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作者：Czarnitzki, Dirk; Toole, Andrew A.
作者单位：University of Copenhagen; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
摘要：The main reason governments grant patent protection is to spur innovation. However, the size of the R&D stimulus from patent protection is far from clear because it depends on how effective patents are as a mechanism for appropriating returns. Drawing on real options investment theory, this paper highlights one mechanism through which patents may improve appropriability and stimulate R&D investment: patents reduce the effect of market uncertainty on the firm's investment decision. We find that...
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作者：Aguila, Emma; Attanasio, Orazio; Meghir, Costas
作者单位：University of London; University College London; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
摘要：Previous empirical literature has found a sharp decline in consumption during the first years of retirement, implying that individuals do not save enough for their retirement. This phenomenon is called the retirement consumption puzzle. We find no evidence of the retirement consumption puzzle using panel data from 1980 to 2000. Consumption is defined as nondurable expenditure, a more comprehensive measure than only food used in many of the previous studies. We find that food expenditure declin...
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作者：Choi, James J.; Laibson, David; Madrian, Brigitte C.
作者单位：Yale University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Harvard University
摘要：We identify employees at seven companies whose 401(k) investment choices are dominated because they are contributing less than the employer matching contribution threshold despite being vested in their match and being able to make penalty-free 401(k) withdrawals for any reason because they are older than 59 1/2. At the average firm, 36% of match-eligible employees over age 59 1/2 forgo arbitrage profits that average 1.6% of their annual pay, or $507. A survey educating employees about the free...
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作者：Faust, Jon; Wright, Jonathan H.
作者单位：Johns Hopkins University
摘要：It is well known that augmenting a standard linear regression model with variables that are correlated with the error term but uncorrelated with the original regressors will increase the asymptotic efficiency of the original coefficients. We argue that in the context of predicting excess returns, valid augmenting variables exist and are likely to yield substantial gains in estimation efficiency and, hence, predictive accuracy. The proposed augmenting variables are ex post measures of an unfore...
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作者：Balasubramanian, Natarajan; Sivadasan, Jagadeesh
作者单位：Syracuse University; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
摘要：We build a new concordance between the NBER Patent Data and U.S. Census microdata and use it to examine what happens when firms patent. We find strong evidence that increases in patent stock are associated with increases in firm size, scope, and skill and capital intensity. We find somewhat weaker evidence that changes in patenting are positively correlated with changes in total factor productivity. We also analyze first-time patentees and find similar effects following initial patent applicat...
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作者：Neumark, David; Wall, Brandon; Zhang, Junfu
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Irvine; National Bureau of Economic Research; Stanford University; Clark University
摘要：We use the National Establishment Time Series (NETS) to revisit the debate about the role of small businesses in job creation (Birch, 1987; Davis, Haltiwanger, & Schuh, 1996a). Using the NETS data, we examine evidence for the overall economy, as well as for different sectors. The results indicate that small firms and small establishments create more jobs, on net, although the difference is much smaller than Birch's methods suggest. Moreover, in the recent period we study, a negative relationsh...
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作者：Montalvo, Jose G.
作者单位：Pompeu Fabra University
摘要：Can terrorist attacks be timed to change the outcome of democratic elections? In this paper, we analyze the electoral impact of the terrorist attacks of March 11, 2004, in Madrid. Studies using individual level postelectoral survey data reach contradictory conclusions. We propose an alternative approach. Since the bombings took place only three days before the 2004 congressional election, we can find a control group of individuals who cast their vote before the terrorist attacks. The results i...
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作者：Lin, Jeffrey
作者单位：Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Philadelphia
摘要：Where does adaptation to innovation take place? I present evidence on the role of agglomeration economies in the application of new knowledge to production. All else equal, workers are more likely to be observed in new work in locations initially dense in college graduates and industry variety. This pattern is consistent with economies from the geographic concentration of factors and markets related to technological adaptation. A main contribution is a new measure, based on revisions to occupa...
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作者：Korniotis, George M.; Kumar, Alok
作者单位：University of Miami; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin
摘要：This paper examines the investment decisions of older individual investors. We find that older and experienced investors are more likely to follow rules of thumb that reflect greater investment knowledge. However, older investors are less effective in applying their investment knowledge and exhibit worse investment skill, especially if they are less educated, earn lower income, and belong to minority racial/ethnic groups. Overall, the adverse effects of aging dominate the positive effects of e...
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作者：Madsen, Jakob B.; Timol, Isfaaq
作者单位：Monash University
摘要：Most studies of comparative productivities fail to find evidence of convergence in OECD manufacturing despite major economic growth theories predicting convergence. Using manufacturing data for nineteen OECD countries over the period from 1870 to 2006, this study finds strong evidence of unconditional beta-convergence as well as sigma-convergence. Panel data estimates suggest that the convergence has been driven by domestic R&D, international R&D spillovers, and financial development as predic...
