Buyers, Suppliers, and R&D Spillovers

Kenta Ikeuchi, Rene Belderbos, Kyoji Fukao, YoungGak Kim () and Hyeog Ug Kwon

Discussion papers from Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI)

Abstract: The role of buyers and suppliers has received little attention in the literature on research and development (R&D) spillovers and productivity, which has focused primarily on the moderating roles of technological and geographic proximity. In this study, we examine R&D spillovers that result from buyer and supplier relationships at the transaction level, utilizing a unique dataset identifying individual buyers and suppliers of Japanese manufacturing firms, matched with data from R&D surveys and the Census of Manufactures. In an analysis of more than 20,000 Japanese manufacturing plants, we find that R&D stocks of buyers and suppliers provide a substantial productivity performance premium over and above the effect of technologically and geographically proximate R&D stocks. These effects are magnified if the supplier and buyer have business group ties based on capital ownership relationships. While the effects of technologically proximate R&D decay with distance, this is not the case for spillovers from buyers and suppliers. Our results identify transaction-based spillovers as a key influence on productivity and social returns to R&D.

Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2015-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ino and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Working Paper: Buyers, suppliers, and R&D spillovers (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eti:dpaper:15047

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