Utilization of fixed capital and Soviet industrial growth

Growth rates of output and factor productivity in Soviet industry fluctuate around a long-term downward trend. These fluctuations can be partially explained by fluctuations in the growth of services of capital. The capacity utilization rate is taken as a proxy for the extent of utilization of capital stock. Variations in the capacity utilization rate explain a significant part of the changes in the rate of growth of total factor productivity between 1970–1983. Declines in the capacity utilization rate are caused by errors in the allocation of investment, which create an imbalance of capacities between raw-materials and manufacturing sectors.     

Explaining economic growth in the Soviet Union, 1950–86

Production function estimates are provided for Soviet industrial production and gross national product for the period 1950–86. A variety of alternative specifications is tested, including Cobb-Douglas, constant elasticity of substitution and variable elasticity of substitution production functions, and an error correction mechanism is used to investigate the long-run properties of the estimated equation. The structural stability of the estimates is also examined. Constant-returns-to-scale Cobb-Douglas production functions suggest that the rate of total factor productivity growth in the Soviet economy has declined steadily over time, becoming negative sometime in the period between 1970 and 1980. However the extensive statistical tests can doubt on the validity of any production function estimated on Soviet data.     

Effectiveness of university technology transfer: an organizational population ecology view of a maturing supplier industry

In this article, we propose that universities engaged in technology transfer activities can be viewed as the University Technology Commercialization (UTC) industry. We use an organizational population ecology perspective to outline an economic model for the analysis of the UTC industry. We introduce cohort analysis and time-lagged comparisons of multiple stages in the commercialization process to examine the efficiency and productivity of the industry. Our main source of data is the Association of University Technology Managers licensing surveys from 1991 through 2004. Results indicate that industry growth is slowing, and that the technology transfer process is becoming less efficient; opportunities for individual and/or collective action are noted.     

The ivory tower approach to entrepreneurial linkage: productivity changes in university technology transfer

Academic entrepreneurship has been intensively applied to the area of technology innovation and diffusion in the US. Along with the promotion of innovative approaches, universities take advantage of knowledge spillovers from their laboratories to the market for both economic development and financial gains. This study assessed individual university productivity in technology transfer using feasible measures of multiple input–output combinations and data envelopment analysis to examine panel data gathered over the period 1999–2007. A major finding is that there was substantial growth in the average productivity of university technology transfer during this period. The average annual productivity gain in the 90 universities was over 30%, indicating that universities’ technology transfer activities were relatively efficient in terms of their input to output ratio. The positive shifts in average productivity changes were primarily due to the increasing frequencies of commercial outputs. This finding suggests that universities and public policy should pay attention to stimulate commercial activities rather than to increase investments for upgrading a next level of realistic, long-term strategies.     

Productivity growth, trade and FDI nexus: evidence from the Canadian manufacturing sector

Using the confined exponential and logistic models of technology diffusion, this paper investigates the roles played by international trade and FDI in explaining productivity growth through both technology transfer and domestic innovation, with the technology transfer also occurring independently. Using panel data on Canadian manufacturing industries, we first find a robust role for the autonomous and international trade embodied technology transfer in explaining TFP growth. Second, international trade and FDI (as well as research and development) all contribute to productivity growth through the rate of innovation. Finally, we find that the exponential and logistic models of technology diffusion may have different implications for the growth dynamics in a technologically lagging country.     

The Purchase and Sale Of Licenses in the USSR

License purchase and sale operations, i.e., permissions to use and apply inventions and other technical advances, are expanding in the Soviet Union. The Directives of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU on the Five-Year Plan for Development of the National Economy of the USSR in 1966-1970 specifically provided for a "considerable expansion of trade in patents and licenses with foreign countries."     

Government Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP) - A program for technology transfer

This paper presents information on the current capability and future potential of the Government-Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP) as a viable data exchange program in terms of technology transfer and resources conservation providing a key to technological growth and profit. This information transfer function of technology utilization is an important aspect to be considered. This paper presents an overview of the ways the GIDEP Program is utilized by over 650 government and industry organizations to provide a technology transfer function for quality and reliability improvement. How increased productivity and economic benefits are derived from use of GIDEP data banks and its communication network are described. Specific examples of data utilization and benefits are provided.     

Informal university technology transfer: a comparison between the United States and Germany

Existing literature has confined university technology transfer almost exclusively to formal mechanisms, like patents, licenses or royalty agreements. Relatively little is known about informal technology transfer that is based upon interactions between university scientists and industry personnel. Moreover, most studies are limited to the United States, where the Bayh-Dole Act has shaped the institutional environment since 1980. In this paper, we provide a comparative study between the United States and Germany where the equivalent of the Bayh-Dole Act has come into force only in 2002. Based on a sample of more than 800 university scientists, our results show similar relationships for the United States and Germany. Faculty quality which is however based on patent applications rather than publications serves as a major predictor for informal technology transfer activities. Hence, unless universities change their incentives (e.g., patenting as one criterion for promotion and tenure) knowledge will continue to flow out the backdoor.     

Do Computers Make Output Harder to Measure?

In recent years, U.S. productivity growth accelerated sharply in manufacturing, but has remained sluggish in the most computer-intensive service industries. This paper explores the possibility that information technology is generating output that is increasingly hard to measure in non-manufacturing industries, which contributes to the divergence in industry productivity growth rates. Our results suggest that measurement error in 13 computer-intensive, non-manufacturing industries increased between 0.74 and 1.57 percentage points per year in the 1990s, which understates annual aggregate productivity growth by 0.10 to 0.20 percentage points in the 1990s. This adds to an estimated 0.22 to 0.30 percentage point error from the increasing share of aggregate output in these hard-to-measure industries. Thus, increasing measurement problems may understate aggregate productivity growth by an additional 0.32 to 0.50 percentage points per year in the 1990s and play an important role in understanding recent productivity trends at the industry level.     

A Bayesian stochastic frontier: an application to agricultural productivity growth in European countries

This paper measures and compares total factor productivity (TFP) growth in agriculture for the European Union (EU) countries and candidate countries (CC), in order to distinguish and investigate cross-country differences in agricultural productivity growth rates from 1993 to 2006. A stochastic production frontier model is estimated using a Bayesian approach capturing country-specific time-invariant heterogeneity and country-specific time-varying inefficiency. Agricultural productivity growth is found to be mostly driven by technological change. The TFP growth rates of the EU-12 countries and CC are about twice the EU-15 growth rate. Catch-up in productivity levels is observed between EU-15 and EU-12 as well as between EU-15 and CC. The results are compared for a situation in which country-specific time-invariant heterogeneity is not taken into account.     

Technology transfer into capital-intensive industry II. Effect of legislative action

Government policy supports the customary industrial goal of putting new technology to work in industry as quickly as possible, so as to enhance productivity and save energy. There is continuing debate over how to achieve this goal, specifically as to the impact of legislation on efforts to improve industrial energy conservation. The Office of Technology Assessment has studied the effects of four types of legislation on four large energy-using industries: Chemicals, paper, petroleum refining and steel. The legislative options include fuel taxes, changes in depreciation rules, energy tax credits, and lower interest rates. The analysis indicates that reasonable levels of the first three of these will not be persuasive in motivating new investments, and will not speed up the rate of new technology penetration. The limits of new technology introduction are set by capital availability and cash flow. Accordingly, lower interest rates which promote capital availability would indeed increase the levels of capital spending and hence accelerate energy conservation.     

Relationship Dynamics between University Research Centers and Industrial Firms: Their Impact on Technology Transfer Activities

In this study we focus on relationship-oriented factors such as trust, geographic proximity, communication, and university policies for intellectual property rights (IPR), patents and licenses and examine how these factors influence the technology transfer process between university research centers and their industrial partners. Data for this study were collected from 189 industrial firms working with 21 research centers affiliated with prominent research-oriented universities in the US. Our results showed that trust, geographic proximity, and flexible university policies for IPR, patents, and licenses were strongly associated with greater technology transfer activities. The implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Total factor productivity and the role of entrepreneurship

The absence of evidence in the scholarly literature for a tested long-term relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth is at odds with the importance attributed to entrepreneurship in the policy arena. The present paper addresses this absence, introducing entrepreneurship using four different and accepted models explaining the total factor productivity of twenty OECD countries with data for the period 1969–2010. Traditionally, entrepreneurship is not addressed in these models. We show that in all models—as well as a joint one—entrepreneurship has a significant influence while the remaining effects largely stay the same. Entrepreneurship is measured as the business ownership rate (number of business owners per workforce) corrected for the level of economic development (GDP per capita).     

The effects of biased technological change on total factor productivity: empirical evidence from a sample of OECD countries

Technological change is far from neutral. The empirical analysis of the rate and direction of technological change in a significant sample of 12 major OECD countries in the years 1970–2003 confirms the strong bias of new technologies. The paper implements a novel methodology to identify and disentangle the effects of the direction of technological change upon total factor productivity (TFP) and shows how the introduction of new and biased technologies affects the actual levels of TFP according to the relative local endowments. The empirical evidence confirms that the introduction of biased technologies enhances TFP when its direction matches the characteristics of local factor markets so that locally abundant inputs become more productive. When the direction of technological change favours the intensive use of production factors that are locally scarce, the actual increase of TFP is reduced.     

Business dynamics,industry productivity growth,and the distribution of firm-level performance: evidence for the role of ICT using Dutch firm-level data

We present evidence on industry productivity growth and business dynamics in Dutch industries for the period 2007–2012, and investigate whether there is a role for ICT intensity in explaining differences across industries. Moreover, we relate ICT intensity to various distributional characteristics of firm performance, such as the dispersion of labor productivity and turnover, concentration and turbulence of market shares, and the efficiency of resource allocation. In the first part of the paper we follow a decomposition approach, whereas in the second part we apply a regression based analysis. The results suggest that productivity growth is higher in ICT production and industries with high ICT usage, but that ICT also increases differences in firm performance and leads to concentration of markets. In addition, there is evidence that markets are more efficient in ICT intensive industries.     

Profiles of State Technological Transfer Structure and Its Impact on Small Manufacturers

This paper presents the results of an empirical examination of the methods 10 state agencies use in coordinating technology assistance to small manufacturers. The strategies that agencies use to transfer technology are evaluated in light of 15 economic variables. Where appropriate, regression analysis was used to measure the impact of these variables on the growth rate of small manufacturers. State assistance strategies were determined by mailing a questionnaire to the chief technology transfer officer in each of the states. Survey participants were asked to discuss the mission, goals, degree of goal accomplishment, and size of budget/staff. The study compares their responses and discusses how these agencies might improve the transfer process.Five economic variables were found to be significantly related to the number of small manufacturers in a state. However when growth rates of the significant variables and small manufacturers were compared the results were not as clear. The states with the fastest growth rates of small manufacturers did focus their technical assistance on small firms. These states tended to place a priority on providing technical assistance to small manufacturers.     

Patent analysis for promoting technology transfer in multi-technology industries: the Korean aerospace industry case

With the increasing importance of technology, the efficiency of R&D investment is becoming a critical factor to an organisation’s success. As a result, many studies have carried out to create useful information to support various decision-makings faced during R&D planning but few efforts were made to discuss technology transferability in creating the information. Technology transferability can be an important factor to increase the efficiency of R&D investment especially in a multi-technology industry, where a compound of several industries produces a variety of components and systems. Therefore, this study purposes to develop a systematic method to analyse the transferability of technology, aiming to facilitate R&D spill-over. For the purpose of analysis, patent data from USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) was adopted and patent citation analysis applied, which shows the relationship between technologies and industries as quantitative measures. The research result then was applied to Korean aerospace industry and its utility verified. The suggested method is expected to be used in understanding technology characteristics and making the most use of R&D outputs by promoting technology transfer in multi-technology industries.     

Academic Capitalism and University Incentives for Faculty Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial behavior by professors—including decisions about collaboration with industry, patenting and spinning off companies—can affect the productivity of top universities’ technology transfer efforts. Interviews with 98 professors at 12 southeastern universities showed that the most significant influence on these aspects of entrepreneurial behavior is the beliefs of professors about the proper role of universities in the dissemination of knowledge. Some institutional policies, notably revenue splits with inventors, can affect aspects of this behavior. These findings suggest that both university incentive policies and ethical concerns about academic capitalism, by limiting the productivity of technology transfer efforts, have an effect on regional economic development.     

Technology transfer: A shortcut in danger of short circuit

At cocktail parties, in board rooms, at workstations, in classrooms, and in government offices, “technology transfer” is bandied about as if it were some natural phenomenon, a technological tsunami overwhelming everything in its path. Technology transfer, it is sometimes suggested, is an El Niño in business, government, industry, and even education decision-making, and for some it has meant disruption, dislocation, and danger. For others, technology transfer has been the vanguard of progress and an inexhaustible fountain of productivity, empowerment, and convenience. For all, “technology transfer” today is too often a personal shortcut in our communication that points to unintended meanings or implications. Just whatis “technology transfer,” anyway? To move beyond knee-jerk advocacy or damnation of technology transfer on the questionable basis of faith, and to lay out a new dimension to the definition, understanding, and acceptance of technology transfer that is clear and understandable to any layman, is the purpose of this paper. It is based on a selective yet careful web search, since the Internet World Wide Web is a principal source for information in the growing debate about public policy issues.     

Assessing the Effect of Incentive Regulation on Productive Efficiency in Telecommunications in the United States

The use of incentive regulation in telecommunications in the United States requires accurate measurement of the change in productivity. An approach to measuring productivity change, the Malmquist index approach, is introduced that not only provides a measure of that change but also allows for a decomposition into two mutually exclusive and exhaustive components—changes in technical efficiency over time and shifts in technology over time. Using annual data on four output measures and six input measures for the period 1988 to 1999 for nineteen local exchange carriers, the results indicate that productivity increased by about 5.5 percent per year. This growth is due primarily to innovation rather than improvements in efficiency. Of the nineteen LECs in the sample, eleven were operating efficiently throughout the entire 1988–1999 period. Of the remaining eight, four showed a slight improvement in efficiency while the efficiency of four declined. In the aggregate, however, there was virtually no change in efficiency. Finally, a comparison is made between two methods of estimating the change in productivity. The conventional growth accounting approach yields a lower estimate of the rate of change in productivity than the Malmquist index approach yield. The difference between these estimates is interpreted as the lower bound of the bias associated with the conventional growth accounting approach to measuring the growth in productivity.