This Paper surveys the economic literature on the impact of trade unions on innovation. There are many theoretical routes through which unions may have an effect on innovation, for example through their effects on relative factor prices, profitability and their attitudes towards the introduction...

This paper examines the impact of fiscal incentives on the level of R&D investment. An econometric model of R&D investment is estimated using a new panel of data on tax changes and R&D spending in nine OECD countries over a nineteen-year period (1979-1996). We find evidence that tax incentives...

This paper examines the impact of technological innovation on wages using a panel of UK manufacturing firms. We utilize a headcount measure of major innovations between 1945-83 combined with share price and accounting information. Innovating firms are found to have higher average wages, but...

We argue that social capital as proxied by regional trust and the Rule of Law can improve aggregate productivity through facilitating greater firm decentralization. We collect original data on the decentralization of investment, hiring, production and sales decisions from Corporate Head Quarters...

This paper analyses the impact of cost competitiveness and technology on export performance using a very rich panel dataset of 12 manufacturing industries in 14 OECD countries for the period between 1970 and 1992. Consistent with standard models, we find that changes in relative unit labour...

This paper examines the innovative history of a number of UK firms using two large databases, looking for evidence consistent with the view that firms who innovate typically do so persistently. The first sample contains 3,304 firms who registered at least one patent in the United States during...

This paper develops a framework to analyze the relationship between the diffusion of new technologies and the decentralization decisions of firms. Centralized control relies on the information of the principal, which we equate with publicly available information. Decentralized control, on the...

This paper uses establishment level data from the British Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS) to examine the effects of new technology on pay. The wage differential associated with new technology is about 5-7% and is (i) robust to corrections for skill, workplace disamenities, and...

This Paper exploits area-based piloting and age-related eligibility rules to identify treatment effects of a labour market program – the New Deal for Young People in the UK. A central focus is on substitution/displacement effects and on equilibrium wage effects. The programme includes...

This paper investigates the impact of innovation on employment using a panel of UK manufacturing firms and a headcount measure of innovations. It focuses on unionized firms and outlines a methodology for testing between various types of union bargaining models. It also argues that the innovation...