Search Results
Journal Article
Powering the assembly line
Long-term drivers behind manufacturing health may need some repair
Conference Paper
Does the location of ideas matter for employment and earnings in the Internet age?
Freeman talked about the development of ideas and their impact on U.S. workers. It used to be the case that the place where new knowledge was created had an advantage in commercializing it. But Freeman argues that modern communications technologies allow new ideas rapid exposure on a world stage, where the ever-growing numbers of technically skilled workers in developing countries stand capable of turning them into profit-making opportunities. Freeman emphasizes the need for policies that foster knowledge creation in areas where the home-field advantage can be maintained. He says that the ...
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 ...
Report
A gain from trade: more research, less obstruction
There is an old wisdom that reductions in tariffs force changes on producers that lead to costless, or nearly so, increases in productivity. We construct a technology-ladder model that captures this wisdom. As in other technology-ladder models, time spent in research helps propel an industry up a technology-ladder. In contrast to the literature, we include another activity that plays a role in determining an industry's position on the technology-ladder: attempts to obstruct the research program of rivals (through regulations, for example). In this world, reductions in tariffs between ...
Journal Article
The rise and fall of a policy rule: monetarism at the St. Louis Fed, 1968-1986
From the 1960s to the 1980s, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis played an important and highly visible role in the development and advocacy of stabilization policy based on the targeting of monetary aggregates. Research conducted at the St. Louis Bank extended earlier monetarist analysis that had focused on the role of money in explaining economic activity in the long run. Their success in finding apparently robust, stable relationships in both long- and short-run data led monetarists to apply long-run propositions to short-run policy questions, effectively competing with alternative views ...
Journal Article
The geography of research and development activity in the U.S.
In the U.S., metropolitan areas contain the largest concentrations of people and jobs. Despite some drawbacks, these so-called agglomeration economies also have benefits, such as the cost savings that result from being close to suppliers and workers. Spatial concentration is even more pronounced among establishments that do basic research and development (R&D). In "The Geography of Research and Development Activity in the U.S.," Kristy Buzard and Jerry Carlino show that geographic concentration of R&D extends beyond locations such as Silicon Valley. In fact, many types of R&D ...
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 ...
Journal Article
Innovative activity in rural areas: the importance of local and regional characteristics
Innovation, supported by a developed and active entrepreneurial system, long has been recognized as critical to regional economic competitiveness. Innovation also plays an essential role for rural economic development as these regions respond to the challenges of competing in the global economy. Barkley and Henry identify assets that contribute to nonmetro innovation ?hot spots.?
Journal Article
Does locale affect R&D productivity? the case of pharmaceuticals
Journal Article
Why are corporations holding so much cash?
U.S. corporations are holding record-high amounts of cash. One reason has to do with taxes?both the uncertainty about future taxes and the reality of today?s tax rules. The second reason has to do with the rise of research and development; because of its uncertain nature, this sort of work requires access to high levels of cash.