TY  - JOUR
AU  - Adams,James D.
AU  - Jaffe,Adam B.
TI  - Bounding the Effects of R&D: An Investigation Using Matched Establishment-Firm Data
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5544
PY  - 1996
Y2  - April 1996
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5544
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5544.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
James D. Adams
Department of Economics
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
3406 Russell Sage Laboratory
Troy, NY  12180-3590
Tel: 518/276-2523
Fax: 518/276-2235
E-Mail: adamsj@rpi.edu

Adam B. Jaffe
MS 021
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02454
Tel: 781/736-3451
Fax: 781/736-3457
E-Mail: ajaffe@brandeis.edu
AB  - Studies of firm-level data have shown that a firm's R&D and the R&D of other firms increase conventional factor productivity.  We investigate these phenomena further by examining the relationship between plant-level productivity and firm-level R&D.  We find that (1) the productivity-enhancing effects of parent firm R&D are diminished by geographic distance from the research lab and `technological' distance between the product-field focus of the R&D and the plants; (2) productivity appears to depend on the intensity of parent firm R&D (R&D per plant), not on the total amount; and (3) spillovers of research effects from technologically related firms are significant but also depend on R&D intensity rather than total industry R&D. These results suggest that, despite the externalities created by spillovers of R&D, the `dilution' of R&D across multiple target plants reduces its potency sufficiently that spillovers may not be a source of industry-wide or economy-wide increasing returns.
ER  -