Using Community Innovation Survey data for Belgium we analyze which firm and industry characteristics are conducive to cooperation with universities. From a methodological perspective we consider that the decision to cooperate with universities cannot be analyzed in isolation from the overall innovation strategy of the firm. Cooperating with universities is complementary to other innovation act...

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...

This article analyses the advantages and disadvantages of the different patent systems that coexist in Europe and examines the recently launched proposal for a European Council Regulation on the Community patent in light of the shortcoming of the existing systems. The European Commission has sought the coexistent of the Community, European and national patent systems. This option does not elimi...

In this paper we characterize the extent of economic integration between Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (HKMT). We do not find, for the period of 1999 – 2003, consistent evidence that economic activity on the part of HKMT-funded companies contributed to productivity growth in Guangdong domestic manufacturing firms. Furthermore, HKMT-funded companies were less active than Guangdong dome...

We analyze a situation where a principal wants to induce two firms to produce an output, e.g. electricity from renewable energy sources. Firms can undertake non-contractible investments to reduce production cost of the output. Part of these investments spills over and also reduces production cost of the other firm. Comparing a general price subsidy and an innovation tournament, we find that the...

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...

This paper provides a model to explain the shakeout of the U.S. ATM and debit card industry, which emphasizes the role that a major product innovation — introducing the debit function in the mid 1980s — played in driving the network consolidation. Consistent with the theory, our empirical findings show that large networks had a better chance of adopting the debit innovation and surviving the sh...

Innovation is typically a trial-and-error process. While some research paths lead to the innovation sought, others result in dead ends. Because firms benefit from their competitors working in the wrong direction, they do not reveal their negative findings. Hence, time and resources are wasted on dead-end projects. We offer a model to study this prevalent problem and characterize the equilibrium...

We examine the geographic co-location of university research and industrial R&D in three technology areas. While we find strong evidence of co-location of these vertically connected activities, regional economies appear to vary markedly in their ability to convert local academic research into local commercial innovation. We develop and test the hypothesis that the presence of a large, local, R&...

The paper examines the effects of the degree of competition on the firms’ decision to innovate in differentiated markets. We find that a low (high) degree of product differentiation (competition) weakly supports the introduction of new products. Firms’ weakly favour a process innovation if the degree of product differentiation (competition) is high (low). In addition, assumptions on the strateg...