMEs seem to be able to draw eff…
The path of R&D efficiency over time
Abstract In this paper we investigate the pattern of R&D efficiency in terms of the number of product innovations achieved by firms over time. Using a panel dataset of Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 1990–2006, we follow the innovative performance of R&D active firms and observe that innovation rates change over firms' R&D histories. To explain these facts we propose a model that explicitly acknowledges the twofold composition of firms' R&D expenditures, comprising spending on both physical capital for R&D projects and payments to researchers. We regard this latter component of R&D as a source for dynamic returns to firms' R&D investments. Consequently firms' innovation outcomes …
Foreign capital, credit constraints and continuity of firms’ R&D
ABSTRACTIn this article, we investigate the role of foreign capital participation as a means for firms to overcome the obstacle posed by credit constraints to sustain R&D investments. Using data for Spanish manufacturing firms in the period 1990–2006, we show that firms with foreign capital are significantly less likely to stop already initiated R&D projects and also more likely to sustain R&D investment when facing credit constraints. Our results are robust to positive selection into foreign capital participation, which we control through a set of variables chosen from a propensity score estimation, and to firms’ fixed-effects.
The systemic vision of the environment through drawing of young Spanish children
Many current environmental problems occur on a planetary scale and their interrelationships are becoming increasingly complex. In order to solve these environmental problems, citizens must be aware...
Patents, Competition, and Firms’ Innovation Incentives
This paper presents fresh evidence on the interaction between industrial property rights (patents) and competition, and their joint effect on firms’ innovation. We use panel data of Spanish manufacturing firms for 1990–2006, as well as external information on European Patent Office and US Patent Office patent counts. We construct a new synthetic measure of competition and estimate the impact of patents on this measure at the industry level. Then, the effect of industry-wide competition and patenting on firms’ innovation is estimated at the firm level. Our results suggest that patents reduce the level of competition in the industry, whereas the effect of competition on innovation varies with…
A bargaining model of Farrell inefficiency
Abstract An enormous number of empirical papers have estimated technical efficiency, the distance of firms inside a frontier, following the model of Farrell (Farrell, 1957. The measurement of productive efficiency. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A 120 (3), 253–290). We propose a theory that explains the distance these empirical papers seek to measure. The theory is based on the idea that workers can bargain low `effort' (high crew sizes etc.) if they and the firm have some monopoly power. We provide simple theoretical expressions for the empirical measures of technical and allocative efficiency and compare them to those in the statistical literature. We also consider the re…
Competition and innovation with selective exit: an inverted-U shape relationship?
This paper extends the approach of the inverted-U relationship between competition and innovation at the industry level introduced by Aghion and coauthors. We use data of Spanish manufacturing firms from the Survey of Business Strategies (ESEE) spanning 1990–2006, as well as external information on patents from the European Patent Office and US Patent Office. Instead of an inverted-U shape, we obtain an unambiguous positive relationship between competition and patents. To explain this positive relationship, we modify their theoretical model to introduce the possibility of inefficient firms facing the threat of exit when competition intensifies. The modified model may explain both a positive…
Co-Operation On R&D As An Innovation Strategy: Evidence From
 Valencian Firms
Using survey data on Valencian manufacturing firms we analyse the factors influencing the probability of a firm to co-operate on R&D with different types of partners. We find that Research Institutions play a key role as a source of information for the decision to co-operate with any type of partner, and in particular to co-operate either with suppliers or customers (vertical cooperation). The availability of public funds and incoming spillovers increase the probability of the firm to co-operate on R&D whereas the orientation of the innovating activities towards basic R&D decreases this probability. Concentrating on co-operative firms on R&D, we further explore the determinants of co-operat…