Documents research and development 254 results

"Governments at the EU and the member state level are placing increased emphasis on public research and development (R&D) for energy and the environment to advance a circular economy (CE). To achieve CE goals, it is critical to engage SMEs as they represent the vast majority of enterprises in the EU. To date, there is a lack of evidence regarding the impact of these public R&D investments on SMEs' CE activities. We address this gap by analysing the impact of public environmental and energy R&D on CE implementation and investment by SMEs. The study draws from a multi-level database of 10,618 SMEs across 28 EU member states for the period 2013–2015 from the Flash Eurobarometer 441 survey and country-level data from other EU sources. Employing a mixed-level probit regression, we find that the knowledge generated by public environmental and energy R&D, defined as country-level investments in this activity from 2004 to 2015, positively affects SMEs' implementation of CE activities. Additionally, the study finds that public environmental and energy R&D affects the level of SMEs' investment in CE activities negatively, suggesting that more public R&D can substitute for the financial efforts that SMEs have to take when implementing CE activities."

"Based on the literature on the diversity of capitalism (DoC) and legal origin (LO), this article examines the role of institutional configurations in the uneven development of private equity (PE) in 18 European countries. The article shows that developed stock markets, the ability of limited partners (insurance companies) to invest in LBO funds and low employment protection are more important determinants than investor protection in the case of LBO investments. However, venture capital (VC) investments are found to be positively associated with investor protection but also with developed stock markets and favourable tax rates for managers. R&D tax incentives for investee companies are found to have a negative impact on VC investments, which are nonetheless promoted by public R&D expenditures. Even if national institutional configurations matter in explaining differences, as emphasised by LO and DoC, we observe a common trend in PE development and financialisation."

"We study the endogenous formation of R&D networks between two domestic and one foreign firms in a unionized oligopoly. We find that the equilibrium networks are sensitive to the extent of knowledge spillovers between networked firms. If spillovers are sufficiently low, the complete network will arise in equilibrium; however, if spillovers are sufficiently high, the foreign partial network that includes a domestic and a foreign firm will arise. Moreover, for intermediate spillovers, no equilibrium network emerges. These results have implications for aggregate outcomes: equilibrium networks are not necessarily optimal in terms of aggregate effective R&D and aggregate firm profits."

"We address the question concerning the choice of graduates in sciences and engineering to look for employment in research and development. We use an endogenous switching regression to avoid the existence of self-selection biases. The study shows that human capital is decisive where both employment opportunities and remuneration are concerned within, but not without, this sector. The results also suggest that in the early stages of a career, the R&D sector is less rewarding than other types of employment only for doctors and not for graduates from engineering schools."

"Treating research and development as an asset requires a number of important steps. The first step is to determine the components of research and development expenditure to be included as investment and then to translate those expenditure components into a National Accounts compatible format. The second step is the construction of appropriate deflators for research and development assets.The final step requires the estimation of appropriate depreciation rates for research and development capital. This article presents work undertaken by the Office for National Statistics on these three steps for the UK business sector and also some estimates of the productivity impact of research and development on business sector firms. "

"We study the endogenous determination of contracts in a unionized oligopoly and the welfare implications thereof. Alternative contracts specify the sequencing in the selection of R&D and wages. They can be classified as 'fixed' when the unions set wages before the firms make their R&D decisions or 'floating' when the sequencing of these choices is reversed. If the unions are highly employment-oriented, we find that either all firm–union pairs choose floating-wage contracts or both contract types may coexist depending on the degree of technological spillovers. However, when the unions have stronger preference over attaining a good wage deal, then it becomes very likely that fixed-wage contracts will endogenously emerge because they can serve as an insurance device against oppor tunistic wage increases. Our welfare analysis suggests that welfare-improving contracts may nevertheless not always arise in equilibrium."