Collaborative Research: The Globalization of R&D: Evidence from U.S. Multinationals

合作研究：R 的全球化

• 批准号: 1360165
• 负责人: J. Bradford Jensen
• 金额: $ 30.87万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-05-15 至 2017-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1360165&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Globalization; R&D; Evidence

The location of Research and Development (R&D) activities carried out by U.S.-based multinational firms has changed substantially in recent years Between 1999 and 2009, the R&D expenditure of the foreign affiliates of U.S. firms nearly doubled. Between 2004 and 2010, U.S. affiliate R&D in China more than doubled, and it increased in India by a factor of ten. These sudden changes raise significant questions and concerns for economic theorists, policymakers, and corporate managers. This project addresses these concerns by carefully documenting and describing recent changes in the scale, geographic distribution, and sectoral composition of overseas R&D. In addition it examines the evolving relationship between home R&D operations and overseas R&D, with a special focus on the impact of rising R&D investment in key emerging markets on the scale and scope of R&D activity at home. In addition it will test the validity of recent concerns that international tax differences are driving innovative activity offshore. Finally, it will measure the impact these recent shifts have had on the measured productivity of total U.S. corporate R&D investment at home. The rapid growth of innovative activity in low-wage emerging markets like China and India is viewed by some as a challenge to current theories of comparative advantage and international trade, which suggest innovative activity will be concentrated in advanced industrial economies. But is it? Prior research, based on analysis of the international patents granted to inventors resident in China and India suggests that a substantial fraction of the "innovation" emerging from these economies draws on intellectual inputs from the advanced industrial world and is generated through an emerging international division of R&D labor managed by foreign multinationals. However, analysis of patent data alone is insufficient to determine the nature and extent of this international division of R&D labor. This project extends understanding of this important phenomenon by combining patent data with high-quality, subsidiary-level data on the R&D expenditures of U.S. multinationals in key emerging economies, at home, and elsewhere in the world. Together these data sources provide a much more definitive picture of the interaction between rapidly growing R&D in key emerging markets and the rest of the U.S. corporate R&D system. Broader ImpactsIs American technological leadership threatened by the growth of U.S. multinational R&D activities outside the U.S? What are the appropriate policy responses? Exploration of the changing distribution of R&D input and output within U.S. multinational firms may shed useful light on these questions, which have been the focus of recent National Academy reports, high-level commissions, and industry analysis. To the extent that growth in invention in emerging economies has been heavily reliant on research inputs from Western firms, it may pose less of a direct threat to the economic welfare of advanced industrial countries than has been supposed. In fact, by improving the efficiency of the R&D process and allowing firms to explore more technological opportunities with a given level of expenditure, the expanding globalization of U.S. multinational firms' R&D activities could generate net positive effects on economic growth in the U.S. and end up reinforcing American technological leadership rather than undermining it.

美国进行的研究和发展活动的地点-近年来，总部设在美国的跨国公司发生了重大变化。1999年至2009年，美国公司的外国子公司的研发支出几乎翻了一番。 从2004年到2010年，美国子公司在中国的研发增加了一倍多，在印度的研发增加了十倍。 这些突然的变化给经济理论家、政策制定者和企业管理者带来了重大的问题和担忧。 本项目通过仔细记录和描述海外研发的规模、地理分布和部门构成的最新变化来解决这些问题。此外，它还审查了国内研发活动和海外研发之间不断发展的关系，特别关注主要新兴市场的研发投资增加对国内研发活动规模和范围的影响。此外，它还将检验最近有关国际税收差异正在推动离岸创新活动的担忧的有效性。 最后，它将衡量这些最近的变化对美国企业在国内的研发投资总额的生产率的影响。 一些人认为，中国和印度等低工资新兴市场创新活动的快速增长是对当前比较优势和国际贸易理论的挑战，这些理论认为创新活动将集中在发达工业经济体。 但真的吗？ 先前的研究，基于对授予居住在中国和印度的发明者的国际专利的分析表明，这些经济体中出现的“创新”的很大一部分来自先进工业世界的智力投入，并通过新兴的国际研发劳动分工由外国跨国公司管理产生。 然而，仅仅分析专利数据不足以确定这种国际研发分工的性质和程度。 本项目通过将专利数据与美国跨国公司在主要新兴经济体、国内和世界其他地区的高质量子公司级研发支出数据相结合，扩展了对这一重要现象的理解。 这些数据来源一起提供了一个更明确的图片之间的相互作用的快速增长的研发在关键的新兴市场和美国企业研发系统的其余部分。 更广泛的影响美国的技术领先地位是否受到美国跨国公司在美国境外研发活动增长的威胁？ 适当的政策反应是什么？ 探索美国跨国公司内部研发投入和产出分布的变化可能会对这些问题有所帮助，这些问题一直是最近国家科学院报告、高级别委员会和行业分析的重点。 在某种程度上，新兴经济体的发明增长严重依赖于西方公司的研究投入，它对发达工业国家经济福利的直接威胁可能比想象的要小。 事实上，通过提高研发过程的效率，并允许企业以一定的支出水平探索更多的技术机会，美国跨国公司研发活动的全球化可以对美国的经济增长产生净积极影响，最终加强而不是削弱美国的技术领先地位。