An Exhaustive Approachment To The Innovation Efficiency In Spain

Abstract

The objective for this article is to analyze the innovation efficiency in Spain by activity branch. To this end we will work with the 2009 data from the INE (Spanish National Institute of Statistics) innovation and R&D activities surveys. To this aim, we will use the following methodology for the efficiency analysis: the one based on output oriented DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) with constant returns to scale and weight restrictions. This technique will be completed in three aspects. Firstly with the introduction of more inputs and outputs without causing an increment of efficient units. Secondly, we will use the Principal Component Analysis to extract the idea to implement the weight restrictions in the DEA. Thirdly, the analysis will be completed with a robustness Analysis of the efficient activity branches to improve the DEA discrimination capacity. MOTIVATION OF THE RESEARCH AND LITERATURE SURVEY The structure of the Spanish economy is suffering nowadays some very significant changes marked by a double crisis at the same time. On one hand the serious international crisis, and on the other hand a national crisis product of a long term growth model based on exhausted activity branches: construction and tourism. It has been pointed out within the new strategic goals for this decade set at the Lisbon European Council, in march 2000, that the European Union will become one of the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economies in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. Achieving these goals requires an overall strategy aimed at preparing the transition to a knowledge-based economy and society by better policies for the information society and R&D, as well as by stepping up the process of structural reform for competitiveness and innovation and by completing the internal market. (Lisbon European Council, 2000). Spain should add value to the European Union, and became more competitive and efficient, with a dynamic economy based on the knowledge, such as education, innovation, research and development. In that point, we would need to know which is the role of the innovation in the transformation of the economic structure of Spain and which activity branches of the Spanish economy are the most efficient ones. These key questions will be studied throughout the present paper to understand the current structure of the Spanish economy and to be able to offer information to economic politics decision makers. Structural transformations needed to the economic growth and increase of the rent per capita imply changes of certain relevance in the structure of the production, in the role of the trade and in the public sector weight. (Garcia and Myro, 2008). These changes leaded by the upward tendency of some activity branches and the decline of others, alter the structure of the whole economy. The research, development and innovation, all of them focused on the increase of productivity, are needed to lead these significant structure changes. Throughout the base of a balanced and sustainable Economic growth based on innovation must be designed the nowadays Spanish economy structure change. There are two motivations in this paper. Firstly, we want to answer the previous key questions related to the Spanish economy. Secondly, we want to propose a new methodological approach to improve the Data Envelopment Analysis, looking for improving one previous research developed in this field (De Vicente , 2009), (Guede , 2011). Although there has been carried out very interesting researches on this topic (Buesa , 2006), (Galende del Canto 2008), (Gomez and Zabala 2008), (De Vicente , 2009), (Guede , 2011), the solution proposed in this paper has not been applied in this field previously, and it’s new in the application of the most advanced DEA research methods too. (Cooper 2004), (Doyle and Green, 1994), (Dyson 2001), Proceedings 26th European Conference on Modelling and Simulation ©ECMS Klaus G. Troitzsch, Michael Mohring, Ulf Lotzmann (Editors) ISBN: 978-0-9564944-4-3 / ISBN: 978-0-9564944-5-0 (CD) (Lugones 2003), (Madlener et al, 2006), (Maystre et al, 1994), (Raftery, 1993), (Roy and Bouyssou, 1993), (Zhu and Cook, 2007). In order to follow the most authorized data analysis methodology it has been developed the study under the Oslo Manual framework and in concordance with the the INNO-policy reports, INNO Metrics (2007) and the European regional innovation scoreboard report (2009).