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Employment Effects of Innovation at the Firm Level. Stefan Lachenmaier * , Horst Rottmann ♦. 3. Konferenz für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten, Mai 2006, Wiesbaden. * Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich ♦ University of Applied Sciences Amberg-Weiden and Ifo Institute.
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Employment Effects of Innovation at the Firm Level Stefan Lachenmaier*, Horst Rottmann♦ 3. Konferenz für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten, Mai 2006, Wiesbaden * Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich ♦ University of Applied Sciences Amberg-Weiden and Ifo Institute
The Research Question • Do innovations have a significant effect on employment? • Concentrate on the analysis of long-term effects
Motivation • Theoretical contributions show different results • Product innovations: increase demand increase employment level decrease competition increase market power reduce output decrease employment • Process innovations: increase labour productivity decrease employment level lower costs lower prices higher demand stimulate emplyoment Overall effect is depending on elasticity of demand • Empirical evidence is necessary • Panel studies are rare due to the lack of appropriate data
Main Idea • Exploit long innovation panel data set • Distinguish between product and process innovations • Introduce different innovation categories
Related Literature • Theoretical Contributions: • Petit (1995) • Stoneman (1984), Hamermesh (1993) • Empirical Contributions: • Chennels / Van Reenen (1999) • Cross-Sectional Analyses: Zimmermann (1991), König et al. (1995) • Employment Growth Analyses: Brouwer et al. (1993), Blanchflower/ Burgess (1999), Blechinger et al. (1998) • Panel Analyses: Smolny (1998), van Reenen (1997), Rottmann/Ruschinski (1998)
Database • Ifo Innovation Survey • Panel Structure: 1982-2003 (unbalanced) • German Manufacturing Sector • ~1300 observations per year • Contains information on: • Innovation: Product and Process Innovation, Innovations introduced, Innovation expenditure • Firm characteristics: firm size, NACE, German states, turnover • Control variables added on sector level (2digit NACE)
Empirical Model • Modelling employment adjustment process is complex, esp. for small firms (e.g. Hamermesh / Pfann 1996) • Labour demand reacts slowly to changes in innovation behaviour • Estimating long-term effects: Following Blanchard / Wolfers (2000), Nickell (1997, 2003) • Calculating averages for 4-(and 5-year periods) • Use period averages for panel analysis (time index t indicates period)
Estimation Level Equation: L: Labour demand T: Technology Q: Product quality X: Controls Linear Equation in differenced log values: • transformed into growth rates • allows to introduce innovation variables • Eliminates unobservable firm effect
Estimation Equation: IPc: Process Innovation (proxy for Dt) IPd: Product Innovation (proxy for Dq) Dw: Growth of Real Hourly Wage Rate (sectoral) Dg: Growth of Real Gross Value Added (sectoral) eit: log of employment start level • Remember: • Variables are expressed in averages over periods
The problem of endogeneity • Potential contemporaneous correlation of innovation and error term resulting from a shock simultaneously affecting employment and innovation • IV Strategy • So far we tested Innovation Impulses, Innovation Obstacles, lagged values • No robust results: Either instruments are not good (low significance in first stage) or not valid (Sargan test)
Descriptive Statistics Until 1990: Former West Germany, since 1991: Germany Unbalanced panel: 9142 „observations“, 4567 different firms, 5 time categories
Summary • Innovations show positive effects on employment growth • True for product as well as process innovations. Process innovations show even higher effect • No additional effect for R&D based innovations • Additional effect for product innovations which involved patent applications • Further Research: Dynamics of adjustment process