Delegation and R&D Spending: Evidence from Italy

Jakub Kastl, David Martimort and Salvatore Piccolo ()

CSEF Working Papers from Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy

Abstract: We use data from the Italian manufacturing industry to document a positive relation- ship between delegation of decisions within organizations and involvement in research and development. This positive correlation is robust to controlling for the determi- nants of R&D within firms such as the level of human capital, capital intensity, sec- toral and regional effects and to using different measures of R&D. We also investigate the determinants of delegation in our sample. We find a positive correlation between ownership concentration and delegation, which goes against the findings of Shleifer and Vishny (1986). We also find that variables found as important determinants of delegation in French manufacturing by Acemoglu, Aghion, Lelarge, Van Reenen and Zilibotti (2007) do not appear important in our sample, and some even exhibit qualita- tively opposite effect. These disparities can perhaps be explained by differences in the studied samples and observed variables, and call for further studies of cross-country differences.

Keywords: R&D; Delegation; Ownership Concentration; Asymmetric Information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-01-01, Revised 2009-10-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cta, nep-ind, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-lab and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Journal of Industrial Economics, 2013, 61, pp. 84–107

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