IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oec/ecokac/5k3trmjlhxzq.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Policy incentives for private innovation and maximising the returns

Author

Listed:
  • Ben Westmore

Abstract

This paper uses panel regression techniques to assess the policy determinants of private-sector innovative activity – proxied by R&D expenditure and the number of new patents – across 19 OECD countries. The relationship between innovation indicators and multifactor productivity (MFP) growth is also examined with a particular focus on the role of public policies in influencing the returns to new knowledge. The results establish an empirical link between R&D and patenting, as well as between these measures of innovation intensity and MFP growth. Innovation-specific policies such as R&D tax incentives, direct government support and patent rights are found to be successful in encouraging the innovative activities associated with higher productivity growth. However, direct empirical evidence of the positive effects of these policies on productivity is less forthcoming. A pervasive theme from the analysis is the importance of coupling policies aimed at encouraging innovation or technological adoption with well-designed framework policies that allow knowledge spillovers to proliferate. In particular, the settings of framework policies relating to product market regulation, openness to trade and debtor protection in bankruptcy provisions are found to be important for the diffusion of new technologies. JEL classification: L20, O30, O40 Keywords: Intangible assets, innovation, productivity growth, public policy

Suggested Citation

  • Ben Westmore, 2014. "Policy incentives for private innovation and maximising the returns," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2013(1), pages 121-163.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:ecokac:5k3trmjlhxzq
    DOI: 10.1787/eco_studies-2013-5k3trmjlhxzq
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1787/eco_studies-2013-5k3trmjlhxzq
    Download Restriction: Full text available to READ online. PDF download available to OECD iLibrary subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1787/eco_studies-2013-5k3trmjlhxzq?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tim Buyse & Freddy Heylen & Ruben Schoonackers, 2015. "On The Role Of Public Policies And Wage Formation For Private Investment In R&D: A Long-Run Panel Analysis," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 15/911, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    2. Fernando Almeida & Nelson Amoedo, 2021. "Exploring the association between R&D expenditure and the job quality in the European Union," Papers 2101.03214, arXiv.org.
    3. Buyse, Tim & Heylen, Freddy & Schoonackers, Ruben, 2020. "On the impact of public policies and wage formation on business investment in research and development," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 188-199.
    4. Ur Rehman, Faheem & Islam, Md. Monirul, 2023. "Does energy infrastructure spur total factor productivity (TFP) in middle-income economies? An application of a novel energy infrastructure index," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    5. Cátia Rosário & Celeste Varum & Anabela Botelho, 2024. "Comparison of the Profile of Portuguese Companies That Receive Public Support for Innovation: National Support vs. European Support," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Ambashi, Masahito & Régibeau, Pierre & Rockett, Katharine E., 2019. "Grantbacks, territorial restraints, and innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Munirul Nabin & Pasquale Sgro & Surjasama Lahiri, 2023. "The role of standard‐setting organizations in deciding product quality and process innovation," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(4), pages 767-786, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    intangible assets; innovation; productivity growth; public policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oec:ecokac:5k3trmjlhxzq. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/oecddfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.