Institutions and Firms' Return to Innovation : Evidence from the World Bank Enterprise Survey

Nguyen, Ha ; Jaramillo, Patricio A.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: BANK LOANS;    BANK POLICY;    BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT;    BUSINESS SECTOR;    COMPETITOR;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6918
RP-ID  :  WPS6918

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper poses a question: do firms indeveloping countries not innovate because they are unwillingto? The question moves away from the conventional focus onthe obstacles (such as the lack of access to finance) thathinder firms' innovation ability. The World Bank'sEnterprise Survey is used first to estimate the return tofirms' innovation across many developing countries, interms of sales and sales per worker. Then the return toinnovation is compared across countries with differentlevels of institutional quality. In countries with lowerinstitutional quality (specifically, rule of law, regulatoryquality, property and patent right protection), the returnto firms' innovation is lower. This suggests that poorinstitutional environment lowers firms' return toinnovation and hence discourages them from investing inresearching and adopting new products.