Identifying Technology Spillovers and Product Market Rivalry

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bloom, Nicholas; Schankerman, Mark; Van Reenen, John
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: ECONOMETRICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0012-9682
• DOI: 10.3982/ECTA9466
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 1347-1393
• 关键词: research-and-development; knowledge spillovers; patent citations; count data; industry; FIRMS; panel; COMPETITION; INNOVATION; INFORMATION

摘要

The impact of R&D on growth through spillovers has been a major topic of economic research over the last thirty years. A central problem in the literature is that firm performance is affected by two countervailing spillovers : a positive effect from technology (knowledge) spillovers and a negative business stealing effects from product market rivals. We develop a general framework incorporating these two types of spillovers and implement this model using measures of a firm's position in technology space and product market space. Using panel data on U. S. firms, we show that technology spillovers quantitatively dominate, so that the gross social returns to R&D are at least twice as high as the private returns. We identify the causal effect of R&D spillovers by using changes in federal and state tax incentives for R&D. We also find that smaller firms generate lower social returns to R&D because they operate more in technological niches. Finally, we detail the desirable properties of an ideal spillover measure and how existing approaches, including our new Mahalanobis measure, compare to these criteria.