The paper investigates the linkages between characteristics of technologies and a firm’s knowledge base. Nanotechnologies have been defined as converging technologies that operate as nanoscale, and which require integration to fulfil their economic promises. The paper analyses the degree of...

In a realistic framework where the potential innovators’ research lines are imperfectly correlated and imitation takes some time, this paper studies an industry regulated by an authority which can tax (subsidize) the firms’ pure profits (R&D expenditures). By comparing the market equilibrium...

Using a knowledge production framework and a rich set of plant level data this study demonstrates that in Germany firms that are active on international markets as exporters or foreign direct investors do generate more new knowledge than firms which sell on the national market only. These...

This paper examines factors driving ICT adoption at firm level. We use a novel data set including information on ICT and e-commerce in Irish manufacturing firms over the period 2001-2004 and estimate a model derived from the new technology adoption literature that relates ICT adoption indicators...

In this article is investigated the issue of total factor productivity convergence through international technological diffusion on disaggregate manufacturing panel data from 1970 to 1995 with respect to a set of OECD countries. Estimates of alternate growth equations imply conditional...

Empirical evidence on the effectiveness of R&D subsidies to firms has produced mixed results so far. One possible explanation is that firms and project selection rules may be quite heterogeneous both across agencies and across industries, leading to different outcomes in terms of the induced...

Intellectual property rights are legal constraints that limit entry in industries where incumbents are innovators. The set of legal constraints is the same for all industries, without considering that the externalities created by entry are not necessarily negative for the incumbent or that the...

This article develops a model, based on switching costs and technological uncertainty, which explains some aspects of the price dynamics of e-commerce. Switching costs and intertemporal cost correlation lock-in consumers. Firms initially charge low prices to build a customer base. If firms fail...

It is becoming increasingly clear that the evaluation of policy measures that affect the growth performance of the economy requires adequate treatment of their effects on technological change. Environmental policy and regulations fit in this category. In this paper, I study the effects of taxes...

In industrial economies, firms build their market position by consistently investing in R&D over time and accumulating knowledge protected by secrecy, patents and other appropriability devices. To explore the macroeconomic implications of this fact, I construct an economy where oligopolistic...