Employment, Innovation, and Productivity: Evidence from Italian Microdata

Bronwyn Hall, Francesca Lotti and Jacques Mairesse

No 13296, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Italian manufacturing firms have been losing ground with respect to many of their European competitors. This paper presents some empirical evidence on the effects of innovation on employment growth and therefore on firms' productivity with the goal of understanding the roots of such poor performance. We use firm level data from the last three surveys on Italian manufacturing firms conducted by Mediocredito-Capitalia, which cover the period 1995-2003. Using a slightly modified version of the model proposed by Harrison, Jaumandreu, Mairesse and Peters (HJMP 2005), which separates employment growth rates into those associated with old and new products, we find no evidence of significant employment displacement effects stemming from process innovation. The sources of employment growth during the period are split equally between the net contribution of product innovation and the net contribution from sales growth of old products. However, the contribution of product innovation to employment growth is somewhat lower than in the four European countries considered in HJMP 2005, and the contribution of innovation in general to productivity growth is almost nil in Italy during this period.

JEL-codes: D24 J0 J20 L20 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eff and nep-ino
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published as Jacques Mairesse, 2008. "Employment, innovation, and productivity: evidence from Italian microdata," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 813-839, August.

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Journal Article: Employment, innovation, and productivity: evidence from Italian microdata (2008)
Working Paper: Employment, innovation, and productivity: Evidence from italian microdata (2007)
Working Paper: Employment, innovation and productivity: evidence from Italian microdata (2006)
Working Paper: Employment, Innovation, and Productivity: Evidence from Italian Microdata (2006)
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