Share:


Is higher government efficiency bringing about higher innovation?

    Jun Wen Affiliation
    ; Peidong Deng Affiliation
    ; Qianxiao Zhang Affiliation
    ; Chun-Ping Chang   Affiliation

Abstract

This research analyzes the impact of government effectiveness on innovation by using unbalanced panel data from the World Bank on 166 countries spanning 1996 to 2018. We analyze the impact of government efficiency on innovation through various panel fixed-effects models, while incorporating control variables such as GDP, education, and industrial structure into the analysis framework. The empirical results conclude that, in our selected countries, government efficiency has a significantly positive impact on innovation output and more importantly verify the positive impact from the improvement of bureaucracy quality on innovation. The evidence again shows the positive impacts of government efficiency on innovation output by addressing endogenous and robustness checking via the series of methods. Furthermore, the heterogeneity and mechanism of this relationship would be explored. Therefore, the research results provide an alternative method for national governments to promote innovation output by improving government effectiveness.

Keyword : government efficiency, innovation output, patents, fixed effect

How to Cite
Wen, J., Deng, P., Zhang, Q., & Chang, C.-P. (2021). Is higher government efficiency bringing about higher innovation?. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 27(3), 626-655. https://doi.org/10.3846/tede.2021.14269
Published in Issue
May 25, 2021
Abstract Views
1867
PDF Downloads
1372
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Arellano, M., & Bond, S. R. (1991). Some tests of specification for panel data: monte carlo evidence and an application to employment equations. Review of Economic Studies, 58(2), 277–297. https://doi.org/10.2307/2297968

Acemoglu, D., Naidu, S., Restrepo, P., & Robinson, J. A. (2019). Democracy does cause growth. Journal of Political Economy, 127(1), 47–100. https://doi.org/10.1086/700936

Aghion, P., Alesina, A. F., & Trebbi, F. (2007). Democracy, technology, and growth (Working Paper No. 13180). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w13180

Archibugi, D., & Filippetti, A. (2013). Innovation and economic crisis: lessons and prospects from the economic downturn. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203804513

Aghion, P., Bergeaud, A., Lequien, M., & Melitz, M. J. (2018). The impact of exports on innovation: theory and evidence (Working Paper No. 24600). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3171084

Anokhin, S., & Wincent, J. (2012). Start-up rates and innovation: a cross-country examination. Journal of International Business Studies, 43(1), 41–60. https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2011.47

Ayres, R. U., Turton, H., & Casten, T. (2007). Energy efficiency, sustainability and economic growth. Energy, 32, 634–648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2006.06.005

Akisik, O., Gal, G., & Mangaliso, M. P. (2020). IFRS, FDI, economic growth and human development: The experience of Anglophone and Francophone African countries. Emerging Markets Review, 45, 100725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ememar.2020.100725

Autor, D., Dorn, D., Hanson, G. H., Pisano, G., & Shu, P. (2016). Foreign competition and domestic innovation: evidence from Us patents (Working Paper No. 22879). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22879

Audretsch, D. B., Lehmann, E. E., & Wright, M. (2014). Technology transfer in a global economy. Journal of Technology Transfer, 39(3), 301–312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-012-9283-6

Angelini, F., Candela, G., & Castellani, M. (2020). Governance efficiency with and without government. Social Choice and Welfare, 54(1), 183–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-019-01217-2

Baskaran, A., & Muchie, M. (2006). The impact of the national innovation systems on the flow and benefits of foreign direct investment to national economies. Georgia Institute of Technology.

Belke, A., & Potrafke, N. (2012). Does government ideology matter in monetary policy? A panel data analysis for OECD countries. Journal of International Money and Finance, 31(5), 1126–1139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jimonfin.2011.12.014

Bronzini, R., & Piselli, P. (2016). The impact of R&D subsidies on firm innovation. Research Policy, 45(2), 442–457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2015.10.008

Bianchi, N., & Giorcelli, M. (2020). Scientific education and innovation: from technical diplomas to university STEM degrees. Journal of the European Economic Association, 18(5), 2608–2646. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvz049

Benny, V. (2020). The impact of patent, trademark and industrial design applications in Indian Economy. Gedrag & Organisatie Review, 33(2), 2399–2411. https://doi.org/10.37896/GOR33.02/244

Chang, C. P., & Lee, C. C. (2011). The effect of globalization and political party on economic growth – panel data analysis of former communist countries and European OECD members. Eastern European Economics, 49(6), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.2753/EEE0012-8775490601

Chang, C.-P., Wen, J., Zheng, M., Dong, M., & Hao, Y. (2018). Is higher government efficiency conducive to improving energy use efficiency? Evidence from OECD countries. Economic Modelling, 72, 65–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2018.01.006

Chang, C. P., Lee, C. C., & Berdiev, A. (2015). The impact of government ideology on energy efficiency: evidence from panel data. Energy Efficiency, 8(6), 1181–1199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-015-9347-1

Chi, W., & Qian, X. (2010). The role of education in regional innovation activities: spatial evidence from China. Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 15(4), 396–419. https://doi.org/10.1080/13547860.2010.516158

Dahlander, L., & Gann, D. M. (2010). How open is innovation? Reserach Policy, 39(6), 699–709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2010.01.013

Dong, J., Li, W., Cao, Y., & Fang, J. (2016). How does technology and population progress relate? An empirical study of the last 10,000 years. Technological Forecasting and Sociale Change, 103(4), 57–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2015.11.011

Dong, R. R., & Martin, A. (2017). Research on barriers and government driving force in technological innovation of architecture based on BIM. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics Science and Technology Education, 13(8), 5757–5763. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.01025a

Dolfsma, W., & Seo, D. B. (2013). Government policy and technological innovation—a suggested typology. Technovation, 33(6–7), 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2013.03.011

Duygun, M., Sena, V., & Shaban, M. (2016). Trademarking activities and total factor productivity: some evidence for British commercial banks using a metafrontier approach. Journal of Banking & Finance, 72, S70–S80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2016.04.017

Donou-Adonsou, F. (2019). Technology, education, and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Telecommunications Policy, 43(4), 353–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2018.08.005

Flanagan, K., Uyarra, E., & Laranja, M. (2011). Reconceptualising the ‘policy mix’ for innovation. Research Policy, 40(5), 702–713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2011.02.005

Furman, J. L., Porter, M. E., & Stern, S. (2002). The determinants of national innovative capacity. Research Policy, 31(6), 899–933. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00152-4

Fredriksson, P. G., & Svensson, J. (2003). Political instability, corruption and policy formation: the case of environmental policy. Journal of Public Economics, 87(7–8), 1383–1405. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727(02)00036-1

Fuenfschilling, L., & Truffer, B. (2014). The structuration of socio-technical regimes—conceptual foundations from institutional theory. Research Policy, 43(4), 772–791. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2013.10.010

Farre-Mensa, J., Hegde, D., & Ljungqvist, A. (2020). What is a patent worth? Evidence from the US patent “lottery”. The Journal of Finance, 75(2), 639–682. https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12867

Geroski, P. A., & Walters, C. F. (1995). Innovative activity over the business cycle. The Economic Journal, 105(431), 916–928. https://doi.org/10.2307/2235158

Godfrey, M., Sophal, C., Kato, T., Piseth, L. V., Dorina, P., Saravy, T., & Sovannarith, S. (2002). Technical assistance and capacity development in an aid-dependent economy: the experience of Cambodia. World Development, 30(3), 355–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(01)00121-8

Galang, R. M. N. (2012). Government efficiency and international technology adoption: the spread of electronic ticketing among airlines. Journal of International Business Studies, 43(7), 631–654. https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2012.20

Glotko, A. V., Polyakova, A. G., & Kuznetsova, M. Y. (2020). Main trends of government regulation of sectoral digitalization. Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 7(3), 2181–2195. https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2020.7.3(48)

Haas, C., & Kempa, K. (2016). Directed technical change and energy intensity dynamics: structural change Vs. Energy efficiency (MAGKS Discussion Paper Series in Economics No. 10). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2788055

Howell, A. (2020). Industry relatedness, FDI liberalization and the indigenous innovation process in China. Regional Studies, 54(2), 229–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1623871

Hung, K. P., & Chou, C. (2013). The impact of open innovation on firm performance: the moderating effects of internal R&D and environmental turbulence. Technovation, 33(10–11), 368–380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2013.06.006

Hudson, J., & Minea, A. (2013). Innovation, intellectual property rights, and economic development: a unified empirical investigation. World Development, 46, 66–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.01.023

Hille, E., Althammer, W., & Diederich, H. (2020). Environmental regulation and innovation in renewable energy technologies: Does the policy instrument matter? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 153, 119921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.119921

Jalles, J. T. (2010). How to measure innovation? new evidence of the technology–growth linkage. Research in Economics, 64(2), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rie.2009.10.007

Kayal, A. A. (2016). R&D Intensity: an empirical analysis of its relation to the structure of the manufacturing sector in OECD countries. International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development, 15(1), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.1386/tmsd.15.1.61_1

Kaiser, U., Kongsted, H. C., & Rønde, T. (2015). Does the mobility of R&D labor increase innovation? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 110, 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.012

Kogan, L., Papanikolaou, D., Seru, A., & Stoffman, N. (2017). Technological innovation, resource allocation, and growth. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 132(2), 665–712. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjw040

Kuhn, T. S. (2012). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226458144.001.0001

Lehmann, E. E., & Seitz, N. (2017). Freedom and innovation: a country and state level analysis. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 42(5), 1009–1029. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9478-3

Lin, B., & Du, K. (2013). Technology gap and China’s regional energy efficiency: a parametric metafrontier approach. Energy Economics, 40, 529–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.08.013

Li, B. Y., Hao, Y., & Chang, C. P. (2017). Does an anticorruption campaign deteriorate environmental quality? Evidence from China. Energy & Environment, 29(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/0958305X17740717

Luo, J., & Cheng, K. (2013). The influence of FDI on energy efficiency of China: an empirical analysis based on DEA method. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 291–294, 1217–1220. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.291-294.1217

Lee, C. Y. (2010). A theory of firm growth: learning capability, knowledge threshold, and patterns of growth. Research Policy, 39(2), 278–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2009.12.008

Lachenmaier, S., & Rottmann, H. (2011). Effects of innovation on employment: a dynamic panel analysis. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 29(2), 210–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2010.05.004

Lovett, K. (2011). Institutional design and economic growth: the relationship between bureaucracy and economic performance in a global economy (Working Paper). https://people.carleton.edu/~amontero/Kelly%20Lovett.pdf

Mendonça, S. (2012). Trademarks as a telecommunications indicator for industrial analysis and policy. In Telecommunication economics (pp. 33–41). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30382-1_6

Murphy, K. M., Shleifer, A., & Vishny, R. W. (1993). Why is rent-seeking so costly to growth? The American Economic Review, 83(2), 409–414.

Musiolik, J., Markard, J., & Hekkert, M. (2020). Creating innovation systems: How resource constellations affect the strategies of system builders. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 153, 119209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.02.002

Murray, F., Aghion, P., Dewatripont, M., Kolev, J., & Stern, S. (2016). Of mice and academics: examining the effect of openness on innovation. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 8(1), 212–252. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20140062

Melero, E., Palomeras, N., & Wehrheim, D. (2020). The effect of patent protection on inventor mobility. Management Science, 66(12), 5485–5504. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3500

Nickell, S. (1981). Biases in dynamic models with fixed effects. Econometrica, 49(6), 1417–1426. https://doi.org/10.2307/1911408

Nasirov, S. (2020). Trademark value indicators: Evidence from the trademark protection lifecycle in the US pharmaceutical industry. Research Policy, 49(4), 103929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2020.103929

Parrotta, P., Pozzoli, D., & Pytlikova, M. (2014). The nexus between labor diversity and firm’s innovation. Journal of Population Economics, 27(2), 303–364. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-013-0491-7

Picazo-Tadeo, A. J., González-Gómez, F., Wanden-Berghe, J. G., & Ruiz-Villaverde, A. (2012). Do ideological and political motives really matter in the public choice of local services management? Evidence from urban water services in Spain. Public Choice, 151(1), 215–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-010-9744-0

Pradhan, R. P., Arvin, M. B., Hall, J. H., & Nair, M. (2016). Innovation, financial development and economic growth in Eurozone countries. Applied Economics Letters, 23(16), 1141–1144. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2016.1139668

Rydgren, J. (2005). Is extreme right-wing populism contagious? Explaining the emergence of a new party family. European Journal of Political Research, 44(3), 413–437. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2005.00233.x

Romer, P. M. (1990). Endogenous technological change. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5), 71–102. https://doi.org/10.1086/261725

Sena, V., Duygun, M., Lubrano, G., Marra, M., & Shaban, M. (2018). Board independence, corruption and innovation. Some evidence on UK subsidiaries. Journal of Corporate Finance, 50, 22–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.12.028

Samara, E., Georgiadis, P., & Bakouros, I. (2012). The impact of innovation policies on the performance of national innovation systems: a system dynamics analysis. Technovation, 32(11), 624–638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2012.06.002

Sekmen, F., & Toptas, M. (2015). Education, technical progress, and economic growth in the information age: the case of Turkey. International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development, 6(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijsesd.2015010106

Smith, A., Voß, J. P., & Grin, J. (2010). Innovation studies and sustainability transitions: the allure of the multi-level perspective and its challenges. Research Policy, 39(4), 435–448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2010.01.023

Stim, R. (2020). Patent, copyright & trademark: an intellectual property desk reference. Nolo.

Wen, J., Zheng, M., Feng, G.-F., Chen, S. W., & Chang, C.-P. (2018a). Corruption and innovation: linear and nonlinear investigations of OECD Countries. The Singapore Economic Review, 1–27.

Wen, J., Feng, G. F., Chang, C. P., & Feng, Z. Z. (2018b). Stock liquidity and enterprise innovation: new evidence from China. The European Journal of Finance, 24(9), 683–713. https://doi.org/10.1080/1351847X.2017.1347573

Wen, J., Hao, Y., Feng, G. F., & Chang, C. P. (2016). Does government ideology influence environmental performance? Evidence based on a new dataset. Economic Systems, 40(2), 232–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecosys.2016.04.001

Wang, Q. L., Feng, G. F., Wen, J., & Chang, C. P. (2019). The impacts of government ideology on innovation: what are the main implications? Research Policy, 48(5), 1232–1247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2018.12.009

Wang, S., Zhao, D., & Chen, H. (2020). Government corruption, resource misallocation, and ecological efficiency. Energy Economics, 85, 104573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2019.104573

Wooldridge, J. M. (2015). Introductory econometrics: a modern approach. Nelson Education.

World Bank. (2018). The little data. World Bank Publications.

WDI. (2018). http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=wdi-databasearchives-(beta)

Ziller, C., & Goodman, S. W. (2020). Local government efficiency and anti-immigrant violence. The Journal of Politics, 82(3), 895–907. https://doi.org/10.1086/707399

Zaichkowsky, J. L. (2020). The psychology behind trademark infringement and counterfeiting. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315820965