Innovation, Reallocation and Growth

Daron Acemoglu; Ufuk Akcigit; Harun Alp; Nicholas Bloom; William R. Kerr

doi:10.3386/w18993

Innovation, Reallocation and Growth

Daron Acemoglu, Ufuk Akcigit, Harun Alp, Nicholas Bloom & William R. Kerr

Working Paper 18993

DOI 10.3386/w18993

Issue Date April 2013

Revision Date November 2017

We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth and reallocation featuring endogenous entry and exit. A new and central economic force is the selection between high- and low-type firms, which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the parameters of the model using US Census micro data on firm-level output, R&D and patenting. The model provides a good fit to the dynamics of firm entry and exit, output and R&D. Taxing the continued operation of incumbents can lead to sizable gains (of the order of 1.4% improvement in welfare) by encouraging exit of less productive firms and freeing up skilled labor to be used for R&D by high-type incumbents. Subsidies to the R&D of incumbents do not achieve this objective because they encourage the survival and expansion of low-type firms.

We thank four anonymous referees and the coeditor, Marty Eichenbaum, for detailed suggestions. We also thank participants in Kuznetz Lecture at Yale University and in seminars at New York University, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, North Carolina State University, Bank of Finland, University of Pennsylvania, University of Toronto Growth and Development Conference, AEA 2011 and 2012, NBER Summer Institute Growth Meeting 2012, CREI-MOVE Workshop on Misallocation and Productivity, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and Microsoft for helpful comments. This research is supported by Harvard Business School, Innovation Policy and the Economy forum, Kauffman Foundation, National Science Foundation, and University of Pennsylvania. Douglas Hanley provided excellent research assistance in all parts of this project. The research in this paper was conducted while the authors were Special Sworn Status researchers of the US Census Bureau at the Boston Census Research Data Center (BRDC). Support for this research from NSF grant ITR-0427889 [BRDC] is gratefully acknowledged. Research results and conclusions expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Census Bureau or NSF. This paper has been screened to ensure that no confidential data are revealed. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Nicholas Bloom
I worked for McKinsey and company as a management consultant from 2001-2002. I have not received any funding from them after that time.

I am part of the Toulouse Network for Information Technology, which carries out research on IT and productivity. From this network I receive an annual honorarium, which is funded by Microsoft.

I do occasional consulting on management practices for government and policy agencies, like the Canadian Government, the World Bank, the European Union, the British Government, and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.

I produced a report in 2008 for the World Economic Forum on management practices in private equity for which I received an honorarium.

I occasionally am a paid speaker at corporate events at which I discuss among other things management practices.
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Daron Acemoglu, Ufuk Akcigit, Harun Alp, Nicholas Bloom, and William R. Kerr, "Innovation, Reallocation and Growth," NBER Working Paper 18993 (2013), https://doi.org/10.3386/w18993.

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- April 25, 2013

Innovation, Reallocation and Growth

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