American Economic Review Vol. 82 No. 4 1992
The Anatomy of Industry R&D Intensity Distributions
Abstract
Using firm data disaggregated by industry, we establish a set of regularities in the distribution of firm R&D intensities within manufacturing industries. We show how a simple probabilistic process, in which chance influences a key unobserved determinant of R&D and firm size conditions the returns to R&D, can account for these regularities and other features of the distributions. The model provides a unified, noncausal explanation of a series of long-observed relationships across mean R&D intensity, market concentration, and the coefficient of variation. It also offers a novel explanation for the inverse relationship between R&D productivity and firm size.
- Volume
- 82
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 773-799
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib