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Economic Development: Issues in Technological Innovation, Infrastructure Investment and Financial Markets

Paper Session

Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017 3:15 PM – 5:15 PM

Hyatt Regency Chicago, Michigan 2
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Gerald R. Marschke, State University of New York-Albany and NBER

Teams in R&D: Evidence From United States Inventor Data

Jinyoung Kim
,
Korea University
Gerald R. Marschke
,
State University of New York-Albany and NBER

Abstract

This paper exploits U.S. patent data and a panel of inventors listed on U.S. patents since 1975 to investigate the determinants of teamwork in industrial R&D. Inventor team size as well as the length of collaboration among team members has increased over the past several decades. The focus of the paper is a test of a model of dynamic team formation where a firm must choose and then over time rebalance a team’s constitution taking into account the gains to specialization, costs of coordination, technological change, and the risks that employee members of the research team will appropriate the firm’s intellectual property. We use variation in policy towards noncompete agreements in employment contracts to identify the effect of researcher mobility and IP appropriation on team formation. We find that where researcher job mobility is low, teams tend to be larger and are more likely to repeat. Our evidence suggests that in assembling R&D teams, firms are sensitive to the costs of appropriation and/or coordination.

Do China’s High-Speed-Rail Projects Promote Local Economy? ---New evidence from a panel data approach

Xiao Ke
,
Xiamen University
Haiqiang Chen
,
Xiamen University
Yongmiao Hong
,
Cornell University
Cheng Hsiao
,
University of Southern California

Abstract

Abstract: This paper evaluates the effect of High Speed Rail (HSR) projects on the economic growth of targeted city nodes (HSR cities) in China using prefectural-level city data from 1990 to 2013. Employing a panel data program evaluation method devised by Hsiao, Ching and Wan (2012), we construct hypothetical counterfactuals for per capita real GDP of HSR cities in the absence of their respective HSR projects using the outcomes in selected non-HSR cities. We find that HSR projects have raised per capita GDP for most targeted cities we studied, while the ATEs of some HSR cities differ in magnitude or even in sign. Also, we find significant “run up” effects, indicating considerable treatment effects during the HSR construction period. HSR cities with positive ATEs spatially agglomerate on Huning corridor, and along Southeast coast HSR corridor. In general, the gain for local economies is greater for cities that are more industrialized, with more ability of the service sector to absorb enough labor, and with better supporting infrastructure. On the other hand, local protectionism hampers the development of HSR cities. We also show that at different project stages, HSR cities experience different gains.

Economic Development Levels and the Finance and Growth Nexus

Yen Ngoc Nguyen
,
St. Francis Xavier University
Kym Brown
,
Monash University
Michael Skully
,
Monash University

Abstract

This study investigates whether a country’s level of economic development impacts its finance-growth relationship. The dynamic short run impact of financial system variables is tested against economic growth, focussed on levels of economic development, using a system GMM for 90 World Bank designated low, middle, and high income countries over 1980 – 2011. Our financial development measure includes domestic bond markets and insurance as well as the usual banking credit and stock market measures. The results confirm that levels of economic development matters in the financial development-economic growth nexus. We find that banking had a negative effect for all levels of development but more so for developed economies. Stock markets had a positive effect on growth for the middle income countries. Bond markets impacted growth positively for middle and high income countries. Insurance provides a positive relationship to growth for all three groups. In the pre-global crisis sample period, low income countries had the lowest impact on growth for banking, stock and bond markets. Also in the pre-crisis period sample tested, high income countries had the best banking result and positive effects from stock and bond markets on growth.
Discussant(s)
Gerald R. Marschke
,
State University of New York-Albany and NBER
Xiao Ke
,
Xiamen University
Yen Nguyen
,
St. Francis Xavier University
JEL Classifications
  • O1 - Economic Development
  • O3 - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights