tailieunhanh - R&D Activity and acquisitions in high technology industries: Evidence from the U.S. electronic and electrical equipment industries

Theory argues that R&D intensity and acquisition activity may be either directly or inversely related. However, empirically we know relatively little about which firms are responsible for acquisition activity in high-technology industries. | R D Activity and Acquisitions in High Technology Industries Evidence from the . Electronic and Electrical Equipment Industries Bruce A. Blonigen Department of Economics 1285 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1285 bruceb@ 541 346-4680 Christopher T. Taylor Antitrust Division Bureau of Economics Federal Trade Commission Washington DC 20580 ctaylor@ 202 326-2997 Abstract Theory argues that R D intensity and acquisition activity may be either directly or inversely related. However empirically we know relatively little about which firms are responsible for acquisition activity in high-technology industries. Using a panel of 217 . electronic and electrical equipment firms from 1985-93 and limited dependent variable estimation techniques we find relatively low R D-intensity firms are more likely to acquire. This result is true both when looking at between and within estimators indicating that acquisitions may be used as a short term or long term strategy. These results are robust to a number of sensitivity test. JEL Classification L21 O32 L63 We thank Lee Branstetter Shane Greenstein Bronwyn Hall Carol Horton Tremblay Wes Wilson David Schimmelpfennig Scott Stern anonymous referees and participants at the NBER conference Competition and Organization in Technology-Intensive Industries and Western Economic Association meetings for useful comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank James Mehring for valuable research assistance. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Federal Trade Commission or any individual Commissioner. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. I. Introduction R D activity and innovation have taken center stage in economic analysis of high-technology industries. A number of papers including Dasgupta and Stiglitz 1981 Reinganum 1985 and Jovanovic and MacDonald 1994a 1994b model and simulate industry evolution through patterns of innovation and