Gustavo A. Crespi

Inter-American Development Bank | IDB · Competitiveness, Technology and Innovation

During the past few decades, the Asia-Pacific region grew much faster than any other part of the world while Latin America and the Caribbean largely stagnated. Since innovation is a key ingredient of economic growth and becoming a central tenant of policy, we analyze and compare innovation in the two regions. The data clearly show that Asia-Pacific...

Durante las últimas tres décadas, la economía costarricense ha logrado una importante diversificación de su aparato productivo gracias principalmente a la atracción de inversión extranjera de media y alta tecnología, la promoción de exportaciones y la apertura comercial. Sin embargo, tales avances no le han permitido a Costa Rica salir de la trampa...

This paper estimates the direct and spillover effects of two matching grants schemes designed to promote firm-level research and development (R&D) investment in Chile on firm productivity. Because the two programs target different kinds of projects—the National Productivity and Technological Development Fund (FONTEC) subsidizes intramural R&D, whil...

Cluster development policies have become increasingly popular as a tool for promoting development in developing countries. However, impact evaluations of cluster policies are scarce in the literature. This paper analyzes the impact of a tourism cluster policy in the region of Colonia, Uruguay, applying a synthetic control method. This method of ide...

Policymakers need statistics and indicators to diagnose the situation of the sector or issue at stake and then propose policies and programs based on evidence, and to monitor and evaluate public administration based on results. This is also the case in science, technology, and innovation (STI). In contrast to economic and social statistics, STI ind...

This study examines the impact of process and product innovation on employment growth and composition in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay using micro data from innovation surveys. Employment growth is related to process innovations and to the growth of sales separately due to innovative and unchanged products. Results show that compensatio...

This paper provides novel empirical evidence on productivity growth in the manufacturing sector in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Relying on plant-level data, we first decompose productivity and productivity growth into plant-level growth and market allocation forces. While the average productivity of the survivors is higher than the overall con...

Many Latin American countries currently exhibit a pattern of production specialization heavily biased toward resource-based commodities and foodstuffs. In natural resource based activities production is highly dependent upon environmental and ecological forces. Companies processing the resource strongly depend upon specilaized subcontractors and eq...

This monograph explores productivity, innovation, and firm performance, important issues that affect private sector development in the Caribbean region. Using unique and recently available datasets consisting of more than 4,000 surveys at the firm level, and covering 13 Caribbean countries, it examines a set of variables that affect productivity an...

In this chapter, we make use of the World Bank Enterprise Survey to study the innovation behavior of the typical Latin American firm. Furthermore, we explore the existence of innovation spillovers and heterogeneity on the effects of innovation on the performance of firms. Based on the CDM model, we found strong evidence concerning the relationships...

Este libro desea reflejar el paso de la política de innovación en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) hacia una etapa de creciente sofisticación y de mayor impacto sobre el desarrollo. Una evolución como esta es en parte producto de la transformación que las mismas economías y la actividad empresarial están atravesando en la región, y es también eco d...

The main purpose of this study is to present the conceptual basis that supports science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It starts by clarifying STI relationship, both conceptual and empirical, to economic growth and it explains how market and coordination failures hinder innovation. Then, it discus...

An introduction is presented in which the guest editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including innovation in the services sector, labor productivity, and the impact of innovation on employment in the services sector

In this study, we evaluate the effect of innovation promotion programs administrated by the Colombian Innovation Agency (COLCIENCIAS). The evaluation focuses on programs that provide financial incentives for research and development (R&D)—matching grants and contingent loans—and encourage the formation of linkages among firms, universities, and oth...

In this paper we study the effect of financial constraints on innovation using data from a 2007 survey of more than 10,000 Chilean firms. In contrast with other surveys, this dataset allows for the construction of a direct indicator of constraints on credit for investment in innovation and sheds light on how these restrictions affect firm’s innovat...

Innovation is fundamental for economic catching-up and raising living standards. Evidence demonstrate a virtuous circle in which R&D spending, innovation, productivity, and per capita income mutually reinforce each other and lead to long-term, sustained growth rates and may foster job creation. Previous evidence highlights that Latin America and th...

This paper analyses and compares the determinants of innovation in the service industry and its impact on labour productivity at the firm level in three countries of Latin America (Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay). The main findings show that, similar to what is observed in the manufacturing industry, service firms that invest the most in innovation a...

El presente manual se ha elaborado con el objetivo de aumentar la disponibilidad y el grado de comparación de las estadísticas e indicadores de innovación en las empresas, en los países de la región. La División de Competitividad e Innovación del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo y la Red de Indicadores de Ciencia y Tecnología -Iberoamericana e In...

This paper studies productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean, with an emphasis on the service sector. It shows that the low levels of productivity observed in the region are not only a consequence of low productivity at the firm level, but also of misallocation of workers across firms. These problems are more severe in services than in manufa...

This paper analyzes and compares the determinants of innovation in the service industry and its impact on labor productivity at the firm level in three countries of Latin America (Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay). The main findings show that, similar to what is observed in manufacturing industry, service firms that invest the most in innovation activi...

In this paper, a wide range of innovation indicators are analyzed in order to describe the innovation behavior of manufacturing firms in LAC using the recently released Enterprise Surveys 2010. The Enterprise Surveys define innovation rates as the share of firms introducing product and process innovations. The survey also measures the proportion of...

This book examines the implementation of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy in eight Latin American countries and the different paths these policies have taken. It provides empirical evidence to examine the extent to which STI policies are contributing to the development of the region, as well as to the solution of market failures and...

This chapter presents the most important recent trends with regard to the design and evaluation of fiscal incentives for the support of business innovation in LAC. Several countries in the region have been experimenting with these policies since early 1990s, in many of these cases with technical and financial support from the Inter-American Develop...

In a market economy, firms constantly interact in a variety of market transactions with other firms and organizations. They buy and sell goods and services as well as production factors in markets where prices convey essential information. In the course of doing business, they forge linkages that may yield important benefits to themselves, other fi...

This book argues that productive development policies (PDPs) are an important component of a successful development strategy. But designing and implementing successful PDPs is not easy. To begin with, the process requires a well-oiled learning mechanism to diagnose market failures amenable to policy intervention, and design sound policy initiatives...

Since the pioneering work of Solow (1957), technological change has been credited with explaining a substantial share of economic growth. Indeed, recent evidence for the United States shows that investments in R&D—a proxy for the innovation effort of a nation—made up 40 percent of the productivity growth observed during the postwar era (Reikard, 20...

In this note, a wide range of innovation indicators are analysed in order to describe the innovation behaviour of manufacturing firms in LAC using the recently released Enterprise Surveys 2010. The Enterprise Surveys define innovation rates as the share of firms introducing product and process innovations. The survey also measures the proportion of...

This is the Spanish version of Crespi, G. y G. Dutrénit (eds) (2014), Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Development: The Latin American Experience, Springer, Londres. Este libro colectivo recoge las experiencias de ocho países de la región con diferentes enfoques respecto al diseño e implementación de las políticas de CTI. Esto ilust...

Measuring firm-level productivity and innovation in Latin America is not something new. More than 30 years have already gone by since the first studies looking at plant-level patterns of technological accumulation were carried out. The first, and perhaps most influential, programme of research in this area in the region was the collection of studie...

This paper analyses the role of national research funds in promoting scientific production in emerging economies. The study focuses on the impact of the Chilean National Science and Technology Research Fund (FONDECYT). The analysis uses data drawn from international sources of bibliometric information combined with the administrative records of the...

Os governos latino-americanos recorrem frequentemente aos Fundos de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (FDT) para apoiar financeiramente as atividades inovadoras das empresas. Neste estudo analisamos a eficácia do um FDT chileno, o programa FONTEC. Constatamos que os subsídios do FONTEC provocaram um aumento dos investimentos inovadores das empresas em at...

Latin American Governments have frequently adopted Technology Development Funds (TDF) to provide financial support for innovation activities of firms. In this paper, we analyzed the effectiveness of a Chilean TDF, the FONTEC program. We found that FONTEC’s subsidies increased firm innovation investments in intangible assets (in particular R&D) and...

This study examines the impact of innovation strategies on employment growth in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay) using micro-data for manufacturing firms from innovation surveys. Building on the model proposed by Harrison et al. (2008), we relate employment to three innovation strategies: make only (R&D), bu...

This paper evaluates the impact of two public programs, FONTEC and FONDEF, aimed at fostering innovation in Chilean firms. With the cooperation of several public agencies, participants and non-participants in these programs during the period 1995-2000 were identified from a large panel of firms in the manufacturing sector. From this information, th...

The purpose of this guideline is to provide ideas and technical advice on how to measure the effectiveness of Science, Technology and Innovation Programs (STIP). The paper addresses the specific challenges of evaluating STIP, from the assessment of the intervention logic to the choice of the most appropriate method to solve the attribution problem....

This study examines the impact of process and product innovation on employment growth across four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay) using micro data from innovation surveys. Specifically, we relate employment growth to process innovations and to the growth of sales separately due to innovative and unchanged produc...

This paper aims at evaluating the impacts of innovation promotion programs administrated by the Colombian Innovation Agency (COLCIENCIAS). Although the agency implements multiple programs, the focus of these research are on those programs that provide financial incentives for R&D (matching grants and contingent loans) and at the same time encourage...

This paper provides a new and systematic characterization of 488 universities, from 11 European countries: Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and UK. Using micro indicators built on the integrated Aquameth database, we characterize the European university landscape according to the following...

El presente documento presenta una evaluación preliminar del impacto que el programa de subvenciones a la investigación y desarrollo tiene en la dinámica innovadora de las firmas panameñas. Dentro de las limitaciones de los escasos datos disponibles, la metodología resuelve el problema de la atribución mediante el empleo de métodos cuasi-experiment...

This presentation provides the comparative results of a project carried out by the Inter-American Development Bank to understand the links between innovation and employment in Latin America and the Caribbean. Special attention is paid to the importance of sectoral and size difference in both quantity and quality composition of employment. This proj...

In this article we study how firm heterogeneity influences productivity catching up using plant-level data from Mexico. The article addresses three issues: first, it evaluates the process of convergence towards the global versus the local technological frontier in a middle-income country such as Mexico. Second, it systematically evaluates the role...

This paper addresses an issue that has been largely ignored so far in the empirical literature on the role of patents in university-industry knowledge transfer: does it matter who owns the patents on university research? We observe that especially in Europe, many patents in which university researchers are listed as inventors are not owned by the u...

This study examines the determinants of technological innovation and its impact on firm labor productivity across six Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Uruguay) using micro data from innovation surveys. In line with the literature, in all countries firms that invest in knowledge are more able to introduce...

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Recent theoretical models have shown that when demand is slack, firms tend to introduce new management practices and/or reorganise their production methods; however, few microeconometric studies deal directly with the relationship between organisational change and economic crises. In this paper, we use data from Chilean manufacturing plants, and th...

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the impact of academic patenting on publishing and knowledge transfer. Drawing upon two separate surveys of academics, and their CV information, we provide empirical evidence for UK academics in engineering and physical sciences. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, our findings show tha...

The make-or-buy decision is analyzed in a simple two-task principal-agent model. There is a cost-saving/quality tradeoff in effort provision. The principal faces a dichotomous choice between weak ("make") and strong ("buy") cost-saving incentives for the agent; the dichotomy is due to an incomplete-contracting limitation necessitating that one part...

This paper presents the results of an econometric approach to examine the determinants of scientific production at cross-country level. The paper aims not to provide accurate and robust estimates of investment elasticities (a doubtful task given the poor quality of the data sources and the modelling problems), but to develop and critically assess t...

Case studies suggest exporters learn from clients. Econometric evidence is mixed. We use firm-level panel data on exporting and productivity with direct information on learning sources, including clients. We find: (a) firms who exported in the past are likely to learn more from clients (relative to other sources); (b) firms who learned from clients...

Presented at the GLOBELICS 6th International Conference 2008 22-24 September, Mexico City, Mexico.

Productivity growth in virtually all west European countries exceeded that of the United States throughout the period 1950 to 1995. Since then American productivity performance has strengthened and that of the EU has weakened. The most important reason is contrasting experiences with Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The article argu...

This paper analyzes the role of National Research Funds in promoting scientific production in emerging economies. The investigation focuses on the impact of the Chilean National Science and Technology Research Fund (FONDECYT). The analysis uses data drawn from international sources of bibliometric information combined with the administrative record...

Based on a survey of the inventors of 9017 European patented inventions, this paper provides new information about the characteristics of European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and economic value of the patents.

This paper reviews the economic literature on the role of fees in patent systems. Two main research questions are usually addressed: the impact of patent fees on the behavior of applicants and the question of optimal fees. Studies in the former group confirm that a range of fees affect the behavior of applicants and suggest that a patent is an inel...

This paper explores the role of knowledge flows and TFP growth by using direct survey data onknowledge flows linked to firm-level TFP growth data. Our knowledge flow data correspond to thekind of information flows often argued, especially by policy-makers, as important, such as within thefirm, or from suppliers, purchasers, universities and competi...

We examine the relationships between productivity growth, IT investment and organisational change (?O) using UK firm data. Consistent with the small number of other micro studies we find (a) IT appears to have high returns in a growth accounting sense when ?O is omitted; when ?O is included the IT returns are greatly reduced, (b) IT and ?O interact...

In this paper, we study Total Factor Productivity (TFP) catching-up using 20 years of plant-level data for Chilean manufacturing. This paper addresses two key issues: first, we analyse whether there is evidence that low-productivity plants experience higher TFP growth than those closer to the technology frontier. Second, we investigate the role of...

This paper analyses university patenting and academic mobility based on information in the PatVal database on European inventors in six European countries. We show that university participation in patenting activity is grossly underestimated when assessed on ownership exclusively: university-owned patents account for only 15% of patents with at lea...

There is increasing recognition in the OECD countries of the importance of public scientific research in providing the foundations for both innovation and competitiveness. At the same time, there is a lack of systematic evidence on how such investments can lead to increasing levels of scientific output, improved patenting and innovative output, bet...

This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection a...

This paper contributes empirically to our understanding of informed traders. It analyzes traders' characteristics in a foreign exchange electronic limit order market via anonymous trader identities. We use six indicators of informed trading in a cross-sectional multivariate approach to identify traders with high price impact. More information is co...

Recent theoretical models have shown that when demand is slack, firms tend to introduce new management practices and/or reorganize their production methods; however, few micro econometric studies deal directly with the relationship between organizational change and economic crises. In this paper, we use data from Chilean manufacturing plants, and t...

Based on a survey of the inventors of 9,017 European patented inventions, this paper provides new information about the characteristics of European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and economic value of the patents.

We analyze productivity growth in Chilean manufacturing 1979-2000 using the newly available panel of establishments drawn from the Census of Manufacturing. We examine the contribution to productivity growth of ?internal? restructuring (such as new technology and organizational change among survivors) and ?external? restructuring (exit, entry and ma...

There is increasing recognition in the UK and other OECD countries of the importance of scientific research in providing the foundations for both innovation and competitiveness. This has resulted in increased public funding for research in the UK and elsewhere. At the same time, there is a lack of systematic evidence on how such investments can lea...

This paper focuses on university inventors mobility in the EU countries. It is the first quantitative assessment of this phenomenon and is the basis for a set of econometric models that try to explain how different factors affect the mobility of academics and their choices: to stay, to move to the private sector, to move to a different public resea...

Many productivity studies, if they cover the service sector, commonly enter a caveat that the data are uncertain or just look at manufacturing. This paper attempts to clarify what UK market-service-sector data are available, whether they should be treated as inaccurate, and what conceptual problems might make measuring service-sector output so hard...

By drawing information from a survey of inventors of 9,017 European patents (PatVal-EU), this paper provides novel and detailed data about the characteristics of the European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations among researchers and institutions, the motivations to invent, and the actual u...

This paper presents results from employing an econometric approach to examine the determinants of scientific production at cross-country level. The aim of this paper is not to provide accurate and robust estimates of investment elasticities (a doubtful task given the poor quality of the data sources and the modelling problems), but to develop and c...