A common assumption in innovation policy circles is that creative and inventive firms will help to sustain employment and wages in high wage countries. The view is that firms in high cost production locations that do not innovate are faced with loss of market share from import competition, so...

Investigates pricing behaviour in the retail grocery industry, analysing pricing at the micro level of a London submarket. Looks at the extent and effect of recommended resale prices on grocery items. Compares the average expenditure between stores on a given set of items. Examines differences...

This paper provides evidence from a newly constructed database of UK firms about the extent of their intellectual property acquisition activities over five years. We focus on service sector firms, which have not previously been studied, with comparisons for firms in manufacturing and other...

The economist's approach to this question must rest on the basic concept of the opportunity cost arising when individuals engage in market work rather than producing goods and services at home. All discussions of the efficiency of the tax structure must take account of the forgone domestic...

We construct a unique panel dataset to examine how R&D and intellectual property (IP), via patents and trade marks, increase firm productivity. Knowledge has public good characteristics of non-depletability and non-excludability. Even with IP, imitation and inventing around other firm`s products...

This paper uses novel data on trade mark activity of UK manufacturing and service sector firms to investigate whether trade marks improve the profitability and productivity of firms. We first analyse Tobin`s q, the ratio of stock market value to book value of tangible assets. We then investigate...

This paper analyses market valuations of UK companies using a new data set of their R&D and IP activities (1989-1999). In contrast to previous studies, the analysis is conducted at the sector level, where the sectors are based on the technological classification in Pavitt (1984). The first main...

Using retrospective work history data for over 50,000 men and women in Great Britain surveyed in 1975-76, the authors document the amount of vocational training occurring in a ten-year period and discuss its effects and determinants. The effects of training on occupational status are estimated...