The role of financial institutions and corporate governance in the conduct and performance of industrial firms, especially in the area of technological innovation and international competition has been hotly debated in the recent past. The results presented here are a contribution to the...

This paper investigates changes in the output and productivity of research and development activities in Japanese manufacturing firms over the 1980s and 1990s. Evidence from aggregate patent and R&D statistics and a micro-level analysis of R&D productivity at the firm-level suggest that there...

This paper reviews the recent empirical literature on international knowledge spillovers. I start by summarizing the theoretical models that have highlighted the potential importance of these spillovers. Then, drawing upon the older micro productivity research tradition, I lay out a simple...

Does an expansion of patent scope induce more innovative effort by firms? We examine responses to the Japanese patent reforms of 1988. Interviews with practitioners and professional documents for patent agents suggest the reforms significantly expanded the scope of patent rights. However,...

One of the central arguments advanced by proponents of stronger intellectual property rights (IPRs) systems is that strengthening such systems induces higher levels of innovation by domestic firms. This article reviews several empirical studies undertaken by economists to assess the validity of...

Concerns about the competitiveness of Japan's high-technology industries has prompted a number of recent reforms seeking to strengthen the ability of Japanese firms to utilize scientific discoveries, often originating in universities, in their R&D activities. Using an original panel data set...

What is driving the remarkable increase over the last decade in the propensity of patents to cite academic science? Does this trend indicate that stronger knowledge spillovers from academia have helped power the surge in innovative activity in the U.S. in the 1990s? This paper seeks to shed...

This paper examines how technology transfer within U.S. multinational firms changes in response to a series of IPR reforms undertaken by 16 countries over the 1982-1999 period. Analysis of detailed firm-level data reveals that royalty payments for technology transferred to affiliates increase at...

This paper empirically evaluates the impact of the US Advanced Technology Program-sponsored consortia on the ex-post research productivity of participating firms. We find that there is a positive association between the intensity of participation in research consortia and the overall research...