Effetti economici dell'innovazione tecnologica: un'analisi panel

The hypotheses that innovation is beneficial to firm performance is tested on a new and original sample of micro-level data, stored in panel format. We checked effects of innovations in the form of patents, publications and research projects on variations of sales and personnel. Results of the fixed effect estimation show that growth in sales is positively associated to R&D activities accomplished in the two previous years. This effect varies depending on the economic cycle, on the size of the firm, on its sectoral features and on the type of innovative activity. There is however almost no statistically significant impact of innovation activities on the number of employees, except for a small positive effect of patents and for big companies. Although we cannot distinguish innovative activities concerning new products from those concerning new processes, our results do not support the hypotheses of manpower displacement.