IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/89503.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Monopoly Capital and Innovation: An Exploratory Assessment of R&D Effectiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Lambert, Thomas

Abstract

This research note performs some limited empirical assessments of the Baran and Sweezy (1966) contention that most research and development (R&D) efforts in the US are “wasted” at the macroeconomic level in that as R&D succeeds by absorbing a little of the excess economic surplus generated by a capitalist system, it still fails to generate a lot of innovation of a transformative nature. At an aggregate level, greater R&D efforts are correlated with higher worker productivity and standards of living, which is to be expected according to mainstream economic theory and literature. Yet, R&D efforts regarding job creation, new firm creation, and net business investment show either mixed results or even negative connections. There is some preliminary empirical support in this paper for many aspects of the Baran and Sweezy point of view on R&D, and these findings also hint that R&D is used in a monopoly capital system to further monopolization. The findings of this note also may help to explain how productivity gains and innovation over the last few decades may not be benefitting the typical worker or the creation of small businesses as well.

Suggested Citation

  • Lambert, Thomas, 2018. "Monopoly Capital and Innovation: An Exploratory Assessment of R&D Effectiveness," MPRA Paper 89503, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:89503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/89503/1/MPRA_paper_89503.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marios Zachariadis, 2003. "R&D, innovation, and technological progress: a test of the Schumpeterian framework without scale effects," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(3), pages 566-586, August.
    2. Decker, Ryan A. & Haltiwanger, John & Jarmin, Ron S. & Miranda, Javier, 2016. "Where has all the skewness gone? The decline in high-growth (young) firms in the U.S," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 4-23.
    3. John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2010. "Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young," Working Papers 10-17, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Thomas E. Lambert & Edward Kwon, 2015. "Monopoly capital and capitalist inefficiency," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 533-552, July.
    5. Pakes, Ariel, 1985. "On Patents, R&D, and the Stock Market Rate of Return," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(2), pages 390-409, April.
    6. Thorstein Veblen, 1899. "Mr. Cummings's Strictures on "The Theory of the Leisure Class"," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(1), pages 106-106.
    7. Blaug,Mark, 1997. "Economic Theory in Retrospect," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521577014, October.
    8. Kosta Josifidis & Novica Supic, 2018. "Income Polarization of the U.S. Working Class: An Institutionalist View," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(2), pages 498-508, April.
    9. Veblen, Thorstein, 1899. "The Theory of the Leisure Class," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number veblen1899.
    10. Mariana Mazzucato, 2015. "The Green Entrepreneurial State," SPRU Working Paper Series 2015-28, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    11. Kamien,Morton I. & Schwartz,Nancy L., 1982. "Market Structure and Innovation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521293853, December.
    12. John Bellamy Foster, 1999. "Remarks on Paul Sweezy on the Occasion of His Receipt of the Veblen-Commons Award," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 223-228, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Andrey I. Vlasov & Ivan V. Gudoshnikov & Vladimir P. Zhalnin & Aksultan T. Kadyr & Vadim A. Shakhnov, 2020. "Market for memristors and data mining memory structures for promising smart systems," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 8(2), pages 98-115, December.
    2. Ekaterina Y. Litau, 2020. "Scoring method as applied to innovation project evaluation for startup support," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 7(4), pages 2978-2990, June.
    3. Tristan Auvray & Cédric Durand & Joel Rabinovich & Cecilia Rikap, 2020. "Financialization's conservation and transformation: from Mark I to Mark II," CEPN Working Papers hal-03079425, HAL.
    4. Tristan Auvray & Cédric Durand & Joel Rabinovich & Cecilia Rikap, 2020. "Financialization's conservation and transformation: from Mark I to Mark II," Working Papers hal-03079425, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas E. Lambert, 2018. "Does Innovation Chase Profits, or Do Profits Chase Innovation?," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 7(3), pages 141-146, September.
    2. Lambert, Thomas, 2017. "Monopoly Capital and Entrepreneurism: Whither Small Business?," MPRA Paper 75999, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Mattauch, Linus & Hepburn, Cameron & Stern, Nicholas, 2018. "Pigou pushes preferences: decarbonisation and endogenous values," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-16, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    4. Andreia Tolciu, 2010. "The Economics of Social Interactions: An Interdisciplinary Ground for Social Scientists?," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 223-242, January.
    5. Pak, Tae-Young, 2023. "Relative deprivation and financial risk taking✰," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PA).
    6. Ostovan, Nima & Khalili Nasr, Arash, 2022. "The manifestation of luxury value dimensions in brand engagement in self-concept," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Tiia-Lotta Pekkanen, 2021. "Institutions and Agency in the Sustainability of Day-to-Day Consumption Practices: An Institutional Ethnographic Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 241-260, January.
    8. BARTOLINI Stefano & SARRACINO Francesco, 2011. "Happy for How Long? How Social Capital and GDP relate to Happiness over Time," LISER Working Paper Series 2011-60, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    9. Dieter Bögenhold, 2008. "Economics, Sociology, History: Notes on Their Loss of Unity, Their Need for Re-integration and the Current Relevance of the Controversy between Carl Menger and Gustav Schmoller," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 85-101, January.
    10. Po‐Ting Liu & Guang‐Zhen Sun, 2005. "The International Demonstration Effect And The Domestic Division Of Labour: A Simple Model," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(4), pages 515-528, December.
    11. Welsch, Heinz & Kühling, Jan, 2015. "Income comparison, income formation, and subjective well-being: New evidence on envy versus signaling," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 21-31.
    12. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2014. "Positional preferences in time and space: Optimal income taxation with dynamic social comparisons," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-23.
    13. Anastassios D. Karayiannis & Allan E. Young, 2003. "Entrepreneurial Activities in a Veblenian Type Transition Economy," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 47(2), pages 40-51, October.
    14. Desierto, Desiree & Koyama, Mark, 2024. "The Political Economy of Status Competition: Sumptuary Laws in Preindustrial Europe," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(2), pages 479-516, June.
    15. Karlan, Dean & McConnell, Margaret A., 2014. "Hey look at me: The effect of giving circles on giving," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 402-412.
    16. Hermes, Henning & Huschens, Martin & Rothlauf, Franz & Schunk, Daniel, 2021. "Motivating low-achievers—Relative performance feedback in primary schools," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 45-59.
    17. Chatterjee, Sheshadri & Chaudhuri, Ranjan & Vrontis, Demetris, 2023. "Masstige marketing: An empirical study of consumer perception and product attributes with moderating role of status, emotion, and pride," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    18. Zdravka Todorova, 2013. "Connecting social provisioning and functional finance in a post-Keynesian–Institutional analysis of the public sector," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 10(1), pages 61-75.
    19. Roth, Paula, 2020. "Inequality, Relative Deprivation and Financial Distress: Evidence from Swedish Register Data," Working Paper Series 1374, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    20. Peter Kooreman & Adriaan R. Soetevent, 2007. "A discrete-choice model with social interactions: with an application to high school teen behavior," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 599-624.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    big business; corporations; entrepreneurship; innovation; monopoly capital; research and development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:89503. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.