R&D, IP, and firm profits in the automotive supplier industry

Economic theory implies that research and development (R&D) efforts increase firm productivity and ultimately profits. In particular, R&D expenses lead to the development of intellectual property (IP) and IP commands a return that increases overall profits of the firm. This hypothesis is inv...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Lutz, Stefan
Tipo de recurso: informe técnico
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/41475
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/41475
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Productivity
Intellectual property
Royalties
MNE
Transfer pricing.
Econometría (Economía)
5302 Econometría
Descripción
Sumario:Economic theory implies that research and development (R&D) efforts increase firm productivity and ultimately profits. In particular, R&D expenses lead to the development of intellectual property (IP) and IP commands a return that increases overall profits of the firm. This hypothesis is investigated for the North American automotive supplier industry by analyzing a panel of 5000 firms for the years 1950 to 2011. Results indicate that R&D expenses in fact increase profitability at the firm level. In particular, increases in the R&D expense to sales ratio lead to increases in the profit contribution of intangible assets relative to sales. This indicates that more R&D intensive IP should command higher royalty rates per sales when licensed to third parties and within multinational enterprises alike.