Does workload constitute a bottleneck to a public agency’s mission, and if so, to what extent? We ask these questions in the context of the US government’s procurement of R&D. We link tender, contract, patent, and office records to the identity of the officer responsible for the procurement...

This paper shows that inventors with an early patenting success have a higher inventive productivity during their remaining career. We use European patent data for a period of 32 years for 1240 German inventors. The patent data are linked with survey data that provide information on an extensive...

We utilize a new survey experiment to evaluate the existence and degree of financial constraints for R&D in the economy. The experiment does not only allow to deduct the presence of financial constraints, but also to evaluate their economic significance. Using data on German companies, we find...

Process innovation is an important part of firms’ innovation activities and supposed to significantly contribute to positive returns from innovation. Measuring process innovation output at the firm level is still in its infancy, however. This paper reports empirical evidence on measures of...

This paper tests for the sensitivity of R&D to financing constraints conditional on restrictions in external financing. Financing constraints of firms are identified by an exogenously calculated rating index. Restrictions in external financing are determined by (i) the specific time period...

Firms use a variety of practices to disclose the knowledge generated by their R&D activities, including, but not limited to, publishing findings in scientific journals, patenting new technologies, and contributing to developing standards. While the individual effects of engaging in the listed...

The attention to "left behind" places triggered a debate about alternative development approaches. Unlike prosperous regions and their prioritisation on high-tech sectors, strategies for left behind places should shift to the foundational economy, community-based social innovation and...

Economics and innovation scholars have long recognized the potential of public procurement to trigger innovation. To what extent has this potential been realized so far? What can be done to improve the performance of PPI in this regard? This paper addresses these issues by providing a literature...

We study the blocking effect of patents on follow-on innovation by others. We posit that follow-on innovation requires freedom to operate (FTO), which firms typically obtain through a license from the patentee holding the original innovation. Where licensing fails, follow-on innovation is...

Public procurement accounts for 15 to 20 percent of global GDP and is considered an effective innovation policy. However, the detrimental effects of non-innovative public procurement - public procurement tenders awarded solely based on their price - on firm innovations have been largely...