Employment, innovation, and productivity
Subtitle: evidence from Italian microdata
By: Bronwyn H. Hall, Francesca Lotti, Jacques Mairesse.
Contributors: Lotti, Francesca.; Mairesse, Jacques.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- no. 13296.; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) -- working paper no. 13296.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 38
Subjects: Technological innovations -- Italy; Industrial productivity -- Italy -- Econometric models; Labor market -- Italy -- Econometric models
Description: 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.
Notes: "August 2007"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 24-26).

Also available in PDF from the NBER world wide web site (www.nber.org).