Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7928
Authors: Sergey Lychagin; Joris Pinkse; Margaret E. Slade; John Van Reenen
Abstract: We simultaneously assess the contributions to productivity of three sources of research and development spillovers: geographic, technology and product?market proximity. To do this, we construct a new measure of geographic proximity that is based on the distribution of a firm?s inventor locations rather than its headquarters, and we report both parametric and semiparametric estimates of our geographic?distance functions. We find that: i) Geographic space matters even after conditioning on horizontal and technological spillovers; ii) Technological proximity matters; iii) Product?market proximity is less important; iv) Locations of researchers are more important than headquarters but both have explanatory power; and v) Geographic markets are very local.
Keywords: geographic proximity; R&D spillovers; semiparametric; technological proximity
JEL Codes: C23; L60; O33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Geographic proximity (R12) | Firm performance (L25) |
| Technological proximity (O30) | Firm performance (L25) |
| Product market proximity (R32) | Firm performance (L25) |
| Locations of researchers (R32) | Firm performance (L25) |
| Geographic proximity (R12) | R&D outcomes (O32) |
| Technological proximity (O30) | R&D outcomes (O32) |
| Product market proximity (R32) | R&D outcomes (O32) |