Industrial espionage and productivity

In this paper, we investigate the economic returns to industrial espionage. We show that the flow of information provided by East German informants in the West over the period 1970–1989 led to a significant narrowing of sectoral TFP gaps between West and East Germany. These economic returns were pri...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Glitz, Albrecht Christian Ekkehard, 1978-, Meyersson, Erik
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/55200
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.20171732
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Espionatge industrial
Espionatge alemany
Informació, Teoria de la, en economia
Tecnologia
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper, we investigate the economic returns to industrial espionage. We show that the flow of information provided by East German informants in the West over the period 1970–1989 led to a significant narrowing of sectoral TFP gaps between West and East Germany. These economic returns were primarily driven by relatively few high-quality pieces of information and particularly large in sectors closer to the West German technological frontier. Our findings suggest that the East-to-West German TFP ratio would have been 13.3 percent lower at the end of the Cold War had East Germany not engaged in industrial espionage in the West.