Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Productivity Growth
The research group “Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Productivity Growth” tackles a broad set of research topics that are of relevance for our understanding of patterns of innovation and productivity growth and explores implications for workers and firms. Areas of particular focus include the decline in business dynamism, the growth in automation, entrepreneurship and innovation, and supply chains. The work is empirical in focus, it is grounded in microeconomic data research, but seeks to understand relevant macroeconomic trends.
Workpackage 1: Business Dynamism
The last decade has seen the explosion of research on business dynamism largely as a result of the development of new comprehensive firm and establishment level micro datasets. In this workpackage we exploit existing CompNet data to understand patterns of business dynamism in Europe.
In particular this subgroup seeks to explain the role of technological change and market power. The team documents the decline in young firm activity and reallocation, and estimates models that assess the causes and impacts on productivity growth (with Matthias Mertens, Sergio Inferrara, and Filippo Biondi).
Workpackage 2: Entrepreneurship
Going back to the days of Schumpeter, economists understand the important role entrepreneurs play in modern capitalist economies. This workpackage sets up a collaboration with the ZEW to develop a new data infrastructure and explore entrepreneurship in Germany broadly. Areas of research include:
a. Entrepreneurship and Firm Performance: Understanding High Growth Firms.
b. Innovative Firms and the Diffusion of Technology
c. (Im)Migration, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development
Workpackage 3: Automation
The introduction of robots and automation technologies in the workplace are fundamentally altering the balance of tasks and skills that are in demand. At the same time automation technologies increase the productivity of the workers and firms that make use of them relative to those that do not and can potentially lead to winners and losers. In this workpackage we conduct research on robot automation and its impacts on workers and firms. We focus our research both in Germany and the U.S..
The research group makes use of various administrative and survey datasets from a variety of sources and countries.
IWH Data Project: CompNet Database
The Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) is a research network founded in 2012 to foster the debate on competitiveness issues among partner institutions and researchers. It aims at providing a robust theoretical and empirical link between micro-level drivers of competitiveness and macroeconomic performance for research and policy analysis purposes.
CompNet is funded by various European institutions, including among others: European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); European Central Bank (ECB); European Commission (EC); European Investment Bank (EIB); European Stability Mechanism (ESM); France Stratégie; German Council of Economic Experts, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH); German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK); Tinbergen Institute (TI). CompNet is advised by leading researchers in the field of firm performance and has created a European micro-aggregated industry- and country-level database on indicators of firm- and country-level competitiveness and performance.
The database is unique in terms of its coverage and contents, particularly as, although being aggregated, it contains rich information on firm heterogeneity (i.e., distributional characteristics, like standard deviations and various percentiles of the firm distributions) across a large set of countries and industries in Europe. Among others, key variables included in the database are indicators of firm productivity, market power, firms’ financial situation, trade, and firm dynamics.
Research Cluster
Productivity and InstitutionsYour contact
- Department Centre for Business and Productivity Dynamics, Cbpd
Refereed Publications
Labor Market Analysis and Public Policy: The Case of Morocco
in: World Bank Economic Review, No. 3, 1999
Abstract
This article uses detailed industry and household data to understand why Morocco's labor market performed poorly in 1985–95. The data indicate that marked structural changes and weak demand in the product market were responsible. This article makes two contributions to the literature. The first is specific: it underscores that the demand for labor is a derived demand and that the performance of the product market is an important determinant of the performance of the labor market. The second is more general: it demonstrates that this kind of microeconomic analysis, using data sets that are often available in developing countries, can inform policy design.
Working Papers
Measuring the Impact of Household Innovation using Administrative Data
in: NBER Working Paper, No. 25259, 2018
Abstract
We link USPTO patent data to U.S. Census Bureau administrative records on individuals and firms. The combined dataset provides us with a directory of patenting household inventors as well as a time-series directory of self-employed businesses tied to household innovations. We describe the characteristics of household inventors by race, age, gender and U.S. origin, as well as the types of patented innovations pursued by these inventors. Business data allows us to highlight how patents shape the early life-cycle dynamics of nonemployer businesses. We find household innovators are disproportionately U.S. born, white and their age distribution has thicker tails relative to business innovators. Data shows there is a deficit of female and black inventors. Household inventors tend to work in consumer product areas compared to traditional business patents. While patented household innovations do not have the same impact of business innovations their uniqueness and impact remains surprisingly high. Back of the envelope calculations suggest patented household innovations granted between 2000 and 2011 might generate $5.0B in revenue (2000 dollars).
