In this paper we analyse the effect of ownership on the response of firms?’ R&D expenditures to the business cycles in the economy, using a panel dataset of Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 1990-2006. Following Aghion et al. (2012), we allow the impact of the business cycle on...

In this paper we analyze how industrial property rights (IPRs), measured by patents granted, affect competition at the industry level, and their induced effects on firms’ innovation incentives. We use for that purpose a panel dataset of Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 1990-2006....

In this paper we investigate the pattern of R&D efficiency in terms of the number of product innovations achieved by firms over time. Embodied in the R&D capital stock, we distinguish among physical R&D capital and human R&D capital, and allow the latter to be subject to dynamic returns along...

In this paper we explore in depth the effect of process innovations on total factor productivity growth for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), taking into account the potential endogeneity problem that may be caused by self selection into these activities. First, we analyse whether the ex-ante...

This paper analyses the sources of persistence in conducting R&D activities by SMEs. The data used is a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms drawn from the Survey of Business Strategies (ESEE), for the period 1990-2011. We estimate discrete time proportional hazard models accounting for firm...

Self-selection and learning-by-exporting are the main explanations for the higher productivity of exporting firms. But, whereas evidence on self-selection is largely undisputed, results on learning-by-exporting are mixed and far from conclusive. However, recent research (De Loecker, 2010) has...

The aim of this paper is analysing the role of internal and external financial constraints in the firms’ joint decision to export and invest in R&D. Our empirical strategy consists of estimating a bivariate probit that explicitly acknowledges that a firm R&D and export decisions are...

This paper analyses whether the productivity gains associated with learning-by-exporting (controlling for self-selection) depend on the intensity of the firm exporting activity. Results from a representative ample of Spanish manufacturing firms indicate that the yearly average gains in...