The impact of innovation activities on productivity and firm growth: evidence from Brazil

Using micro data from Brazilian manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the impact of a wide set of innovation activities on firms' total factor productivity (TFP) and its subsequent effect on firm growth, measured by sales. Controlling for size and age of the firms, productivity levels and productivity growth of firms over time are found to be key drivers of firm size adjustments. The activities leading to higher productivity levels are organizational change, cooperation with clients, human capital development, ICT usage, product innovation and learning by exporting, with an R&D effect only in the long run. Though the intensity with which firms engage in these innovation activities is sector dependent, innovation activities are in all sectors important for explaining sales growth differences, also in the more traditional sectors in which Brazilian firms have a competitive advantage.Technological Change, Research and Development, Innovation, Productivity, Manufacturing Industry, Total Factor Productivity, Brazil

High-Growth Entrepreneurial Firms in Africa: A Quantile Regression Approach

This paper studies the growth performance of a large set of entrepreneurial firms in ten manufacturing sectors of eleven Sub-Saharan African countries. The focus of the paper is on identifying those entrepreneurs. attributes and firm characteristics that tend to generate a significant number of high-growth firms in these countries. To this end, we use a quantile regression, which provides a more complete estimation of the growth distribution of firms conditional on different attributes. The results indicate that especially firms that engage in product innovation, have their own transport means and are connected to the internet through their own website are characterized by higher growth rates and display a more skewed distribution to the right, hosting a higher number of high-growth firms. The effect of the last two variables, which relate to distance-bridging modes of infrastructure, points to the self-reinforcing growth effects.quantile regression, high-growth firms, firm growth, Africa

Understanding multilevel interactions in economic development

National framework conditions mediate the effect of technological capabilities of firms on their productivity. Although this has been recognized in the literature for a long time, a quantitative test that explicitly considers this hypothesis has been lacking. Using a World Bank datasets of about 19,000 firms in 42 countries, most of which are developing, we estimate a multilevel production function with effects of firm’s technological capabilities nested in the national framework conditions. Our results confirm that various facets of firm’s technological capabilities and national economic, technological and institutional conditions influence total factor productivity of firms. Furthermore, we find that the effects of the national conditions and firm’s technological capabilities are closely intertwined with each other. Adherence to international standards, formal training of workers and access to technology through foreign ownership make more difference for productivity of firms in less developed countries, while R&D capabilities on the contrary boost significantly more performance of firms in countries at the technological frontier. Different features of the national framework are shown to be responsible for this.Productivity, innovation, technological capability, institutions, multilevel modeling

Organisational ecology and growth of firms in developing countries, evidence from Côte d'Ivoire.

Industry; Technological change;

Innovation strategies, process and product innovations and growth: Firm-level evidence from Brazil.

Using World Bank ICS data from Brazilian manufacturing firms, this paper identifies innovation strategies of firms - in particular internal technology creation (make) and external technology acquisition (buy)- and their effect on successful process and product innovations. It also explores the importance of innovations for firm growth. Successful process and product innovations occur mostly through technology acquisition, mostly embodied in machinery and equipment, either alone or in combination with internal technology development. The option of only relying on internal development is less performing. The results indicate that innovative performance is an important driver for firm growth. It is particularly the combination of product and process innovations that significantly improves firm growth. Both innovation and growth performance are supported by access to finance. Skills of workforce and management matter, but not necessarily tertiary education levels. The impact of international linkages on innovative and growth performance is mixed.

What drives productivity in Tanzanian manufacturing firms: technology or institutions?

Using the rich micro data set of the World Bank Investment Climate Survey, this paper examines the determinants of productivity among manufacturing firms in the context of a least developed country, Tanzania. In particular it seeks to evaluate the importance of technological variables - such as R&D, education and training, innovation, foreign ownership, licensing and ISO certification - and institutional variables – such as access to credit, health of the workforce, regulation and business support services. Among the technological variables, R&D, and innovations in the form of new products or processes fail to produce any significant impact, and only foreign ownership, ISO certification and high education of the management appear to affect productivity. Some of the institutional variables on the contrary are highly significant and robust to different specifications of the model. As such, formal credit constraints, administrative burdens related to regulations and a lack of business support services seem to depress productivity, while membership of a business association produces the opposite effect. The results of a quantile regression further indicate that the educational level of the managers and access to formal credit are significant for the less productive firms only, whereas for the more productive firms it is having an ISO certification or being a member of a business association that are the significant determinants.Development, Productivity, Innovation, Institutions

Knowledge-based productivity in low-tech industries: evidence from firms in developing countries.

Using firm level data from five countries - Brazil, Ecuador, South Africa, Tanzania and Bangladesh - this paper examines the knowledge-based determinants of productivity of firms active in food processing, textiles, and garments and leather products. In particular, it seeks to investigate the importance of various sources of knowledge in explaining productivity in the different industries. The knowledge sources driving productivity performance are very different across sectors. In food processing, firm productivity is most strongly affected by quality of management and foreign ownership linkages. In textiles, firms raise productivity levels by importing new machinery and through research and development. In garments and leather products, R&D and design activities, high quality management and licensing technology from foreign firms are significant productivity determinants. Firms' productivity levels are further depressed by regulatory and financial constraints.Productivity, Knowledge, R&D, Developing Countries, Food Processing, Textiles, Garments, Leather

A structural nonparametric reappraisal of the CO2 emissions-income relationship

Relying on a structural nonparametric estimation, we show that CO2 emissions clearly increase with income at low income levels. For higher income levels, we observe a decreasing relationship, though not significant. We also find that CO2 emissions monotonically increases with energy use at a decreasing rate.Nonparametric triangular systems, EKC, Energy use, CO2 emissions

A Structural nonparametric reappraisal of the CO2 emissions-income relationships.

Relying on a structural nonparametric estimation, we show that CO2 emissions clearly increase with income at low income levels. For higher income levels, we observe a decreasing relationship, though not significant. We also find that CO2 emissions monotonically increases with energy use at a decreasing rate.Nonparametric triangular systems, EKC; Energy use; CO2 emissions.