JEL classification numbers: O3 and L8 2 ABSTRACT The diffusion literature implicitly assumes that a technological innovation remains homogeneous throughout the time period of the study with the sole modification being an assumed reduction in the real price of the technology over time. We argue that the technology can change in significant ways from one vintage to another to alter the nature of ...

Highly variable returns, asymmetric information and a lack of collateral should cause small high-tech firms to have poor access to debt. New equity financing has several advantages over debt, but may be costly compared to internal finance. We examine an unbalanced panel of over 2,400 publicly traded United States high-tech companies over the period 1981 to 1998. Most small high-tech firms obtai...

Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between “dirty” (internal combustion engine) and “clean” (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that firms tend to innovate relatively more in clean technologies when they face higher tax-inclusive fuel pr...

We investigate the impact of knowledge spillovers and R&D cooperation on innovation activities in three German regions. We begin by estimating the knowledge-production function in order to test for interregional difference with regard to the efficiency of innovation activities. In a second step, we analyze the contribution of spillovers from R&D effort of other private firms and of public resea...

We develop a new general equilibrium growth accounting framework that features increasing returns to scale, imperfect competition and incorporates technological revolutions into the description of technical progress. We propose a way to tell apart revolutionary changes in technology and incremental innovations using stock market data. We use our framework to jointly estimate the overall embodie...

We examine micro-level channels of how financial development can affect macroeconomic outcomes like the level of income and export intensity. We investigate theoretically and empirically how financial constraints affect a firm’s innovation and export activities, using unique firm survey data which provides direct measures for innovations and firm-specific financial constraints. We find that fin...

I estimate a logistic model of mobile communications diffusion to examine the impact of competition on cellular penetration in former socialist countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Not surprisingly, I find that the introduction of competition led to a higher speed of adoption of mobile technology. Perhaps more surprisingly, sequential competition had a greater impact than simultaneous ...

Internet Security, Vulnerability Disclosure and Software Provision* In this paper, we examine how software vulnerabilities affect firms that license software and consumers that purchase software. In particular, we model three decisions of the firm: (i) an upfront investment in the quality of the software to reduce potential vulnerabilities; (ii) a policy decision whether to announce vulnerabili...

I introduce and analyze an equilibrium model of invention, patenting and infringement under monopolistic competition. Profitable use of inventions requires adaptation to complementary technologies. With patents, a thicket of conflicting rights emerges and costly infringements occur. This taxes invention and lowers welfare. When an inventor may be a “troll”—patent without inventing—the rate of i...

This paper investigates whether government support can act to increase exporting activity. We use a uniquely rich data set on Irish manufacturing plants and employ an empirical strategy that combines a non-parametric matching procedure with a difference-in-differences estimator in order to deal with the potential selection problem inherent in the analysis. Our results suggest that if grants are...