Using a new administrative dataset, we provide fresh micro-level evidence on firms’ returns to scale (RTS). We employ a new administrative database, iBACH, which contains extensive high-quality annual balance sheet, financial, and demographic information on more than two million non-financial...

This paper discusses the relation between trade and competition, revising the literature and using indicators, build with Brazilian industrial survey (PIA/IBGE) and foreign trade (Comtrade) data. The premise is that the structure of domestic competition is explained by concentration indices,...

We study how profit taxation affects plants' R&D spending and innovation activities. Relying on geocoded survey panel data which approximately covers the universe of R&D-active plants in Germany, we exploit around 7,300 changes in the municipal business tax rate over the period 1987-2013 for...

Does workload constitute a bottleneck to a public agency’s mission, and if so, to what extent? We ask these questions in the context of the US government’s procurement of R&D. We link tender, contract, patent, and office records to the identity of the officer responsible for the procurement...

Who produces scientific and technical knowledge these days? What type of knowledge is being produced and for what purposes? Why are firms and governments funding research and development? This chapter studies the role of knowledge production (especially R&D activities) in the innovation process...

Sweden has seen a rise in business R&D intensities and dependence on exports to make its economy grow since the early 1990s. This paper examines the role of foreign sales for stimulating R&D as compared to a domestic sales effect. In line with the literature, we find in cross-sections from 1991...

The main question that guides this paper is how governments are focusing (and must focus) on competence building (education and training) when designing and implementing innovation policies. With this approach, the paper aims at filling the gap between the existing literature on competences on...

In 2006 the European Commission introduced the concept of "Pre-Commercial Procurement" as an instrument to promote innovation and to mitigate grand challenges. One of the main motivations for the support of Pre-Commercial Procurement schemes was to use public needs as a driver for innovation....

This paper estimates the effect of heterogeneous university funding stemming from the German Excellence Initiative on a regional firm’s probability to innovate by using a multi-valued two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences model. The estimations show that funding an additional...

Economics and innovation scholars have long recognized the potential of public procurement to trigger innovation. To what extent has this potential been realized so far? What can be done to improve the performance of PPI in this regard? This paper addresses these issues by providing a literature...