Technological spillovers and industrial location in Spain

While different studies have supported the existence of knowledge spillovers and shown their importance for economic growth, very few have focused on analysing their relation with the propensity for industrial activity to cluster spatially. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the geographic concentration of industrial activity in Spain, specially of innovative activity, and to link it with the existence of knowledge externalities. This analysis will be based in the marshallian concept of external economies. As Marshall argues, there may be gegraphic limitations to information flows or knowledge spillovers among the firms in an industry. Firstly, this paper will present the spatial distribution of industrial and innovative activities in Spain and then it will attempt to examine if knowledege spillovers play a role in this distribution. Keywords: technological spillovers, industrial location, R+D Theme of session: i)Technology, innovation and space Theme of session: i) Technology, innovation and space.

The location of innovation. Universities and technological infrastructure in Spain

During the last decade, in Spain, there has been important growth and territorial expansion of universities and technological centres in support of the innovative activity in firms. This paper is divided into two parts. Firstly, through a review of the theoretical and empirical studies the main connections between geography and innovation are presented. Secondly, in the framework of a Griliches-Jaffe knowledge production function the relation, at a geographical level, of university research, technological infrastructure and human capital to innovations in Spain is explored

University research and the location of patents in Spain

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between innovative capacity and the presence of innovative inputs at a geographical level in Spain. Within the framework of a Griliches-Jaffe knowledge production function the effects of university research on corporate patents in four high and medium technology sectors are explored. In contrast to other studies carried out on this subject in the United States, the results do not provide evidence, except in the electronics industry, to support a positive relationship between university research and regional innovation

Enhancement of fluidization and filtration using nanoparticle agglomerates and aerogels

Previous works have classified the fluidization behavior of nanoparticles as Agglomerate Particulate Fluidization (APF) and Agglomerate Bubbling Fluidization (ABE). These fluidization behaviors are quite different in regard to the fluidized bed expansion, the presence of bubbles and the smoothness of the bed surface, with APF nanopowders showing a much more homogeneous fluidization and a much better dispersion than ABE nanopowders which are generally very difficult to fluidize and show vigorous bubbling. In the present work, the fluidization of APF as well as ABF nanopowders is studied in depth, both conventionally, and in the presence of extemal assistance; several related topics are discussed such as the presence of pressure fluctuations, electrostatic charge effects, magnetic, vibration and centrifugal (in a rotating fluidized bed) assisted fluidization, jet assisted fluidization and mass transport rates during humidification and drying of hydrophilic fluidized nanopowders. The research on jet assisted fluidization of nanopowders coupled with the reduction of electrostatic charges is one of the most important contributions of the present work. For APE nanopowders, fluidized bed heights of about an order of magnitude larger than the initial bed height are obtained, and for ABF nanopowders, the fluidization behavior is transformed into APF. In a different but related topic, liquid-solid inverse fluidization of silica aerogel granules-Nanogel®-has been studied for the removal of oil from wastewater. The granules are several hundred microns or larger in size, but they have a nano-porous structure that provides large surface area and low density. The hydrodynamic characteristics of the granules during inverse fluidization and their oil removal efficiency and capacity are described. The third topic of study was the filtration of submicron particles by customized granular media made of either agglomerates of nanoparticles, aerogel granules or carbon black granules challenged against submicron aerosol particles and oil droplets. Both packed and fluidized customized filters were studied. It is shown that a granular bed filter of porous granules can have a collection efficiency equivalent to HEPA filters but with a larger capacity. Also, the customized filters show larger collection efficiency for the removal of oil droplets when compared against HEPA filters

Fluidization of agglomerates of nanoparticles under different force fields

Nanoparticles are the focus of many research activities, and in the near future they will be handled in large amounts by industry. Fluidization is a very important unit operation which is applied in several industrial processes. In the present work, fluidization experiments with agglomerates of nanoparticles were done under different force fields: (1) gravity force or conventional fluidization; (2) a magnetic force field, which uses magnetic particles under the influence of a magnetic field; and (3) a centrifugal force, generated by a rotating frame that simulates higher gravity conditions. Among the significant results with agglomerates of nanoparticles, conventional fluidization was possible by separating out large agglomerates from the bed; the movement of magnetic particles at the bottom of the fluidized bed enhanced the fluidization by increasing the bed expansion and avoiding the bypass of gas through the bed under the form of bubbles; fluidization of the agglomerates in a rotating fluidized bed was accomplished under different simulated gravity conditions, which allowed to fluidize the agglomerates under higher than normal gas flow conditions. Theoretical approaches for the estimation of the agglomerate size and the bed pressure drop were included

The geography of innovation: the effects of university research

Applied studies on the relationship between geography and technological innovation for United States, Germany, France and Italy have shown the positive effects that academic research exerts on the innovative output of firms at a spatial level. The purpose of this paper is to look for new evidence on the possible effects of the university research for the case of Spain. To do so, within the framework of a Griliches-Jaffe knowledge production function, and using panel data and count models, the relationship between innovative inputs and patents, in the case of the Spanish regions is explored.geography of innovation, patents, r&d

Assessing the assignation of public subsidies: Do the experts choose the most efficient R&D projects?

The implementation of public programs to support business R&D projects requires the establishment of a selection process. This selection process faces various difficulties, which include the measurement of the impact of the R&D projects as well as selection process optimization among projects with multiple, and sometimes incomparable, performance indicators. To this end, public agencies generally use the peer review method,which, while presenting some advantages, also demonstrates significant drawbacks. Private firms, on the other hand, tend toward more quantitative methods, such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), in their pursuit of R&D investment optimization. In this paper, the performance of a public agency peer review method of project selection is compared with an alternative DEA method.peer review, dea, subsidies, r&d

Which firms are involved in foreign vertical integration? [WP-IEB]

In line with the literature that considers that transaction costs, asset specificity and incomplete contracts play a key role in the “make or buy decision”, this paper seeks to discriminate the characteristics of firms that make them more or less likely to integrate their activities in a foreign country. We draw on firm level data for Spanish manufacturing firms from the Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE), which enable us to identify whether their imports are intra-firm (related party) or at arm’s-length (non-related party). Our results show that candidates for vertical integration are the most productive firms and those that receive a large share of their inputs from headquarters. We also demonstrate that international experience and product differentiation favor foregin integration even after controlling for other characteristics of the firm

Which firms are involved in foreign vertical integration?

In line with the literature that considers that transaction costs, asset specificity and incomplete contracts play a key role in the "make or buy decision", this paper seeks to identify the characteristics of offshoring firms that make them more or less likely to integrate their activities in a foreign country. Our results show that the real candidates for foreign vertical integration are those firms that have a large share of their inputs provided by headquarters. Firms engaged in foreign vertical integration are more capital and skill-intensive than those exclusively dedicated to foreign outsourcing. The degree of foreign vertical integration also matters since the most intensively integrated firms are also the most productive. We also demonstrate that international experience and product differentiation favor foreign vertical integration

The impact of R&D subsidies on R&D employment composition [WP]

In this paper we examine the impact of subsidies granted at national and regional levels on a set of R&D employment variables and, specifically, we seek to identify the existence of the behavioural additionality effects of these public subsidies on firms’ R&D human resources. We begin by assessing the effects of public funds on R&D private expenditures and on the number of R&D employees, and then focus on their impact on the composition of human resources engaged in R&D as classified by occupation and level of education. The data used correspond to the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel for the period 2006-2011. To control for selection bias and endogeneity, a combination of non-parametric matching techniques are implemented. After ruling out the existence of crowding out effects, our results show that R&D subsidies increase the number of R&D employees. However, no increase is found in the average level of qualification of R&D staff members in subsidized firms. All in all, the effects of public support are heterogeneous being dependent on the source of the subsidy and the firms’ characteristics