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Innovation and export activities in the German mechanical engineering sector : An application of testing restrictions in production analysis

Schubert, Torben LU and Simar, Léopold (2011) In Journal of Productivity Analysis 36(1). p.55-69
Abstract

Since Solow (Q J Econ 70:65-94, 1956) the economic literature has widely accepted innovation and technological progress as the central drivers of long-term economic growth. From the microeconomic perspective, this has led to the idea that the growth effects on the macroeconomic level should be reflected in greater competitiveness of the firms. Although innovation effort does not always translate into greater competitiveness, it is recognized that innovation is, in an appropriate sense, unique and differs from other inputs like labor or capital. Nonetheless, often this uniqueness is left unspecified. We analyze two arguments rendering innovation special, the first related to partly non-discretionary innovation input levels and the second... (More)

Since Solow (Q J Econ 70:65-94, 1956) the economic literature has widely accepted innovation and technological progress as the central drivers of long-term economic growth. From the microeconomic perspective, this has led to the idea that the growth effects on the macroeconomic level should be reflected in greater competitiveness of the firms. Although innovation effort does not always translate into greater competitiveness, it is recognized that innovation is, in an appropriate sense, unique and differs from other inputs like labor or capital. Nonetheless, often this uniqueness is left unspecified. We analyze two arguments rendering innovation special, the first related to partly non-discretionary innovation input levels and the second to the induced increase in the firm's competitiveness on the global market. Methodologically the analysis is based on restriction tests in non-parametric frontier models, where we use and extend tests proposed by Simar and Wilson (Commun Stat Simul Comput 30(1):159-184, 2001; J Prod Anal, forthcoming, 2010). The empirical data is taken from the German Community Innovation Survey 2007 (CIS 2007), where we focus on mechanical engineering firms. Our results are consistent with the explanation of the firms' inability to freely choose the level of innovation inputs. However, we do not find significant evidence that increased innovation activities correspond to an increase in the ability to serve the global market.

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author
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Bootstrap, CIS, Data envelopment analysis, Discretionary, Exports, Germany, Innovation, Mechanical engineering, Nonparametric efficiency estimation, technical efficiency, Production, Subsampling
in
Journal of Productivity Analysis
volume
36
issue
1
pages
15 pages
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:79960038131
ISSN
0895-562X
DOI
10.1007/s11123-010-0199-6
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
79e7dbf8-62a8-41ba-b6bf-6f2e59b15b2b
date added to LUP
2016-05-18 13:30:33
date last changed
2022-04-08 21:06:39
@article{79e7dbf8-62a8-41ba-b6bf-6f2e59b15b2b,
  abstract     = {{<p>Since Solow (Q J Econ 70:65-94, 1956) the economic literature has widely accepted innovation and technological progress as the central drivers of long-term economic growth. From the microeconomic perspective, this has led to the idea that the growth effects on the macroeconomic level should be reflected in greater competitiveness of the firms. Although innovation effort does not always translate into greater competitiveness, it is recognized that innovation is, in an appropriate sense, unique and differs from other inputs like labor or capital. Nonetheless, often this uniqueness is left unspecified. We analyze two arguments rendering innovation special, the first related to partly non-discretionary innovation input levels and the second to the induced increase in the firm's competitiveness on the global market. Methodologically the analysis is based on restriction tests in non-parametric frontier models, where we use and extend tests proposed by Simar and Wilson (Commun Stat Simul Comput 30(1):159-184, 2001; J Prod Anal, forthcoming, 2010). The empirical data is taken from the German Community Innovation Survey 2007 (CIS 2007), where we focus on mechanical engineering firms. Our results are consistent with the explanation of the firms' inability to freely choose the level of innovation inputs. However, we do not find significant evidence that increased innovation activities correspond to an increase in the ability to serve the global market.</p>}},
  author       = {{Schubert, Torben and Simar, Léopold}},
  issn         = {{0895-562X}},
  keywords     = {{Bootstrap; CIS; Data envelopment analysis; Discretionary; Exports; Germany; Innovation; Mechanical engineering; Nonparametric efficiency estimation, technical efficiency; Production; Subsampling}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{55--69}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Productivity Analysis}},
  title        = {{Innovation and export activities in the German mechanical engineering sector : An application of testing restrictions in production analysis}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11123-010-0199-6}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s11123-010-0199-6}},
  volume       = {{36}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}