Emmanuel Duguet

Research, Innovation And Productivity: An Econometric Analysis At The Firm Level

This paper studies the links between productivity, innovation and research at the firm level. We introduce three new features: (i) A structural model that explains productivity by innovation output, and innovation output by research investment: (ii) New data on French manufacturing firms, including the number of European patents and the percentage share of innovative sales, as well as firm-level demand pull and technology push indicators; (iii) Econometric methods which correct for selectivity and simultaneity biases and take into account the statistical features of the available data: only a small proportion of firms engage in research activities and/or apply for patents; productivity, innovation and research are endogenously determined; research investment and capital are truncated variables, patents are count data and innovative sales are interval data. We find that using the more widespread methods, and the more usual data and model specification, may lead to sensibly different estimates. We find in particular that simultaneity tends to interact with selectivity, and that both sources of biases must be taken into account together. However our main results are consistent with many of the stylized facts of the empirical literature. The probability of engaging in research (R&D) for a firm increases with its size (number of employees), its market share and diversification, and with the demand pull and technology push indicators. The research effort (R&D capital intensity) of a firm engaged in research increases with the same variables, except for size (its research capital being strictly proportional to size). The firm innovation output, as measured by patent numbers or innovative sales, rises with its research effort and with the demand pull and technology indicators, either directly or indirectly through their effects on research. Finally, firm productivity correlates positively with a higher innovation output, even when controlling for the skill composition of labor as well as for physical capital intensity.

How well do patent citations measure flows of technology? Evidence from French innovation surveys

Patent citation data are used in a growing body of economics and business research on technological diffusion. Until now, there exists little evidence on whether patent citations are a good measure of knowledge flows. Our paper assesses the legitimacy of using European patent citations as a measure of technology flows. It uses information from the Community Innovation Survey collected by the French Service des Statistiques Industrielles (SESSI), which contain firms’ responses to questions about their innovative activity. We show that patent citations are indeed related to firms’ statements about their acquisition and dispersion of new technology, but that the strength and statistical significance of this relationship varies across geographical regions and across channels of knowledge diffusion.

APPROPRIATION STRATEGY AND THE MOTIVATIONS TO USE THE PATENT SYSTEM : AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS AT THE FIRM LEVEL IN FRENCH MANUFACTURING

This paper studies the determinants of both the percentage of innovations that are patented and the number of European patent applications by industrial firms, using data from the French survey on appropriation (EFAT). We build a two equations model including count and interval dependent variables and estimate it by asymptotic least squares. Controlling for the traditional determinants of innovation, like research and development expenditures, we find that patent disclosure is the main reason why firms do not patent all their innovations. Moreover, once we control for the differences in the propensity to patent, patent disclosure also reduces the number of patents applications. On the other hand, the will of firms to acquire a stronger position in technology negotiations and to avoid trials increases the number of patent applications.

Innovation height, spillovers and tfp growth at the firm level: Evidence from French manufacturing

The author examines the contribution of incremental and radical innovations to total factor productivity (TFP) growth at the firm level. The first part of our analysis is dedicated to the determinants of innovation and reveals two different innovation regimes. On the one hand, radical innovations rely strongly on firm-level spillovers, including property rights, and formal internal research, whereas on the other hand, incremental innovations rely mostly on the adoption of equipment goods accompanied by informal research. It is found that radical innovations are the only significant contributors to TFP growth, so that innovation height matters. Evidences show that TFP growth is better represented by an upward shift of the production function than by a continuous innovation measure. Overall, the growth gains found are comparable to the ones of the previous studies.

Is Innovation Persistent at the Firm Level? An Econometric Examination Comparing the Propensity Score and Regression Methods

At the macroeconomic level, the persistence of technological change allows sustainable growth. But do the innovations come from the same set of firms or from a continuous renewal of innovators? On this point, the assumptions underlying the endogenous growth models differ and innovation persistence at the macroeconomic level can be supported by different firm-level behavioural assumptions. The aim of this article is threefold. Firstly, we evaluate a measure of the degree of innovation persistence at the firm level. Secondly, we analyze the factors underpinning the innovation persistence by testing the theoretical explanations that have been proposed in the literature. Lastly, we examine the robustness of the standard econometric methods used in innovation economics. We show that the persistence of innovation is strong at the firm level and that the right theoretical modelling depends on the size of the firm. While the small firms reveals strong learning-by-doing effects in the production of innovation, the persistence of innovation in the large firms relies on the persistence of formal research and development investments.

THE COMMERCIAL SUCCESS OF INNOVATIONS : AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS AT THE FIRM LEVEL IN FRENCH MANUFACTURING

This paper offers some empirical evidence on how do product and process innovations affect manufacturing sales and exports. Accounting for differences in technological opportunities between industries, and the “market pull” or “technology push” nature of firms’ innovations, we explain the share of new products in total sales and exports by the innovation types firms have implemented. The data come from the French Ministry of Industry’s Innovation survey 1986–1990. The left-hand variables are the sales revenues and the export revenues of the firms that are attributable to products introduced within the last 5 years. Given that the survey reports only interval data, our estimates were obtained by maximum likelihood on the ordered probit model. The following results are obtained: (i) The contribution of products less than 5 years old is lower to overall exports than to total sales but the innovative content is stronger in exports than in domestic sales; (ii) The greater the underlying technological opportunities, the less successful are product imitations; (iii) Both domestic sales and exports are mostly made of product improvements; (iv) Firm size has a positive effect on innovation output only when the technological opportunity is strong.

Are Young French Jobseekers of Ethnic Immigrant Origin Discriminated Against? A Controlled Experiment in the Paris Area

This study uses the findings of a correspondence testing in order to assess the potential discrimination at job access level against young people of ethnic origin from the underprivileged suburbs of the Paris area (Ile-de-France). We measure simultaneously the effects of place of residence (privileged or underprivileged city), of nationality (French or Moroccan), and of sound of surname and of forename on the chances of obtaining a job interview when answering a job ad. We base our assessment on a controlled experiment conducted on the profession of accountant. We constructed 16 jobseeker profiles and sent 1097 resumes in reply to 139 job vacancies advertised at the end of 2006. We find evidence of a significant discrimination.

Schumpeterian Conjectures: A Moderate Support from Various Innovation Measures

Schumpeter’s assessment of the role of innovative activity in economic development led him to original conjectures concerning the importance of market power and firm size in stimulating firms’ innovative activity. Empirical testing of these conjectures mainly relies on two interpretations of them, namely that innovative activity increases with market power, and more than proportionally with firm size.1

Hiring discrimination in the French financial sector: an econometric analysis on field experiment data

We study the determinants of hiring gender discrimination in the French financial sector through a controlled experiment. We find that, on the one hand, the access differences to job interviews by women and men are primarily explained by the expectation of a maternity by young women and, on the other hand, we also find that some institutional mechanisms compensate this difference of treatment between genders so that there is no significant discrimination on average.

The effect of the incremental R&D tax credit on the private funding of R&D an econometric evaluation on french firm level data

We study, at the firm level, whether the incremental R&D tax credit increases the private funding of R&D. In order to answer this question, we use the yearly surveys of the Ministry of Research over the period 1993-2003, as well as the corresponding firm-level tax files. The main issue is whether the firms would have increased their R&D expenditures without this tax incentive. We make use of the Rubin methodology. In a first step, we study the determinants of the probability to benefit from the R&D tax credit, that is the selection process at work in the recipients’ sample. We find that the probability to obtain a R&D tax credit increases with the R&D/Sales ratio and decreases with the direct R&D subsidies. Once we have evaluated the probability to get the R&D tax credit, we are able to correct for the selection bias. In a second step, we evaluate the effect of the incremental R&D tax credit on the private funding of research (once subtracted the direct subsidies from all the ministries). We find that, overall, the tax credit adds to the private funding of R&D: 1 Euro of tax credit would give slightly more than one Euro of total R&D. We also find that the incremental R&D tax credit increases the growth of the number of researchers.