Innovating firms and aggregate innovation

We develop a parsimonious model of innovating firms rich enough to confront firm-level evidence. It captures the dynamic behavior of individual heterogeneous firms, describes the evolution of an industry with simultaneous entry and exit, and delivers a general equilibrium model of technological change. While unifying the theoretical analysis of firms, industries, and the aggregate economy, the model yields insights into empirical work on innovating firms. It accounts for the persistence over time of firms’ R&D investment, the concentration of R&D among incumbent firms, and the link between R&D and patenting. Furthermore, it explains why R&D as a fraction of revenues is strongly related to firm productivity yet largely unrelated to firm size or growth.Research and development ; Productivity

Empirical patterns of firm growth and R&D investment: a quality ladder model interpretation

We present a model of endogenous Ųm growth with R&D investment and stochastic innovation as the engines of growth. The model for Ųm growth is a partial equilibrium model drawing on the quality ladder models in the macro growth literature, but also on the literature on patent races and the discrete choice models of product diĥrentiation. We examine to what extent the assumptions and the empirical content of our model are consistent with many of the the Ůdings that have emerged from empirical studies of growth, productivity, R&D and patenting at the Ųm level. The analysis shows that the model Ŵs well with a number of empirical patterns such as (i) a skewed size distribution of Ųms with persistent diĥrences in Ųm sizes, (ii) Ųm growth independent of Ųm size, as stated in the so-called Gibrat's law, and (iii) R&D investment proportional to sales.

Innovating Firms and Aggregate Innovation

We develop a parsimonious model of innovating firms rich enough to confront firm-level evidence. It captures the dynamic behavior of individual heterogenous firms, describes the evolution of an industry with simultaneous entry and exit, and delivers a general equilibrium model of technological change. While unifying the theoretical analysis of firms, industries, and the aggregate economy, the model yields insights into empirical work on innovating firms. It accounts for the persistence over time of firms' R&D investment, the concentration of R&D among incumbent firms, and the link between R&D and patenting. Furthermore, it explains why R&D as a fraction of revenues is strongly related to firm productivity yet largely unrelated to firm size or growth.

R&D investment responses to R&D subsidies: A theoretical analysis and a microeconometric study

Subsidies to the Norwegian high-tech industries have traditionally been given as "matching grants", i.e. the subsidies are targeted, and the firms have to contribute a 50 % own risk capital to the subsidized projects. Our results suggest that grants do not crowd out privately financed R&D, but that subsidized firms do not increase their privately financed R&D either. Hence, the own risk capital seems to be taken from ordinary R&D budgets. We also investigate possible long-run effects of R&D subsidies, and show that conventional R&D investment models predict negative dynamic effects of subsidies. Our data, however, do not support this claim. On the contrary, there are indications of a positive dynamic effects, i.e. temporary R&D subsidies seem to stimulate firms to increase their R&D investments even after the grants have expired. We propose learning-by-doing in R&D activities as a possible explanation for this, and present a theoretical analysis showing that such effects may alter the predictions of the conventional models. A structural, econometric model of R&D investments incorporating such learning effects is estimated with reasonable results.Technology policy; R&D subsidies; matching grants; short run additionality; long run additionality; Norwegian IT-industry

The Inconsistency of Common Scale Estimators When Output Prices Are Unobserved and Engogenous

This paper explores the inconsistency of common scale estimators when output is proxied by deflated sales, based on a common output deflator across firms. The problems arise when firms operate in an imperfectly competitive environment and prices differ between firms. In particular, we show that the scale estimates will tend to be downward biased in the production function case, under a wide range of assumptions about the pattern of technology, demand and factor price shocks. The result also holds for scale estimates obtained from cost functions. The empirical part of the paper presents various estimates of scale economies for a sample of Norwegian manufacturing plants. The findings provide some support for the hypothesis that the firms face an imperfectly competitive environment. The estimates suggests that there are significant markups and scale economies to the variable factors of production in our sample. However, the estimates of markups and scale economies presented in this paper are substantially lower than the results obtained by Hall (1988, 1990) and others using industry level data.

Empirical Patterns of Firm Growth and R&D Investment: A Quality Ladder Model Interpretation

We present a model of endogenous firm growth with R&D investment and innovation as the engine of growth. The objective of our analysis is to present a framework that can be used for microeconometric analysis of firm performance in high-tech industries. The model for firm growth is a partial equilibrium model drawing on the quality ladder models in the macro growth literature, but also on the literature on patent races and the discrete choice models of product differentiation. We examine to what extent the assumptions and the empirical content of our model are consistent with the findings that have emerged from empirical studies of growth, productivity, R&D and patenting at the firm level. The analysis shows that the model fits well empirical patterns such as (i) a skewed size distribution of firms with persistent differences in firm sizes, (ii) firm growth (roughly) independent of firm size (the so-called Gibrat's law) and (iii) R&D investment proportional to sales, as well as a number of other empirical patterns.

Do Subsidies to Commercial R&D Reduce Market Failures? Microeconomic Evaluation Studies

A number of market failures have been associated with R&D investments and significant amounts of public money have been spent on programs to stimulate innovative activities. In this paper, we review some recent microeconomic studies evaluating effects of government sponsored commercial R&D. We pay particular attention to the conceptual problems involved. Neither the firms receiving support, nor those not applying, constitute random samples. Furthermore, those not receiving support may be affected by the programs due to spillover effects which often are a main justification for R&D subsidies. Constructing a valid control group under these circumstances is challenging, and we relate our discussion to recent advances in econometric methods for evaluation studies based on non-experimental data. We also discuss some analytical questions that need to be addressed in order to assess whether R&D support schemes can be justified. For instance, what are the implication of firms' R&D investments being complementary to each other, and to what extent are potential R&D spillovers internalized in the market?

Economic Analysis of Knowledge: The History of Thought and the Central Themes

Following the development of knowledge economies, there has been a rapid expansion of economic analysis of knowledge, both in the context of technological knowledge in particular and the decision theory in general. This paper surveys this literature by identifying the main themes and contributions and outlines the future prospects of the discipline. The wide scope of knowledge related questions in terms of applicability and alternative approaches has led to the fragmentation of research. Nevertheless, one can identify a continuing tradition which analyses various aspects of the generation, dissemination and use of knowledge in the economy

Is price equal to marginal costs? - An integrated study of price-cost margins and scale economies among Norwegian manufacturing establishments 1975-90

This paper presents an integrated study of price-cost margins and scale economies. The model is estimated on the basis of a comprehensive data set for individual establishments covering almost the whole Norwegian manufacturing sector over the period 1975-90. For most manufacturing industries prices significantly exceed marginal costs. However, the price cost margins are fairly small (1.06-1.16) compared to other findings by Hall (1988) and others. There is a tendency for larger finns to obtain a higher markup. None of the samples reveals significant scale economies, while 7 out of 20 samples exhibit moderate decreasing returns.Financial support from NORAS/LOS is gratefully acknowledged