Search Results
Working Paper
Is embodied technology the result of upstream R&D? industry-level evidence
In this paper, I develop an industry-level index of capital-embodied R&D by capturing the extent of research and development directed at the capital goods in which a given industry invests. Compiling and adjusting data from the National Science Foundation and Commerce Department, I construct industry-level, time-series measures of this index and investigate its properties. The data allow me to identify the R&D directed at the development of specific types of capital rather than incorrectly assuming industry R&D spending is equivalent to R&D directed at the industry's product, an assumption ...
Working Paper
The agglomeration of R&D labs
This paper has been superseded by WP 15-03.<p>The authors document the spatial concentration of more than 1,000 research and development (R&D) labs located in the Northeast corridor of the U.S. using point pattern methods. These methods allow systematic examination of clustering at different spatial scales. In particular, Monte Carlo tests based on Ripley's (1976) K-functions are used to identify clusters of labs ? at varying spatial scales ? that represent statistically significant departures from random locations reflecting the underlying distribution of economic activity (employment). ...
Working Paper
State Incentives for Innovation, Star Scientists and Jobs: Evidence from Biotech
We evaluate the effects of state-provided financial incentives for biotech companies, which are part of a growing trend of placed-based policies designed to spur innovation clusters. We estimate that the adoption of subsidies for biotech employers by a state raises the number of star biotech scientists in that state by about 15 percent over a three year period. A 10% decline in the user cost of capital induced by an increase in R&D tax incentives raises the number of stars by 22%. Most of the gains are due to the relocation of star scientist to adopting states, with limited effect on the ...
Working Paper
Measuring the social return to R&D
A large, empirical literature reports estimates of the rate of return to R&D ranging from 30 percent to over 100 percent, supporting the notion that there is too little private investment in research. This conclusion is challenged by the new growth theory. We derive analytically the relationship between the social rate of return to R&D and the coefficient estimates of the empirical literature. We show that these estimates represent a lower bound on the true social rate of return. Using a conservative estimate of the rate of return to R&D of about 30 percent, optimal R&D investment is at least ...
Newsletter
Why don't recessions encourage more R&D spending?
Economists sometimes argue that recessions promote activities that ultimately contribute to long-run growth. But evidence suggests research and development, one important source of economic growth, falls rather than rises during recessions, even for firms that do not appear to be credit constrained. The author discusses an alternative explanation for this pattern.
Conference Paper
Financing biotechnology research: a firsthand perspective
Working Paper
Cross-sectoral variation in firm-level idiosyncratic risk
In this paper we use data from the U.S. Census Bureau?s Longitudinal Research Database in order to assess the extent of the cross-sectoral variation in firm-level idiosyncratic risk and shed light on its determinants. We find that firms producing investment goods exhibit greater volatility in sales and TFP growth than firms producing consumption goods. Our data suggests that this may be the case because winner?takes?all competition is more common for the former than for the latter.
Working Paper
On the cyclicality of R&D: disaggregated evidence
This paper explores the link between short-run cycles and long-run growth by> examining the cyclical properties of R&D at the disaggregated industry level.> The relationship between R&D and output is estimated using an annual panel of> 20 U.S. manufacturing industries from 1958 to 1998. The results indicate that> R&D is in fact procyclical; but interestingly, estimates using demand-shift> instruments suggest that it responds asymmetrically to demand shocks. We> discuss the possibilities that liquidity constraints and technology> improvement cause the observed procyclicality of R&D.