The Effect of Participation in Government Consortia on the R&D Productivity of Firms: A Case Study of Robot Technology in Japan

Sebastien Lechevalier, Yukio Ikeda, 幸生 池田, ユキオ イケダ, Junichi Nishimura and 淳一 西村

No a500, Discussion Paper Series from Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of participation in government-sponsored R&D consortia on the R&D productivity of firms in the case of robot technology in Japan. We attempt to provide a new empirical analysis and discussions on the issue of government project evaluation by using indicators of the quality of patents, by investigating the impact of the evolution of government programs, and comparing government-sponsored R&D consortia with collaborative R&D among firms. Using indicators of the quality of patents which enables us to provide an estimation of quality-adjusted research productivity, we find that participation in government programs has a positive impact on the research productivity of participating firms, but the impact of participation became much higher after the design of government programs in this field changed in the late 1990s. Also, we find that participation in government-sponsored consortia has a greater impact on research productivity than participation in collaborative R&D among firms. This may support government involvement in R&D as a coordinator of R&D collaboration.

Keywords: industrial policy; robot thchnology; Japanese innovation system; collaborative R&D (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L24 L52 L6 O32 O34 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2008-03
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hit:hituec:a500

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