Technological Progress, Employment and the Lifetime of Capital

We study the impact of technological progress on the level of employment in a vintage capital model where: i) capital and labor are gross complementary; ii) labor supply is endogenous and indivisible; iii) there is full employment, and iv) the rate of labor-saving technological progress is endogenous. We characterize the stationary distributions of vintage capital goods and the corresponding equilibrium values for employment and capital lifetime. It is shown that both variables are non-monotonic functions of technological progress indicators. Technological accelerations are found to increase employment provided innovations are not too radical

Employment Effects of Different Innovation Activities: Microeconometric Evidence

Using the model recently developed by Jaumandreu (2003) this paper reports new results on the relationship between innovation and employment growth in Germany. The model is tailor-made for analysing firm-level employment effects of innovations using specific information provided by CIS data. It establishes a theoretical link between employment growth and innovation output. The econometric analysis confirms that product innovations have a positive impact on employment. In contrast to previous studies, this effect is independent of the novelty degree. Moreover, different employment effects between manufacturing and service firms regarding process innovations were found. Finally, from a cross country perspective the results for Germany are similar to those found for Spain and the UK

Drivers and Effects of Internationalising Innovation by SMEs

This paper investigates the drivers and the effects of the internationalisation of innovation activities in SMEs based on a large data set of German firms covering the period 2002-2007. We look at different stages of the innovation process (R&D, design, production and sales of new products, and implementation of new processes) and explore the role of internal resources, home market competition and innovationrelated location advantages for an SME’s decision to engage in innovation activities abroad. By linking international innovation activities to firm growth in the home market we try to identify likely internationalisation effects at the firm level. The results show that export experience and experience in knowledge protection are highly important for international innovation activities of SMEs. Fierce home market competition turns out to be rather an obstacle than a driver. High innovation costs stimulate internationalisation of non-R&D innovation activities, and shortage of qualified labour expels production of new products. R&D activities abroad and exports of new products spur firm growth in the home market while there are no negative effects on home market growth from shifting production of new products abroad

Dynamic factor demand in a rationing model

In this paper, a dynamic decision model of the firm with a delayed adjustment of employment and investment is developed. Special attention is devoted to dynamic inefficiencies, i.e. underutilizations of the capital stock and labour hoarding. Market disequilibrium is introduced by allowing for a sluggish adjustment of wages and prices. The model of the firm is complemented by explicit aggregation, and the aggregate model is estimated for the FRG for the period 1960 to 1989. The empirical results reveal that dynamic adjustment constraints for employment and capital contributed to the persistence of unemployment in Germany in the 1980s.

Spezialisierung und Unternehmenserfolg im verarbeitenden Gewerbe Deutschlands

Der Wandel der Produktions- und Nachfragebedingungen verlangt von Unternehmen immer wieder Anpassungen ihrer Produktpalette. Auf der Basis von repräsentativen Mikrodaten der amtlichen Statistik werden hier diese Anpassungen in Beziehung zum Erfolg und zum Wachstum der Unternehmen gesetzt. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Mehrzahl der Unternehmen im verarbeitenden Gewerbe in Deutschland eine Spezialisierungsstrategie verfolgt. Sie konzentrieren sich auf die Erstellung und Vermarktung immer weniger Produkte. Damit steigern diese Unternehmen vor allem ihren operativen Gewinn. Unternehmen mit steigender Produktvielfalt, die eine Diversifizierungsstrategie verfolgen, erweisen sich dagegen als deutlich wachstumsstärker. Jedoch nicht alle Unternehmen, die eine Spezialisierungsstrategie verfolgen, sind erfolgreich und nicht alle Unternehmen, die ihre Produktpalette ausweiten, wachsen. Entsprechend zeigen sich auch Abweichungen von den generellen Ergebnissen, wenn man einzelne Wirtschaftzweige, Größenklassen oder Regionen betrachtet. Abstract The change of production and demand conditions requires continues adjustments of the product portfolio of enterprises. Based on representative micro data of official surveys for Germany these adjustments are set here in relationship with the success of enterprises. It can be shown that the majority of the enterprises in manufacturing is pursuing a specialization strategy. They concentrate on a decreasing number of products, increasing above all their operating surplus. Contrary, enterprises that pursue a diversification strategy prove against it as clearly growth-oriented. However, not all enterprises, which pursue a specialization strategy, are successful and not all enterprises, which expand their product range, are growing. Accordingly also deviations from the general results show up, if one regards individual industries, size classes or regions. JEL-Codes: L60, L25, R3