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

合作研究：R 的全球化

• 批准号: 1360170
• 负责人: Lee Branstetter
• 金额: $ 17.23万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 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=1360170&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.

在1999年至2009年之间，美国跨国公司开展的研发（R＆D）活动的位置已发生了很大的变化，美国公司外国分支机构的研发支出几乎翻了一番。 在2004年至2010年之间，中国的美国会员研发率翻了一番，在印度增加了十倍。 这些突然的变化引起了经济理论家，政策制定者和公司经理的重大问题和关注。 该项目通过仔细记录和描述海外研发的规模，地理分布和部门组成的最新变化来解决这些问题。此外，它研究了家庭研发业务与海外研发之间的不断发展的关系，特别关注了在主要新兴市场上不断上升的研发投资对家庭研发活动规模和范围的影响。此外，它将测试最近担心国际税收差异正在推动创新活动的有效性。 最后，它将衡量这些最近的转变对美国企业总研发投资的生产率的影响。 在中国和印度等低薪新兴市场中创新活动的快速增长被某些人视为对当前比较优势和国际贸易理论的挑战，这表明创新活动将集中在高级工业经济体中。 但是是吗？ 先前的研究，基于对中国和印度居住在中国居民的国际专利的分析，这表明，这些经济体从这些经济体中出现的“创新”中很大一部分取决于先进工业世界的智力投入，并通过外国跨国公司管理的R＆D劳动力的新兴国际劳动力生成。 但是，仅对专利数据的分析不足以确定这种国际研发劳动力的性质和程度。 该项目通过将专利数据与有关美国跨国公司在主要新兴经济体，家庭和世界其他地方的高质量的子公司级数据相结合，从而扩展了对这一重要现象的理解。 这些数据源共同提供了更明确的描述，即在关键新兴市场中快速增长的研发与美国公司研发系统的迅速增长之间的相互作用。 美国跨国研发活动的增长威胁到美国以外的更广泛的美国技术领导力？ 适当的政策回应是什么？ 探索美国跨国公司研发投入和产出的变化，可能会阐明这些问题，这是最近国家学院报告，高级佣金和行业分析的重点。 在一定程度上，新兴经济体的发明增长一直在很大程度上依赖于西方公司的研究意见，因此对先进工业国家的经济福利构成了直接威胁。 实际上，通过提高研发流程的效率，并允许公司以给定的支出水平探索更多的技术机会，美国跨国公司的研发活动的全球化不断扩大，可以对美国的经济增长产生净积极影响，并最终加强美国技术领导力，而不是破坏它。