Measuring Corporate R&D Spillovers in the Innovation Network

36 Pages Posted: 13 Nov 2019 Last revised: 17 Nov 2022

See all articles by Alex Xi He

Alex Xi He

University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business

Date Written: January 10, 2022

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a measure of technological spillovers between firms using the citation-based innovation network, which incorporates knowledge spillovers from upstream technological fields to downstream technological fields. We then use this measure to estimate the impact of technology spillovers using panel data on U.S. firms. We find that knowledge spillovers from upstream fields increases downstream firms’ patenting, market value, and productivity. Quantitatively, spillovers from firms innovating in upstream fields are as important as spillovers from firms innovating in same fields. R&D in upstream fields also reduce the marginal product of R&D in downstream fields. We show that neglecting knowledge spillovers between technological fields would lead to an underestimation of the wedge between private returns and social returns to R&D by about 50%.

Keywords: Innovation spillovers, R&D, networks

JEL Classification: O32

Suggested Citation

He, Alex Xi, Measuring Corporate R&D Spillovers in the Innovation Network (January 10, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3481284 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3481284

Alex Xi He (Contact Author)

University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business ( email )

College Park, MD 20742-1815
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.alexxihe.com/

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