Growth through heterogeneous innovations
Akcigit, Ufuk; Kerr, William R. (19.11.2013)
Numero
28/2013Julkaisija
Bank of Finland
2013
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:bof-20140807340Tiivistelmä
We study how exploration versus exploitation innovations impact economic growth through a tractable endogenous growth framework that contains multiple innovation sizes, multi-product firms, and entry/exit. Firms invest in exploration R&D to acquire new product lines and exploitation R&D to improve their existing product lines. We model and show empirically that exploration R&D does not scale as strongly with firm size as exploitation R&D. The resulting framework conforms to many regularities regarding innovation and growth differences across the firm size distribution. We also incorporate patent citations into our theoretical framework. The framework generates a simple test using patent citations that indicates that entrants and small firms have relatively higher growth spillover effects. JEL Classification: O31, O33, O41, L16 Keywords: Endogenous Growth, Innovation, Exploration, Exploitation, Research and Development, Patents, Citations, Scientists, Entrepreneurs