Andrea Filippetti

Is the Economic Crisis Impairing Convergence in Innovation Performance Across Europe

Are EU Member States converging in terms of their innovative effort? To what extent is the current economic downturn impairing the convergence across the European Union countries in innovation performance? Using macro and micro data, this article shows that the EU Member States have converged in their innovative potential over the 2004–08 period. The economic crisis of Autumn 2008 has an impact on innovative investment in almost all EU countries, but the catch-up countries are the most affected, leading to increasing divergence. The danger of growing disparities in innovative capabilities may lead to divergence also in income and well-being. The article discusses some of the innovation policies that can be carried out at the EU level to facilitate cohesion.

Innovation modes and design as a source of innovation: a firm‐level analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to contribute to the empirical literature, which investigates innovation modes, by exploring the role of design as a source of innovation.Design‐methodology/approach – The empirical analysis is carried out at the firm‐level, on the ground of a recent survey covering more than 5,000 European firms. A factor analysis is carried out first, followed by a cluster analysis based on identified factors in order to ensure a significant number of homogeneous groups of firms.Findings – The paper finds that: design and RD design is predominant in firms characterized by a complex innovation strategy and intense interactions with the external environment; and these types of firms also show better economic performance.Social implications – Policies should recognize the importance of design‐based competences, as they differ from those related to R&D activities.Originality/value – To date, in this empirical research, R&D activity is regarde...

The Global Innovation Scoreboard 2008: The Dynamics of the Innovative Performances of Countries

The new Global Innovation Scoreboard 2008 (GIS 2008) is developed.It aims at providing an overview on the main trends, results and determinants of the innovative performance of countries across the world. Compared to the 2008 European Innovation Scoreboard, the GIS 2008 uses older data (1995 – 2005 compared with 2002-07 in the EIS) and a reduced set of indicators (9 indicators compared to 29 in the EIS). One of the main results obtained in the First Part of the Thematic Paper is the fact that the accumulation of technological capabilities is a structural phenomenon within the economic systems. Consequently, to address the dynamics of this process a ten-year period of time is taken in consideration in the GIS 2008.

Labour Productivity and Technology Gap in European Regions: A Conditional Frontier Approach

Filippetti A. and Peyrache A. Labour productivity and technology gap in European regions: a conditional frontier approach, Regional Studies. A conditional frontier approach is proposed to capture the role of the technology gap in explaining labour productivity differences in 211 European regions in eighteen countries over the years 1995–2007. Labour productivity growth is driven by capital accumulation and technical change. In lagging behind regions, productivity growth is mainly driven by capital accumulation. The technology gap does not play a role in driving labour productivity growth and remains stable across regions in the considered period. Cohesion policy seems more effective in terms of fixed investment rather than technological capabilities, while technology gap remains a source of unused potential productivity growth.

Harnessing the ‘Essential Tension’ of Design: The Complex Relationship between the Firm and Designer Consultants

A central factor which characterizes design-related innovative activities is that a major source of knowledge – that is designers – is very often located outside the firm. This raises a central management issue for the firm and unavoidably generates a tension between designer consultants and the firm which I name the essential tension. The aim of this paper is to shed some light on this complex relationship on the ground of the evidence provided by a multiple case study. The findings confirm that designer consultants can make a substantial contribution in enhancing firms’ innovation capabilities. We show that a better understanding of the types of knowledge that designers need for their activity is key. This affects the way designer consultants are integrated within the organizational structure of the firm, and it also impinges on the strategies put forward by firms to manage this relationship in order to gain a competitive advantage driven by innovation. Implications include the crucial role played by the product manager, the strategies to foster trust and to coordinate designers.

Decentralization and economic growth reconsidered: The role of regional authority

Most of the empirical analysis explores the relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth within an institutional void. This paper investigates the connection between fiscal decentralization and economic growth in different institutional settings in 21 OECD countries over the period 1970–2010. We find that the pro-growth effects of fiscal decentralization depend critically on the authority of sub-national governments: tax decentralization leads to higher (lower) rates of economic growth when coupled with high (low) administrative and political decentralization. Tax decentralization is more conducive for growth if sub-national taxes accrue mostly from autonomous revenues such as property taxes. Overall, this provides evidence of institutional complementarities at work among decentralization dimensions leading to relevant insights for policy implications.

Is the convergence party over? Labour productivity and the technology gap in Europe

Closing the technology gap to reduce labour productivity disparities across Europe is crucial for the European cohesion policy. This article explores the sources of labour productivity growth in Europe over the period 1993–2007 in light of the enlargement process. Labour productivity growth has been mostly driven by capital accumulation. New Member States have significantly reduced their inefficiency and their technology gap. Disparities in the levels of labour productivity are still substantial and, to a considerable extent, they can be attributed to technology gap differences. This raises concerns about the process of convergence in labour productivity in Europe and suggests further policies aimed at reducing the technology gap.

Productivity growth and catching up: a technology gap explanation

Abstract This paper seeks to explain why some countries have managed to catch up in terms of labor productivity over the period 1993–2007 in 76 countries. By integrating the technology gap research within the standard growth-accounting approach, we introduce a methodology which allows us to split total factor productivity (TFP) change into two components: conditional technical inefficiency and the magnitude of the technology gap. We find that labor productivity growth depends both on investment in fixed capital and TFP. Fast emerging economies exhibit patterns of growth based in particular on the reduction of the technology gap, confirming the role of investment in technological capabilities to spur productivity catch-up. Looking at change in the distribution of labor productivity, emerging countries managed to shift from low productivity toward a medium level of productivity thanks to technology accumulation. Less advanced countries cannot rely only on technology diffusion and learning by doing, policies for technological capabilities accumulation are necessary.

Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth Reconsidered: The Role of the Institutional Setting

Most of the empirical analysis explores the relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth within a constitutional void. This paper investigates the connection between fiscal decentralization and income growth across different institutional settings in 20 OECD countries over the period 1973-2007. We find that the pro-growth effects of tax decentralization depend critically on the nature of the administrative institutions and political system in place: fiscal decentralization leads to higher (lower) rates of economic growth when coupled with high (low) administrative and high (low) political decentralization. This provides evidence of institutional complementarities at work, as well as new insights on how local tax structures should be designed and combined with administrative and political settings to support economic growth.

The Role of Internationalization as a Determinant of Innovation Performance: An Analysis of 42 Countries

This paper analyses the impact of internationalization on the innovation performance of 42 countries. Innovation performance – the dependent variable – is measured by the number of triad patents and PCT applications that originate from a country. The following internationalization variables – independent variables – are used: inward and outward stock of FDI, exports and imports as well as the number of parent companies in a country. Information on patents and the internationalization variables, together with further explanatory variables, including the number of scientific articles and of Internet users in a country, are collected for the years 1990 to 2008. The analysis is done for all countries together and then for two groups of countries clustered on the basis of their GDP per capita. The paper finds support for a positive impact of internationalization on countries’ innovation performance. Our analyses suggest that competing in international markets via outward FDI and exports increases the scope of learning and the need to innovate. We find evidence of a negative relationship between patenting and inward FDI as well as imports.