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R&D and firm resilience during bad times

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  • Gupta, Apoorva

Abstract

Can being innovative help firms to shield themselves from the disruptive effects of a recession? Using data for Spanish manufacturing firms, this paper finds that innovative firms suffered considerably less compared to noninnovative firms during the Great Recession. The operating mechanism for the resilience of innovative firms to market disruption during a recession is product differentiation, and not reduction in marginal cost of production and prices with process innovation. The data does not support alternative explanations such as better access to capital, or difference in labour moving costs for innovative firms. The results provide evidence for the role of innovation in making firms dynamically capable and resilient to large negative shocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Gupta, Apoorva, 2020. "R&D and firm resilience during bad times," DICE Discussion Papers 352, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:dicedp:352
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; Recession; Resilience; Product differentiation; Dynamic capability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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