French Firm-level Data Research Articles

The Effect of the R&D Tax Credit on the Private Funding of R&D: An Econometric Evaluation on French Firm Level Data

We study, at the firm level, whether the incremental R&D tax credit increases the private funding of R&D. In order to answer this question, we use the yearly surveys of the Ministry of Research over the period 1993-2003, as well as the corresponding firm-level tax files. The main issue is whether the firms would have increased their R&D expenditures without this tax incentive. We make use of the Rubin methodology. In a first step, we study the determinants of the probability to benefit from the R&D tax credit, that is the selection process at work in the recipients’ sample. We find that the probability to obtain a R&D tax credit increases with the R&D/Sales ratio and decreases with the direct R&D subsidies. Once we have evaluated the probability to get the R&D tax credit, we are able to correct for the selection bias. In a second step, we evaluate the effect of the incremental R&D tax credit on the private funding of research (once subtracted the direct subsidies from all the ministries). We find that, overall, the tax credit adds to the private funding of R&D: 1 Euro of tax credit would give slightly more than one Euro of total R&D. We also find that the incremental R&D tax credit increases the growth of the number of researchers.

Les effets de l'introduction de l'euro sur les exportateurs français : une analyse sur données individuelles

Dans quelle mesure l’introduction de l’euro a bénéficié aux exportateurs français ? Nous procédons à une analyse empirique détaillée à partir de données d’exportation, au niveau de la firme, fournies par les douanes françaises. Chaque année, les firmes françaises exportent davantage vers les destinations les plus intégrées (Union Européenne à 15 membres). Cet effet transite principalement par un nombre de flux individuels plus importants : davantage de firmes exportent vers l’UE15 ; ces firmes exportent davantage de catégories de produits. La valeur des flux individuels d’exportation, destinés à l’UE15, est elle aussi plus importante. Dans une seconde étape, nous nous intéressons aux effets de l’adoption de l’euro en 1999. Nos résultats montrent que l’euro a permis d’accroître le nombre de flux individuels d’exportation destinés aux pays membres de la zone euro. Après 1999, chaque exportateur exporte vers la zone euro davantage de catégories de produits. En revanche, nos résultats montrent que le nombre d’exportateurs n’a pas été affecté.

The location of domestic and foreign production affiliates by French multinational firms

In this paper we combine two traditions in the analysis of firms’ location patterns. One led by trade economists who try to understand why do firms invest abroad, and another one led by urban/regional economists, who frequently use patterns of inter-regional or inter-city choices to estimate agglomeration economies. We contribute to the trade-motivated set of papers on location choices by adding the domestic country in the choice set, while accounting for firm’s heterogeneity in the choices. Our econometric results using French firm-level data show an important “home bias” in manufacturing investment decisions. A crucial finding, which bridges with our contribution to the agglomeration literature, is that the spatial clustering of affiliates belonging to the same industrial group accounts for the lion’s share of this home bias.

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The Pollution Haven Hypothesis: A Geographic Economy Model in a Comparative Study

Although based on theoretical foundations, the pollution haven hypothesis has never been clearly proven empirically. In this study, we re-examine this hypothesis by a fresh take on both its theoretical and empirical aspects. While applying a geographic economy model on French firm-level data, we confirm the hypothesis for the global sample. Through sensitivity analysis, we validate it for Central and Eastern European countries, emerging and high-income OECD countries, but not for the major part of the Commonwealth of Independent States countries. Finally, we show that the pollution haven hypothesis is confirmed in the strongest manner for emerging economies.

The Euro and the Intensive and Extensive Margins of Trade: Evidence from French Firm Level Data

We improve the study of the effects of a Currency Union on trade. Using data on French exports at the firm level, we compute an intensive and extensive margins of French exports - with a variety dimension - over the period 1998-2003. Estimation results indicate that nominal exchange rate volatility has a negative effect, which translates into the intensive and extensive margins. We also provide some evidence that the euro had an additional positive effect on the extensive margin; this effect is not related to the reduced nominal exchange rate volatility. This suggests a new varieties effect of the euro.

Did Information Technologies Shift Upward Multifactor Productivity in the 90s? Evidence from French Firm Level Data

We have implemented a new methodology in order to examine the effect of Information Technologies (IT) on Multifactor Productivity (MFP) at the firm level. Although the skill biased technical change hypothesis has received a lot of empirical support, previous studies typically assumed that input efficiencies were affected homogeneously. We relax this assumption by developing a very simple model that leads us to add the cost shares of inputs interacted with IT to the usual regression relating MFP growth to IT adoption. Our results based on a sample of manufacturing firms suggest that Internet adoption increases significantly MFP, assuming away the simultaneity issue. Moreover, all inputs would not be affected in the same way. Internet would increase strongly the efficiency of female, skilled and highly skilled workers. By contrast, the adoption of personal computers, mainframe computers, transfer of data within firms and transfer of data with clients or suppliers are not correlated with MFP growth. Finally, our results suggest that the effect of IT adoption on MFP growth does not depend on the use of new work practices.

Assessing spillovers from universities to firms: evidence from French firm-level data

We assess the importance of information flows from universities to innovative firms and determine the relative contribution of formal collaboration and pure knowledge spillovers in this process. We find that spillovers provide the most benefit to firms that imitate existing technologies or those that are involved in incremental innovation. On the other hand, highly innovative firms appear to derive most benefit from collaborative research with foreign universities. Indeed, highly innovative firms are at the frontier of the academic knowledge in their industry. Therefore, they only marginally benefit from aggregate (or industry-wide) spillovers. They require new forms of academic knowledge that they acquire through formal cooperation with foreign universities.