Addressing the productivity paradox with big data: A literature review and adaptation of the CDM econometric model
Torben Schubert, Angela Jäger, Serdar Turkeli & Fabiana Visentin
#2020-050
This paper develops the plan for the econometric estimations concerning
the relationship between firm productivity and the specifics of the
innovation process. The paper consists of three main parts. In the
first, we review the relevant literature related to the productivity
paradox and its causes. Specific attention will be paid to broad
economic trends, in particular the higher importance of intangibles, the
increasing importance of knowledge spillovers and servitisation as
drivers of the slowdown in productivity growth. In the second part, we
introduce a plan for the econometric estimation strategy. Here we
propose an extended Crépon-Duguet-Mairesse type of model (CDM), which
enriches the original specification by the three influence factors of
intangibles, spillovers, and servitisation. This will allow testing the
influence of these three factors on productivity at the level of the
firm within a unified framework. In the third part, we build on the
literature review in order to provide a detailed plan for the data
collection procedure including a description of the variables to be
collected and the source from which the variables are coming. It should
be noted that we will rely partly on structured data (e.g. ORBIS), while
many others variables will need to be generated from unstructured
sources, in particular the webpages of firms. The use of unstructured
data is a particular strength of our proposed data collection procedure
because the use of such data is expected to offer novel insights.
However, it implies additional risks in terms of data quality or missing
data. Our data collection plan explores the maximum potential of
variables that will ideally be made available for later econometric
treatment. Whether indeed all variables will have sufficient quality to
be used in the econometric estimations will be subject to the outcomes
of the actual collection efforts.
JEL Classification: D24, E22, L80, O31, O32, O34, O36, O40, O47
Keywords: Productivity, Intangibles, Servitisation, Innovation, R&D,
Open Innovation, IPR, Knowledge diffusion, Economic growth, Productivity
paradox