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Research and development and labour productivity: do high-tech firms exhibit labour- or capital-saving technical change?

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  • Jason Hecht

Abstract

Employment and output in the advanced technology sectors have generally exhibited above-average growth for more than two decades. While this industry accounts for a relatively small share of total employment, the majority of private sector research and development (R&D) expenditures in the US is concentrated within seven sub-sectors. However, little attention has been paid as to whether high-tech productivity exhibits Hicksian capital or labour ‘savings’ bias or tendency to displace either factor input over time. Biased technical change can occur as economies transition between growth regimes. An augmented production function is employed to analyse the additional impact of R&D activity on firm-level labour productivity. A panel data set comprised of high-tech firms located across the advanced economies, China and India from 1990 to 2013 is used in the analysis. Labour-saving technical change was present across the advanced technology sectors and most countries. The expanded models of labour productivity that used fixed effects with lagged regressors confirmed the prior results as well as finding that R&D per employee, relative R&D intensity and firm market share contribute to firm-level labour productivity growth across countries and sectors. Additional support was found for diminishing returns to scale but not for R&D spillover effects.

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  • Jason Hecht, 2018. "Research and development and labour productivity: do high-tech firms exhibit labour- or capital-saving technical change?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(16), pages 1790-1811, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:50:y:2018:i:16:p:1790-1811
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2017.1374541
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    Cited by:

    1. Aleksandra Kordalska & Magdalena Olczyk, 2020. "What fosters firm-level labour productivity in Eastern European and Central Asian countries?," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 51(1), pages 91-120.
    2. Abeer Elshennawy & Mohammed Bouaddi, 2021. "Sources of firm-level heterogeneity in labour productivity in Egypt’s manufacturing sector," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 2589-2612, May.
    3. Pardesi, Mantej, 2024. "Productivity convergence and firm’s training strategy," ROA Research Memorandum 003, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    4. Deborah Giustini, 2021. "The Impact Of Labour Market Trends On The Employment Of R&D Personnel: A Literature Review," HSE Working papers WP BRP 117/STI/2021, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    5. Pardesi, Mantej, 2024. "Productivity Convergence and Firm’s Training Strategy," Research Memorandum 003, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    6. Sanhua Sheng & Hua Li & Weijun He & Thomas Stephen Ramsey & Liang Yuan, 2023. "The effect of property rights and staff structure on the labor productivity, evidence of university spin-offs in Hubei Province, China," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 14(5), pages 1855-1865, October.
    7. Abeer Elshennawy & Mohamed Bouaddi, 2018. "Sources of Heterogeneity in Labor Productivity and Total Factor Productivity in Egyptian Manufacturing," Working Papers 1276, Economic Research Forum, revised 26 Dec 2018.
    8. Chun Lin & Xin Zhang & Zhaoyang Gao & Yingjie Sun, 2023. "The Development of Green Finance and the Rising Status of China’s Manufacturing Value Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-25, April.

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