We examine variation in the concentration of inventive activity across 72 of North America’s most highly innovative locations. In 12 of these areas, innovation is particularly concentrated in a single, large firm; we refer to such locations as “company towns.” We find that inventors employed by large firms in these locations tend to draw disproportionately from their firm’s own prior inventions...

We study the combined effects of uncertainty and competition on the timing optimization of investments in complementarity inputs for non-preemption duopoly (leader-follower) markets with either a weakpatent system where spillover-knowledge is allowed or a strong-patent system where proprietaryknowledge holds. We find that, for some input-sequencing investment scenarios, ex-ante and (expected) e...

Does Future PC Use Determine Our Wages Today? Evidence from German Panel Data Using 1985–1999 data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP) to analyze wages confirms the hypothesis that existing computer wage premiums are determined by individual ability or other unobserved individual characteristics rather than by productivity effects. While a rather large personal computer (PC) wage...

Previous studies found the introduction of the today well established media radio and television to affect political participation. This paper evaluates the effect of the relatively recent introduction of a new medium, broadband internet. OLS results suggest a positive association between DSL availability and voter participation across German municipalities. However, the roll-out of DSL network...

The adoption and diffusion of inputs in the production network is at the heart of technological progress. What determines which inputs are initially considered and eventually adopted by innovators? We examine the evolution of input linkages from a network perspective, starting from a stylized model of network formation. Producers direct their search for new inputs along vertical linkages, scree...

We estimate total factor productivities at the sector level for 72 countries and 5 decades, and examine how they evolve over time in both developed and developing countries. In both country groups, there has been relative productivity convergence: productivity grew systematically faster in sectors that were initially relatively less productive. These changes have had a significant impact on tra...

Andrea Bonaccorsi Dipartimento di Sistemi Elettrici ed Automazione, Facoltà di Ingegneria, Università di Pisa Via Diotisalvi 2 – 56126 Pisa E-mail: [email protected] Lucia Piscitello Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale, Politecnico di Milano Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32 – 20133 Milano E-mail: [email protected] Cristina Rossi Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna P.za Martiri per la Libertà 33 ...

This paper introduces endogenous and directed technical change in a growth model with environmental constraints. A unique final good is produced by combining inputs from two sectors. One of these sectors uses “dirty” machines and thus creates environmental degradation. Research can be directed to improving the technology of machines in either sector. We characterize dynamic tax policies that ac...

Because of their more limited inequality and more comprehensive social welfare systems, many perceive average welfare to be higher in Scandinavian societies than in the United States. Why then does the United States not adopt Scandinavian-style institutions? More generally, in an interdependent world, would we expect all countries to adopt the same institutions? To provide theoretical answers t...