Project description
Gaining insight into firms' investment incentives for research and development and skills
One approach to boost Europe’s low productivity is to increase investments in workforce skills and research and development (R&D). However, for effective policy measures to be designed, the way companies decide on R&D and worker skills investment needs to be understood. With this in mind, the EU-funded INVPROD project will develop and evaluate a dynamic model of corporate investment decision making with regard to R&D and worker skills' improvement in the service industries. The project’s results will provide insight into firms’ investment incentives and contribute to the knowledge on productivity.
Objective
Productivity growth is key to wealth and high living standards. For many years, Europe’s productivity growth has been declining and since 2005, falls below 1 percent. A possible way to raise productivity is to increase investments in intangible (knowledge based) assets such as workforce skills and Research and Development (R&D). To design policy measures that will effectively facilitate these investments and boost productivity growth, it is essential to understand the firms’ decision-making process in R&D and worker skills investments. In this project, I address the questions
(1) What are the incentives each firm faces when making investment decisions in R&D and worker skills improvement? (2) What is the optimal level of investment for each firm? Moreover, what are the implications of these investments for the firms' longrun productivity development?
I propose to develop and estimate a dynamic model of firm investment decision in R&D and worker skills improvement in the service industries. The estimation results will shed lights on firms’ investment incentives by quantifying the firm-specific longrun returns and costs to these investments. The estimated model predicts firm-specific responses to changes in their economic environment, therefore allows for ex-ante policy evaluation that aims at fostering productivity growth. In answering the questions raised, the project contributes to the knowledge on productivity and firm investments by providing insights on the (i) multidimensional productivity development in the service industries, (ii) complementarity between different intangible assets such as R&D and worker skills, and (iii) firm decision-making process.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
6200 MD Maastricht
Netherlands