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Is Embodied Technology the Result of Upstream R&D? Industry-Level Evidence

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Author Info
Daniel J. Wilson (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)

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Abstract

his paper provides an exploratory analysis of whether data on the research and development (R&D) spending directed at particular technological/product fields can be used to measure industry-level capital-embodied technological change. Evidence from the patent literature suggests that the R&D directed at a product, as the main input into the "innovation" production function, is proportional to the value of the innovations in that product. I confirm this hypothesis by showing that the decline in the relative price of a good is positively correlated with the R&D directed at that product. The hypothesis implies that the technological change, or innovation, embodied in an industry's capital is proportional to the R&D that is done ("upstream") by the economy as a whole on each of the capital goods that a ("downstream") industry purchases. Using R&D data from the National Science Foundation, I construct measures of capital-embodied R&D. I find they have a strong effect on conventionally measured total-factor productivity growth, a phenomenon that seems to be due partly to the mismeasurement of quality change in the capital stock and partly to a positive correlation between embodied and disembodied technological change. Finally, I find the cross-industry variation in empirical estimates of embodied technological change accord with the cross-industry variation in embodied R&D

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File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/redy.2002.0163
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Publisher Info
Article provided by Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics in its journal Review of Economic Dynamics.

Volume (Year): 5 (2002)
Issue (Month): 2 (April)
Pages: 285-317
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Handle: RePEc:red:issued:v:5:y:2002:i:2:p:285-317

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Related research
Keywords: research and development; equipment-embodied technological change.;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
O3 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

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    Other versions:
  3. Bartelsman, Eric J & Caballero, Ricardo J & Lyons, Richard K, 1994. "Customer- and Supplier-Driven Externalities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 1075-84, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    Other versions:
  6. Hulten, Charles R, 1992. "Growth Accounting When Technical Change Is Embodied in Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 964-80, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Charles R. Hulten, 1996. "Quality Change in Capital Goods and Its Impact on Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 5569, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. McHugh, Richard & Lane, Julia, 1983. "The Embodiment Hypothesis: An Interregional Test," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(2), pages 323-27, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Richard C. Levin & Alvin K. Klevorick & Richard R. Nelson & Sidney G. Winter, 1987. "Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 18(1987-3), pages 783-832. [Downloadable!]
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  19. Kortum, Samuel, 1993. "Equilibrium R&D and the Patent-R&D Ratio: U.S. Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 450-57, May.
  20. Kim B. Clark & Zvi Griliches, 1984. "Productivity Growth and R&D at the Business Level: Results from the PIMS Data Base," NBER Chapters, in: R & D, Patents, and Productivity, pages 393-416 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  27. Zvi Griliches & Frank R. Lichtenberg, 1984. "R&D and Productivity Growth at the Industry Level: Is There Still a Relationship?," NBER Chapters, in: R & D, Patents, and Productivity, pages 465-502 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Francesco Caselli & Daniel Wilson, 2002. "Importing technology," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Roberto M Samaniego, 2005. "Investment-Specific Technical Change and the Production of Ideas," Computing in Economics and Finance 2005 291, Society for Computational Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Daniel Wilson, 2004. "IT and Beyond: The Contribution of Heterogenous Capital to Productivity," Working Papers 04-20, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Winfried Koeniger, 2007. "Openness, Wage Floors and Technology Change," Contributions to Macroeconomics, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 7(1), pages 1373-1373. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Rachel Ngai & Roberto M. Samaniego, 2006. "An R&D-Based Model of Multi-Sector Growth," CEP Discussion Papers dp0762, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  6. Richard Dion & Robert Fay, 2008. "Understanding Productivity: A Review of Recent Technical Research," Discussion Papers 08-3, Bank of Canada. [Downloadable!]
  7. Jason G. Cummins & Giovanni L. Violante, 2002. "Investment-Specific Technical Change in the US (1947-2000): Measurement and Macroeconomic Consequences," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(2), pages 243-284, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Daniel Wilson, 2003. "Embodying Embodiment in a Structural, Macroeconomic Input-Output Model," Economic Systems Research, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 371-398, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Robert L. Basmann & Michael McAleer & Daniel Slottje, 2007. "Patent Activity and Technical Change," DEA Working Papers 27, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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