Technological Intensity of Government Demand and Innovation
Viktor Slavtchev, Simon Wiederhold
Abstract
Governments purchase everything from airplanes to zucchini. This paper investigates whether the technological intensity of government demand affects corporate R&D activities. In a quality-ladder model of endogenous growth, we show that an increase in the share of government purchases in high-tech industries increases the rewards for innovation, and stimulates private-sector R&D at the aggregate level. We test this prediction using administrative data on federal procurement performed in US states. Both panel fixed effects and instrumental variable estimations provide results in line with the model. Our findings bring public procurement within the realm of the innovation policy debate.
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The Impact of Government Procurement Composition on Private R&D Activities
Viktor Slavtchev, Simon Wiederhold
Abstract
This paper addresses the question of whether government procurement can work as a de facto innovation policy tool. We develop an endogenous growth model with quality-improving in-novation that incorporates industries with heterogeneous innovation sizes. Government demand in high-tech industries increases the market size in these industries and, with it, the incentives for private firms to invest in R&D. At the economy-wide level, the additional R&D induced in high-tech industries outweighs the R&D foregone in all remaining industries. The implications of the model are empirically tested using a unique data set that includes federal procurement in U.S. states. We find evidence that a shift in the composition of government purchases toward high-tech industries indeed stimulates privately funded company R&D.
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A glimpse on sectoral convergence of productivity levels
Gerald Müller
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 133,
2001
Abstract
This paper examines the presence of sectoral convergence of labor productivity between 14 OECD countries. Using the OECD International Sectoral Data Base (ISDB), the paper looks at the developments within 12 distinct sectors during the period 1970-1995. The change of the coefficients of variance suggests that there is strong sectoral convergence within most service sectors while the evidence of convergence for Manufacturing as well as for Communication is rather weak. These findings are in line with most studies undertaken on this subject so far. It is concluded that economic theories at hand to explain growth and convergence (or divergence respectively) are of different importance for the sectors concerned. While models of the New Growth Theory seemed to be useful to explain growth mechanisms within Manufacturing and Communication, traditional models seemed to apply to most other sectors.
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Methodical limits of calculating productivity in the new Länder
Gerald Müller
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 129,
2000
Abstract
Der Arbeitskreis Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnung der Länder hat in Deutschland vom Statistischen Bundesamt die Aufgabe übernommen, Wertschöpfungszahlen getrennt für die neuen und alten Bundesländer zu berechnen. Dabei mag insbesondere das Problem einer angemessenen Regionalisierung der Wertschöpfung von Unternehmen mit Betriebsstätten sowohl in den neuen als auch in den alten Bundesländern systematisch zu einer Unterschätzung der ostdeutschen Produktivität führen. Eine Abschätzung des Effektes mit Hilfe des IAB-Betriebspanels zeigt jedoch, das für das Verarbeitende Gewerbe die Produktivitätslücke maximal um etwa zwei Prozentpunkte überschätzt wird. Allerdings kann der Effekt in einzelnen Wirtschaftsbereichen, die durch die Mehrländerunternehmen dominiert werden, stärker sein. Insgesamt wird die ostdeutsche Produktivitätslücke um maximal drei Prozentpunkte überschätzt.
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