The Risks of Innovation: Are Innovating Firms Less Likely to Die?
Dr. Caroline Paunov, OECD
While innovation is a source of competitiveness in the marketplace it may expose plants to survival risks. Using a rich set of data on Chilean manufacturing plants and their products we show that innovative multi-product plants have higher survival odds, a robust finding that is not driven by omitted variable biases or model specifications. Single-product innovators have lower chances of survival possibly because they are unable to hedge against risks. More generally, our results show that more ‘cautious’ innovators see their survival odds increase significantly while other types of innovators do not.
About the speaker
Caroline Paunov is an Economist at the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry at the OECD. Her current work is on the impacts of the global crisis on innovation and how innovation can be harnessed better for inclusive development. Her research focuses also on the impacts of foreign direct investment, import competition and intermediate inputs from abroad on firm performance, innovation and employment using a variety of tools including micro-econometric analysis. Previously she worked for the World Bank, the United Nations and cooperated on various projects for the public sectors in Brazil, Spain and Germany. She holds an B.A. and M.A. from the University of Oxford, an MSc from the University Pompeu Fabra and a PhD in Economics from the University of London.
Venue: Conference Room
Date: 31 May 2012
Time: 12:30 - 01:30 CEST
