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The productivity impact of business visits across industries

Author

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  • Piva, Mariacristina

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza)

  • Tani, Massimiliano

    (UNSW Canberra, and IZA, Bonn)

  • Vivarelli, Marco

    (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, and IZA, Bonn)

Abstract

This paper builds on and considerably extends Piva, Tani and Vivarelli (2018), confirming the key role of Business Visits as a productivity enhancing channel of technology transfer. Our analysis is based on a unique database on business visits sourced from the U.S. National Business Travel Association, merged with OECD and World Bank data and resulting in an unbalanced panel covering 33 sectors and 14 countries over the period 1998-2013 (3,574 longitudinal observations). We find evidence that BVs contribute to fostering labour productivity in a significant way. While this is consistent with what found by the previous (scant) empirical literature on the subject, we also find that short-term mobility exhibits decreasing returns, being more crucial in those sectors characterized by less mobility and by lower productivity performances.

Suggested Citation

  • Piva, Mariacristina & Tani, Massimiliano & Vivarelli, Marco, 2020. "The productivity impact of business visits across industries," MERIT Working Papers 2020-011, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2020011
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Crescenzi, Riccardo & Gagliardi, Luisa, 2018. "The innovative performance of firms in heterogeneous environments: The interplay between external knowledge and internal absorptive capacities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 782-795.
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    Cited by:

    1. Michele Capriati & Valeria Cirillo & Marialuisa Divella, 2024. "Productivity slowdown across European regions: does non-standard work matter?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(9), pages 1687-1709, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Business visits; Labour mobility; Knowledge diffusion; R&D; Productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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