Die Nutzung der Innovationsdaten des Mannheimer Innovationspanels für die Politikberatung

Die Daten des Mannheimer Innovationspanels (MIP), einer großen Befragung zum Innovationsverhalten deutscher Unternehmen, stellen eine qualitativ hochwertige Basis für die Politikberatung dar. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, wie die Daten und Ergebnisse der jährlichen Erhebung konkret für die Politikberatung genutzt werden. Ein erster Schritt ist die Berichterstattung zum Status quo und zu aktuellen Entwicklungen. Die Ergebnisse der seit 1993 durchgeführten Erhebung fließen unter anderem in Berichte an Ministerien, Publikationen der Europäischen Union, Beiträge für Fachzeitschriften und die Tagespresse ein. Darüber hinaus werden die Daten des Mannheimer Innovationspanels in großem Umfang wissenschaftlich ausgewertet. Themen für wissenschaftliche Analysen mit innovationspolitischer Relevanz sind zum Beispiel der Einfluss von Innovation auf Beschäftigung und Produktivität und die Evaluation von Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik. Der Beitrag endet mit einem Beispiel für die Evaluation öffentlicher Forschungs- und Entwicklungsförderung in Deutschland und Flandern. Das Beispiel zeigt, wie wissenschaftliche Analysen mit Politikberatung verknüpft werden können.The Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP), a large scale survey on innovation activities of German firms, is a high-quality database that can be used for policy analysis and policy advice. The article describes how the data from the annual surveys are used for policy advice. A first aspect is the standard reporting on the status quo and developments: The survey's results are included in reports to German ministries, in European Commission publications, specialised journals and newspaper articles. In addition, the data is used for scientific analysis. Topics related to policy issues are for example, the effects of innovation on productivity and employment or the evaluation of public programs for R&D and innovation. The article concludes with an example of an evaluation of R&D funding in Germany and Flanders, which shows how scientific analysis and policy advice can be linked

Publication and patent analysis of European researchers in the field of production technology and manufacturing systems

This paper develops a structured comparison among a sample of European researchers in the field of Production Technology and Manufacturing Systems, on the basis of scientific publications and patents. Researchers are evaluated and compared by a variegated set of indicators concerning (1) the output of individual researchers and (2) that of groups of researchers from the same country. While not claiming to be exhaustive, the results of this preliminary study provide a rough indication of the publishing and patenting activity of researchers in the field of interest, identifying (dis)similarities between different countries. Of particular interest is a proposal for aggregating analysis results by means of maps based on publication and patent indicators. A large amount of empirical data are presented and discusse

Evaluating the Impacts of Subsidies on Innovation Activities in Germany

Innovations are a key factor to ensure the competitiveness of establishments as well as to enhance the growth and wealth of nations. But more than any other economic activity, decisions about innovations are plagued by failures of the market mechanism. As a response, public instruments have been implemented to stimulate private innovation activities. The effectiveness of these measures, however, is ambiguous and calls for an empirical evaluation. In this paper we make use of the IAB Establishment Panel and apply various microeconometric methods to estimate the effect of public measures on innovation activities of German establishments. We find that neglecting sample selection due to observable as well as to unobservable characteristics leads to an overestimation of the treatment effect and that there are considerable differences with regard to size class and betweenWest and East German establishments

Direct and cross-scheme effects in a research and development subsidy program

This study investigates the effects of an R&D subsidy scheme on participating firms’ net R&D investment. Making use of a specific policy design in Belgium that explicitly distinguishes between research and development grants, we estimate direct and cross-scheme effects on research versus development intensities in recipients firms. We find positive direct effects from research (development) subsidies on net research (development) spending. This direct effect is larger for research grants than for development grants. We also find cross-scheme effects that may arise due to complementarity between research and development activities. Finally, we find that the magnitude of the treatment effects depends on firm size and age and that there is a minimum effective grant size, especially for research projects. The results support the view that public subsidies induce higher additional investment particularly in research where market failures are larger, even when the subsidies are targeting development

A methodology for the evaluation of competition policy

The paper develops a methodology for the evaluation of competition policy. Based on the existing literature and experiences with policy evaluations in other areas of economic activity, the three-step / nine-building-blocks methodology provides guidance for evaluation projects and also assists in the identification of avenues for further academic research

Fishing for complementarities : competitive research funding and research productivity

This paper empirically investigates complementarities between different sources of research funding with regard to academic publishing. We find for a sample of UK engineering academics that competitive funding is associated with an increase in ex-post publications but that industry funding decreases the marginal utility of public funding by lowering the publication and citation rate increases associated with public grants. However, when holding all other explanatory variables at their mean, the negative effect of the interaction does not translate into an effective decrease in publication and citation numbers. The paper also shows that the positive effect of public funding is driven by UK research council and charity grants and that EU funding has no significant effect on publication outcomes

Patents as quality signals? The implications for financing constraints on R&D

Information about the success of a new technology is usually held asymmetrically between the research and development (R&D)-performing firm and potential lenders and investors. This raises the cost of capital for financing R&D externally, resulting in financing constraints on R&D especially for firms with limited internal resources. Previous literature provided evidence for start-up firms on the role of patents as signals to investors, in particular to Venture Capitalists. This study adds to previous insights by studying the effects of firms ’ patenting activity on the degree of financing constraints on R&D for a panel of established firms. The results show that patents do indeed attenuate financing constraints for small firms where information asymmetries may be particularly high and collateral value is low. Larger firms are not only less subject to financin

What is the value of entrepreneurship?: a review of recent research

This paper examines to what extent recent empirical evidence can collectively and systematically substantiate the claim that entrepreneurship has important economic value. Hence, a systematic review is provided that answers the question: What is the contribution of entrepreneurs to the economy in comparison to non-entrepreneurs? We study the relative contribution of entrepreneurs to the economy based on four measures that have most widely been studied empirically. Hence, we answer the question: What is the contribution of entrepreneurs to (i) employment generation and dynamics, (ii) innovation, and (iii) productivity and growth, relative to the contributions of the entrepreneurs counterparts, i.e. the control group? A fourth type of contribution studied is the role of entrepreneurship in increasing individuals utility levels. Based on 57 recent studies of high quality that contain 87 relevant separate analyses, we conclude that entrepreneurs have a very important but specific function in the economy. They engender relatively much employment creation, productivity growth and produce and commercialize high quality innovations. They are more satisfied than employees. More importantly, recent studies show that entrepreneurial firms produce important spillovers that affect regional employment growth rates of all companies in the region in the long run. However, the counterparts cannot be missed either as they account for a relatively high value of GDP, a less volatile and more secure labor market, higher paid jobs and a greater number of innovations and they have a more active role in the adoption of innovations

Fiskalische Kosten einer steuerlichen Förderung von Forschung und Entwicklung in Deutschland - Eine empirische Analyse verschiedener Gestaltungsoptionen

Der Beitrag berechnet die Aufkommensausfälle verschiedener Gestaltungsmodelle für eine steuerliche Forschungsförderung in Deutschland auf Basis eines Mikrosimulationsmodells. Die fiskalischen Kosten betragen zwischen 464 Mio. € und 5.701 Mio. €. Eine Erstattungsoption der Steuergutschrift über die Gewerbe- und Körperschaftsteuerschuld hinaus ist unerlässlich, da sonst etwa ein Drittel der Unternehmen nicht oder nur teilweise in den Genuss der Förderung kommen würde und sich dadurch starke Verzerrungen zwischen ertragsstarken und ertragsschwachen Unternehmen ergeben. Eine Differenzierung der Fördersätze für KMU und große Unternehmen kann die Aufkommensausfälle wirksam begrenzen. Eine Kappungsgrenze in Höhe eines absoluten Betrages ist wegen der Verzerrungen innerhalb der Gruppe großer Unternehmen ungünstig. Als besonders pragmatisch erscheint eine Verrechnung der Steuergutschrift mit der abzuführenden Lohnsteuer

From green technology development to green innovation: inducing regulatory adoption of pathogen detection technology for sustainable forestry

Technological entrepreneurship has been widely acknowledged as a key driver of modern industrial economies, and more recently, a panacea for environmental and social problems. However, our current understanding of how green-technology ventures emerge and diffuse more sustainable innovations remains limited. We advance theory on green entrepreneurship by drawing on institutional work to refine and extend our understanding of how entrepreneurs may influence government policies and practices in their attempts to diffuse green technology. We develop a theoretical framework that combines institutional work with a search tool, the technological, commercial, organizational, and societal (TCOS) framework of innovative uncertainties, which identifies key opportunities, hurdles, and potential unintended consequences at early stages of technology development. We present a detailed case study of a potential university-based green-tech venture developing pathogen detection technology for forestry protection. Foreign pathogens spread by international trade can have major detrimental impacts on forests and the industries that rely on them. Our analysis found that green technology demonstrating technological feasibility is necessary but not sufficient; green-tech ventures must also engage in institutional work, in this case, articulating the technology’s benefits to regulators to establish legitimacy and avoid misuse that can hinder its adoption. We thus add to previous studies by emphasizing that institutional work could be a main activity for a green-tech venture, a core entrepreneurial strategy rather than an afterthought