Issue: Winter 1996
Pages: pp. 700-721
Authors: James D. Adams and Adam B. Jaffe
Title: Bounding the Effects of R&D: An Investigation Using Matched Establishment-Firm Data
Abstract: We find that the effects of parent firm R&D on plant-level productivity are diminished by both the geographic and technological distance between the research lab and the plants; that productivity appears to depend on R&D per plant rather than on the total amount; and that spillovers from technologically related firms are significant but also depend on R&D intensity rather than on total industry R&D. These results suggest that the "dilution" of R&D across multiple target plants reduces its potency sufficiently that spillovers may not be a source of industrywide or economywide increasing returns.
Management of Technological Innovation and R&D (O320)
Production; Capital and Total Factor Productivity; Capacity (D240)
Research and Development (6212)
Industry Studies Construction (6340)
Microeconomics Theory of Production (0223)