scholarly journals How Destructive Is Innovation?

Econometrica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (5) ◽  
pp. 1507-1541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Garcia-Macia ◽  
Chang-Tai Hsieh ◽  
Peter J. Klenow

Entrants and incumbents can create new products and displace the products of competitors. Incumbents can also improve their existing products. How much of aggregate productivity growth occurs through each of these channels? Using data from the U.S. Longitudinal Business Database on all nonfarm private businesses from 1983 to 2013, we arrive at three main conclusions: First, most growth appears to come from incumbents. We infer this from the modest employment share of entering firms (defined as those less than 5 years old). Second, most growth seems to occur through improvements of existing varieties rather than creation of brand new varieties. Third, own‐product improvements by incumbents appear to be more important than creative destruction. We infer this because the distribution of job creation and destruction has thinner tails than implied by a model with a dominant role for creative destruction.


The Forum ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter L. Francia

Popular accounts of the labor movement often suggest that unions are in decline. While there have been sharp declines in union membership as a percentage of the workforce, this study presents evidence that organized labor’s influence in the U.S. elections remains significant. Using data from the American National Election Study and the National Election Pool, the results in this study demonstrate: (1) union households, despite drops in union membership as a percentage of the workforce, have remained a sizeable percentage of the U.S electorate, especially in regions outside of the South; (2) unions boost voter turnout, including among those from traditionally underrepresented demographics; and (3) unions continue to produce a strong Democratic vote in presidential and congressional elections, and boost the Democratic vote among middle-income whites – a critical “swing” constituency. In total, these results suggest that the future strength or weakness of the labor movement is likely to have significant implications for upcoming election outcomes, the party coalitions that ultimately form for future Democratic and Republican candidates, and how representative the electorate will be relative to the population in years to come.



PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261212
Author(s):  
Harald Dale-Olsen

We apply a shift-share approach and historical unionisation data from 1918 to study the impact of regional unionisation changes in Norway on regional wage and productivity growth, job-creation and -destruction and social security uptake during the period 2003–2012. As unionisation increases, wages grow. Lay-offs through plant closures and shrinking workplaces increase, causing higher retirement rates, while job creation, plant entry and other social security uptakes are unaffected. Productivity grows, partly by enhanced productivity among surviving and new firms and partly by less productive firms forced to close due to increased labour costs. Thus, unions promote creative destruction.



2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 1561-1600
Author(s):  
Carolina Silva

Wage dispersion is a critical factor in determining the impact of a minimum wage and severance payments on job creation and destruction in a general equilibrium model with search frictions. When wage dispersion is low, the minimum wage and severance payments behave as substitutes. However, as dispersion in wages increases, these policies become complements. The model is estimated using data from Chile and used to perform quantitative welfare analysis.



2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Bento

AbstractI develop a general equilibrium model in which patent protection can increase or decrease the costs of sequential innovation, original innovation, and imitation. Depending on these relative effects, protection can in theory increase or decrease markups, imitation, innovation, growth, and aggregate productivity. I discipline the model using data from several different sources, and find that weakening protection in the U.S. would lead to no change in markups and imitation, no change in long-run growth, a significant increase in the number of firms, and an increase in aggregate productivity of 11%.



2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Matloff

The two main reasons cited by the U.S. tech industry for hiring foreign workers--remedying labour shortages and hiring "the best and the brightest"--are investigated, using data on wages, patents, and R&D work, as well as previous research and industry statements. The analysis shows that the claims of shortage and outstanding talent are not supported by the data, even after excluding the Indian IT service firms. Instead, it is shown that the primary goals of employers in hiring  foreign workers are to reduce labour costs and to obtain "indentured" employees. Current immigration policy is causing an ‘Internal Brain Drain’ in STEM.





2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Kevin D. Benish

On May 18, 2020, the United States Supreme Court denied a request by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), to review the merits of Crystallex Int'l Corp. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In Crystallex, the Third Circuit affirmed a trial court's determination that PDVSA is the “alter ego” of Venezuela itself, thus permitting Crystallex to enforce a $1.4 billion judgment against Venezuela by attaching property held in PDVSA's name. Given the Supreme Court's decision to leave the Third Circuit's opinion undisturbed, Crystallex is a significant decision that may affect parties involved in transnational litigation for years to come—especially those pursuing or defending against U.S. enforcement proceedings involving the property of foreign states.



Contexts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 92-94
Author(s):  
Jennifer Reich
Keyword(s):  
To Come ◽  

“Though small, the recent protests we've seen across the U.S. signal what is likely to come as governments grapple with how to move forward, particularly if a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the pandemic becomes available.”



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