Hugo Hollanders

Technology, knowledge spillovers and changes in employment structure: evidence from six OECD countries

Abstract This paper investigates and compares changes in the employment structure in manufacturing in Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States in the period 1975–1995. Using data on employment by skill level and type and several measures of an industrys technological advancement, we find a positive relationship between skill upgrading and R&D intensity. Since technology has some characteristics of a public good, it is important to include into the analysis spillovers explaining the changes in employment structure. Including knowledge spillovers lowers the estimates for R&D intensity substantially and shows a significant impact of knowledge spillovers on skill upgrading. In addition, splitting the sample into high-tech and low-tech industries reveals that the joint impact of spillovers in explaining skill upgrading in low-tech industries is more important than the impact of R&D itself. Furthermore, using three different definitions of skill, we find different point estimates for the impact of technology variables on skill upgrading. The results reveal that both the development of technology (through R&D) and its application (through spillovers) is skilled-biased, and not just the development as is often assumed in previous work.

A Research and Development Module Supplementing the National Accounts

This paper presents a modified national accounting system tailored to a description of Research and Development (R&D)in the national economy. The main differences with the standard national accounts are some changes in the basic concepts (e.g. own-account production of R&D is considered as capital formation) and the introduction of additional classifications. Statistics on R&D, based on the guidelines in the Frascati Manual, have to serve as a major data source. However, the Frascatie manual has some clear limiation in scope and concepts. For example, income from and expenditure on patents and licenses are ignored and no distinction is made between subsidies for R&D and purchase of R&D.

The Impact of Innovation Support Programmes on SME Innovation in Traditional Manufacturing Industries: An Evaluation for Seven EU Regions

This study investigates the impact of innovation support programmes on SME innovation in traditional manufacturing industries in seven EU regions. Recent literature identifying sources of potential government failure in innovation policy suggests that the effects of public support measures to increase private innovation may be disappointing. Our results are consistent with this hypothesis, yet also suggest a direction for policy reform to overcome government failure and, thereby, to increase the potential additionality of innovation support programmes. Innovation support programmes in the EU typically adopt a cream skimming selection strategy namely, programme managers systematically select firms on the basis of observable characteristics conducive to innovation. The econometric analysis of a new survey database reported in this paper suggests that cream skimming leads to firms being selected for programme participation that benefit less than would randomly selected firms. The policy corollary is that, subject to due diligence checking, allocation of innovation support by lottery should give rise to greater programme additionality than does the prevalent cream skimming approach. We conclude with some practical guidelines for allocation by lottery, which were developed for a recently launched innovation support programme for SMEs.

Knowledge spillovers and wage inequality: An empirical analysis of Dutch manufacturing

The introduction of new technologies and technical change is associated mainly with high-skilled and high-wage workers. In addition, many studies have found a positive correlation between the introduction of new technologies and technical change and skill upgrading. In these studies no attention has been paid to spillovers from one sector to the other. In this paper we not only use measures of technical change but also knowledge spillovers to explain wage inequality in Dutch manufacturing in the period 1986–95. Using this more elaborate measure of technical change, our findings are twofold. First, we confirm that workers employed in knowledge-intensive manufacturing sectors receive a higher wage than workers in less knowledge-intensive sectors. Secondly, the wages paid to high-skilled workers relative to low-skilled workers in knowledge-intensive sectors are higher than those in less knowledge-intensive sectors. However, the coefficients using the elaborate measure of technological advancement are much lower and sometimes even insignificant. This suggests a premium for high-skilled labour in sectors both applying and developing technology. But the wage premium is highest in technology-developing sectors, as suggested by the measures used in previous studies.