Measuring the technological bias of robot adoption and its implications for the aggregate labor share

This paper investigates the technological bias of robot adoption using a rich panel data set of Spanish manufacturing firms over a 25-year period. We apply the production function estimation when productivity is multidimensional to the case of an automating technology, to reveal the Hicks-neutral and labor-augmenting technological change brought about by robot adoption within firms. Our results indicate a causal effect of robots on Hicks-neutral and labor-augmenting components of productivity. The biased technological change turns out to be an important determinant of the decline in the aggregate share of labor in the Spanish manufacturing sector.     

Innovation and firm performance in developing countries: The case of Pakistani textile and apparel manufacturers

Using unique innovation survey data collected from a homogenous sample of firms in Pakistan, this paper presents an analysis of the firm level determinants of product innovation and its impact on firm performance. We employ a multi-stage structural model linking the decision of a firm to innovate, its innovation investment, product innovation, and firm performance using primary data from the textile and wearing apparel sector, which is the largest export sector of Pakistan. We find that product innovation leads to increased labor productivity as well as higher labor productivity growth. A 10 percent increase in innovative sales per worker is associated with a greater than 10 percent increase in labor productivity and labor productivity growth. On the determinants of innovation, we find that vertical knowledge flows from foreign clients and suppliers are important determinants of a firm's decision to innovate. Larger firms are more likely to engage in innovation, however, there is no significant evidence that they invest more in innovation. Exporting is positively associated with innovation performance and firms exporting to Europe and America are more likely to engage in innovation. There is mixed evidence on the impact of competition: foreign competition adversely affects a firm’s decision to innovate, whereas, local competition increases investment in innovation. Subsidies seem to have a crowding out effect since firms receiving national subsides invest less in innovation. Furthermore, firms that have higher investment in innovation, that are more productive, and that introduce organizational innovations have higher innovative sales per worker.     

Are ideas being fished out?

This paper examines whether declining research productivity can be explained by fishing out—is the production of new knowledge decreasing in the level of existing knowledge? We estimate the knowledge production function for US firms and find instead that knowledge production is increasing in the knowledge stock. This is reinforced by the observations that maximum research productivity across firms is increasing over time, and that research productivity year effects continue to exhibit decline after modeling contributions from knowledge and research labor. Given that fishing out appears unable to explain the decline in research productivity, we offer preliminary evidence of contingent factors that might contribute to the decline.     

Sources of productivity growth in the Spanish pharmaceutical industry (1994-2000)

The Spanish pharmaceutical industry underwent an important transformation during the 1990s. To survive under the new market conditions, labs had to refocus their competitive strategies towards increasing productive efficiency or reinforcing research and development (R&D) activities. This paper analyzes the evolution of the productive patterns in a sample of 80 pharmaceutical laboratories that operated in Spain from 1994 to 2000. We estimate Malmquist productivity indexes and decompose them into four sources of productivity change. The results suggest that pure technical efficiency change and the scale change of the technology explain most of the productivity growth observed during the period. The contribution of technical change to productivity growth is negligible, indicating a poor result from R&D activities at least in the groups of Small and Medium-sized labs.     

Scientific teams and institutional collaborations: Evidence from U.S. universities, 1981-1999

This paper explores recent trends in the size of scientific teams and in institutional collaborations. The data derive from 2.4 million scientific papers written in 110 top U.S. research universities over the period 1981-1999. The top 110 account for a large share of published basic research conducted in the U.S. during this time.We measure team size by the number of authors on a scientific paper. Using this measure we find that team size increases by 50% over the 19-year period. We supplement team size with measures of domestic and foreign institutional collaborations, which capture the geographic dispersion of team workers. The time series evidence suggests that the trend towards more geographically dispersed scientific teams accelerates beginning with papers published at the start of the 1990s. This acceleration suggests a sharp decline in the cost of collaboration. Our hypothesis is that the decline is due to the deployment of the National Science Foundation's NSFNET and its connection to networks in Europe and Japan after 1987.Using a panel of top university departments we also find that private universities and departments whose scientists have earned prestigious awards participate in larger teams, as do departments that have larger amounts of federal funding. Placement of former graduate students is a key determinant of institutional collaborations, especially collaborations with firms and with foreign scientific institutions. Finally, the evidence suggests that scientific output and influence increase with team size and that influence rises along with institutional collaborations. Since increasing team size implies an increase in the division of labor, these results suggest that scientific productivity increases with the scientific division of labor.     

Competition among vortex firms: Marketing,R&D or pricing strategy

The mathematical model determines how firms can leverage their advantages to increase their market share. Represented as vortex, firms increase their market scope using: marketing expenses strategy, R&D expenditure strategy or price reduction strategy. For an overpriced good, the R&D strategy is required if sector marketing velocity growth is low otherwise the pricing strategy is suited. Conversely, for an underpriced good, the R&D strategy is used when sector marketing velocity growth is high, but when it is low, the pricing strategy is followed. Distance between firms, competitor marketing velocity and related services share contribute or limit these strategies.     

关于生产率研究若干理论和实践问题探析

生产率与生产力等概念存在着长期混用或误用的现象.本文通过大量文献研究,清楚地界定了生产力与生产率、生产力和劳动生产力、劳动生产力和劳动生产率等易于混淆的概念,并分析了这一现象产生的原因.最后,本文还就生产率理论和实践未来发展的方向进行了探讨.     

基于势分析理论的广西科技进步贡献率测算

科技进步作为经济增长的内在动力,推动社会生产力不断向前,实现经济社会的繁荣与发展。通过总结国内外有关科技进步贡献率测算的分析方法,在柯布-道格拉斯生产函数的基础上引入势分析理论,建立势生产函数模型来测算广西科技进步贡献率。选取1991—2013年的广西数据对14个滚动经济周期的科技进步贡献率进行测算,实证分析结果表明:广西自1991年以来,全要素生产率均大于1,说明投入要素的利用程度高于平均水平;同时科技进步贡献率水平低,说明广西创新驱动的效能还有待提升,需要在保证资本产出效率不断提高的基础上切实提高劳动生产率,保证广西科技进步对经济增长的贡献率不断提高。     

Persistence of innovation and patterns of firm growth

In this work we exploit a long-in-time panel of Spanish manufacturing firms observed during the period 1990–2012 to examine the long-run contribution of innovation persistence to sales growth and market share dynamics. We examine two main research questions. First, do persistent innovators grow more than other firms? Second, do persistent innovators show more persistent growth patterns over time compared to other firms? We find negative answers to both questions: firms that persistently innovate over the first decade, do not grow more and do not display more persistent growth dynamics in the succeeding years, regardless of whether innovation persistence is defined in terms of R&D, patenting activity, or product or process innovation. These findings lend support to luck and random theories of firm growth, in turn challenging innovation persistence theories commonly suggesting that persistent innovators enjoy large and sustained comparative advantages.     

Technology parks and regional economic growth in China

China's technology parks have been growing rapidly in the decade that followed their establishment. I examine whether this is merely in response to the policy incentives or there have been external economies from the concentration of high-technology firms in the technology parks as policy makers had hoped. Using data on China's 53 national technology parks from 1992 to 2000 and data on the metropolises that host them, I find results that are consistent with the neoclassical growth mechanism—labor productivity across technology parks is converging and there is no evidence of geographical external economies. But the foreign direct investment the host city receives has robustly contributed to the productivity growth in the technology parks. Finally, I find evidence that in their early stage of development the technology parks have hampered the secular trend of increasing regional inequality in China.     

Towards privatized social and employment protections in the platform economy? Evidence from the UK courier sector

Platform capitalism has facilitated the widespread replacement of employment contracts with contracts for services. These offer significantly fewer social and employment protections for the independent contractors engaged. What does this mean for the future of national social and employment protection (SEPs) systems? We show how the question of platform workers’ employment status – and therefore access to SEPs – remain unresolved under UK law. Drawing on socio-legal theory, we demonstrate why digital labor platforms represent a challenge to existing modes of employment law and labor market regulation. In the absence of immediate legal ‘fixes’, some unions and firms are innovating new ‘privatized social protection systems’. A ‘Self-Employed Plus’ (SE+) agreement in the UK parcel courier sector developed between Hermes, a UK-based courier service, and the GMB union represents an important example of such attempts being made to bridge the current regulatory void. We critically analyze the agreement and draw lessons for platform governance theory. We demonstrate that privatized SE+ provisions potentially offer significant benefits for platforms by reducing regulatory oversight, boosting productivity, and enhancing managerial control over platform complementors. At the same time, while they risk undermining national SEP systems and degrading worker protections, they also offer a window of opportunity for trade unions to gain a foothold in the platform economy.     

行业竞争、资本结构与产品市场竞争力

摘要：本文以我国上市公司的数据为样本,利用企业的投资能力和市场份额描述产品市场竞争力,从行业竞争差异的角度探讨了资本结构对我国企业产品市场竞争力的影响。研究表明资本结构对企业的产品市场竞争力具有显著影响,且这种影响对处于不同竞争程度行业的企业有所差异。资本结构的提高对企业的投资能力会产生负效应,且这种负效应随着行业竞争程度的下降也会有所减弱。总体上,资本结构的提高有利于市场份额的提高,且这种正效应也会随着行业竞争程度的下降而下降。但当企业本身资本结构已经处于一个较高的水平时,资本结构的提高易使企业的市场份额下降,从而可能陷入财务危机,尤其当行业竞争激烈时。本文的研究不仅丰富了我国资本结构对产品市场竞争力影响的研究文献,也为企业决策者在制定目标资本结构时提供了参考。     

国内市场竞争、全要素生产率与国际贸易

与其它经济体比较起来,中国制造业企业表现出更高的出口参与率。现有研究认为,贸易成本的下降是导致中国制造业企业呈现高出口倾向的主要原因。与这个视角不同,本文从国内市场竞争环境的变化出发,考察了国内市场竞争对中国制造业企业出口倾向的影响。在这个新的视角下,我们得到了以下结果：（1）国内市场的竞争程度与企业层面的出口倾向正相关,因而,激烈的国内市场竞争推动了企业出口;（2）在经济机制上,国内市场竞争推动了企业层面全要素生产率的增长,进而通过出口竞争力的提升推动了企业出口;（3）国内市场竞争不仅在扩展边际上推动了更多的企业出口,而且在集约边际上促进了企业出口强度的提高。这些结果表明,激烈的国内市场竞争增进了中国制造业企业在国外市场上的出口竞争力。因此,我们促进出口的政策应该更多地转向以培育竞争性市场为中心的微观经济政策。     

Venture finance,small firms and public policy in the UK

During the tenure of the current Conservative administration, public policy in Britain has very much favoured the smaller firm. This policy emphasis appears to be based on a belief in the superior job creating potential and innovatory capacity of smaller firms over their larger counterparts. Evidence presented in the paper shows that small firms have, indeed, made an important contribution to innovation in the UK and that their share of significant British innovations has increased significantly since the mid-1970s. An important aspect of small firm policy in the UK has been the introduction of several schemes designed to increase the flow of capital into the small firm sector, with special emphasis being placed on venture capital. The first of these schemes, the Loan Guarantee Scheme, has directed capital from the banks into over 14,000 small firms. The second scheme, the Business Expansion Scheme, has increased significantly the overall flow of venture capital and has biased investments towards start-up and early stage financing. These two schemes, together with the establishment of an Unlisted Securities Market, have provided some impetus to the development of private sector venture capital in Britain, which is growing apace. Essentially, the public sector schemes have underwritten the costs of entry to the venture capital market of both individual and institutional investors. In other words, they have had an important catalytic effect in stimulating the growth of private sector venture capital industry which is now the largest in Europe.     

Does local knowledge spillover matter for firm productivity? The role of financial access and corporate governance

Global productivity growth has either stagnated or declined, despite continued technological innovations with the rise of knowledge-intensive intangibles that arise from the growth of knowledge stock (R&D activities). Understanding the root causes of this paradox in the context of growing economies requires an investigation of whether local knowledge diffusion can explain firm-level productivity differences, including key constraining factors like sources of financing or corporate governance structure. Using financial data of 7970 Indian firms over a 20-year period and clustering firms across industries, we assess the impact of R&D stock that is external to the firm through estimating both within (intra) and between (inter) industry spillovers. We find that both R&D and non-R&D-performing firms benefit from ‘between industry’ spillovers. We further show that firms with better access to finance achieve higher productivity, not only through their own R&D capital stock but also via both types of industry-level knowledge spillover. We allow for the two key sources of international spillovers namely import intensity and FDI. While import-intensive firms experience lower productivity, FDI mitigates this adverse productivity effect across knowledge-intensive exporting firms. The paper concludes that financially unconstrained firms and firms with greater corporate board connectedness derive positive industry-level spillover effects, reflecting intra- and inter-industry as domestic spillover or local value-chain effect in the literature on technological innovation.     

市场因素对企业间协同创新知识共享意愿影响研究

根据理性行为理论和动机理论,构建市场因素(市场结构、市场初始需求、市场增长潜力)对企业间协同创新知识共享意愿影响传导模型;以协同创新收益分配比例作为市场结构的替代变量,基于需求函数,将传导模型转化为数理优化模型。结果表明:(1)在竞争性市场结构下,市场初始需求量与企业间协同创新知识共享意愿之间呈现"U"型关系;而在垄断性结构下,两者之间则呈倒"U"型关系。(2)在竞争性市场结构下,如果初始市场需求量也较小,那么市场增长潜力与共享意愿之间呈负相关关系,否则为正相关;而在垄断性结构下,如果初始市场需求量较小,则两者呈正相关关系,否则为负相关。     

Interorganizational information systems visibility and supply chain performance

Despite growing emphasis on the importance of supply chain visibility, few companies to date have fully benefited from the information resources of their supply chain partners. A review of existing literature about supply chain visibility reveals that there are two essential forces at work, namely (1) collaborative behavior – i.e., firms willing to share information with supply chain partners in order to leverage social capital, and (2) opportunistic behavior – i.e., firms wanting to maintain some degree of information asymmetry in order to manage the behaviors of their supply chain partners. In order to identify the antecedents of IOS visibility, our operational definition of supply chain visibility, the two theories – resource dependence theory (RDT) and relational view (RV) – are used to cobble together a set of variables in a framework to investigate their relationships to IOS visibility. The data used in this study was collected from 124 intermediate component manufacturers in three different manufacturing industries. The results show that IOS visibility positively influences overall supply chain performance, as measured by operational performance. Regarding the antecedents of IOS visibility, factors including asset specificity, interorganizational trust, complementary resources, and joint governance structures are significant, whereas environmental uncertainty and interdependence are not significant.     

Has the Swedish business sector become more entrepreneurial than the US business sector?

Recent studies document a 30-year decline in various measures of entrepreneurship in the U.S. Using detailed Swedish employer-employee data over the period from 1990 to 2013, we find young firms to be more prominent in the Swedish business sector than in the U.S. business sector. Young Swedish firms, aged five years or less, account for more than half of all firms during this period. We also observe an increase in Swedish entrepreneurial activity for start-ups. However, since the mid-2000s, job destruction rates for young firms have been increasing, which implies a declining employment share for younger firms. Moreover, most of the job creation by young firms occurs in the expanding service sector. We discuss different explanations for why Sweden appears not to have the same strong decline in entrepreneurial activity as the U.S. has had during the last two decades. We argue that one important explanation is the economic reforms that were implemented in Sweden in the 1990s that mitigated several hurdles to entrepreneurship.     

劳动生产率对经济增长的影响研究

我国经济的快速增长得益于劳动生产率的提高,但目前我国经济增长的模式难以持续.引入劳动生产率来分析,中国巨大的金融资本需求空间、充足的人力资本市场、技术的持续进步、基础设施的改善以及体制改革的成功将使经济发展仍有着巨大的增长空间.     

Cooperative R&D and firm performance

We analyse the impact of R&D cooperation on firm performance differentiating between four types of R&D partners (competitors, suppliers, customers, and universities and research institutes), and considering two performance measures: labour productivity and productivity in innovative (new to the market) sales. Using data on a large sample of Dutch innovating firms in two waves of the Community Innovation Survey (1996, 1998), we examine the impact of R&D cooperation in 1996 on subsequent productivity growth in 1996–1998. The results confirm a major heterogeneity in the rationales and goals of R&D cooperation. Competitor and supplier cooperation focus on incremental innovations, improving the productivity performance of firms. University cooperation and again competitor cooperation are instrumental in creating innovations generating sales of products that are novel to the market, improving the growth performance of firms. Furthermore, customers and universities are important sources of knowledge for firms pursuing radical innovations, which facilitate growth in innovative sales in the absence of formal R&D cooperation.