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1. Optimal Taxation and R&D Policies

   https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA15445  

   Akcigit, Ufuk; Hanley, Douglas; Stantcheva, Stefanie (January 2022, Econometrica)

   We study the optimal design of corporate taxation and R&D policies as a dynamic mechanism design problem with spillovers. Firms have heterogeneous research productivity, and that research productivity is private information. There are non‐internalized technological spillovers across firms, but the asymmetric information prevents the government from correcting them in the first best way. We highlight that key parameters for the optimal policies are (i) the relative complementarities between observable R&D investments, unobservable R&D inputs, and firm research productivity, (ii) the dispersion and persistence of firms' research productivities, and (iii) the magnitude of technological spillovers across firms. We estimate our model using firm‐level data matched to patent data and quantify the optimal policies. In the data, high research productivity firms get disproportionately higher returns to R&D investments than lower productivity firms. Very simple innovation policies, such as linear corporate taxes combined with a nonlinear R&D subsidy—which provides lower marginal subsidies at higher R&D levels—can do almost as well as the unrestricted optimal policies. Our formulas and theoretical and numerical methods are more broadly applicable to the provision of firm incentives in dynamic settings with asymmetric information and spillovers, and to firm taxation more generally. 

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2. Investment Assessments in the Adoption of Accessible and Assistive Technologies Within Built Environments for Persons with Disabilities

   https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15060931  

   Joseph, Siny; Namboodiri, Vinod (March 2025, Buildings)

   Emerging trends in technology are providing opportunities for a broader range of accessible and assistive technologies (AATs) to positively impact persons with disabilities in terms of independent living and employment within and across built environments. However, such technologies typically require significant investments by entities that offer such options. It is not clear how such firms compete in a market with other firms that may not provide such options. Understanding such competition can help to promote greater investments in accessibility infrastructure within built environments by entities and provide insights into how federal efforts can further boost such efforts. To this end, this paper presents a game-theoretic framework of market competition between two firms where one invests in accessibility (bearing additional upfront costs) and compares it with another one that does not. Numerical evaluations demonstrate the range of parametric values where accessibility investments pay off. Furthermore, case studies are presented to demonstrate the practical feasibility of these parameter values. The results indicate that any firm considering making accessibility investments can expect to make profits and also gain an advantage over its competitors if the expected increase in the average user experience is significant (quantified as 20% or more for the parameters considered in this work) across all potential users. 

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3. Detector R&D needs for the next generation e+e− collider

   A. Apresyan, M. Artuso (June 2023, FERMILAB-PUB-23-451-CSAID-PPD Arxiv eprint = "2306.13567",)

   The 2021 Snowmass Energy Frontier panel wrote in its final report "The realization of a Higgs factory will require an immediate, vigorous and targeted detector R&D program". Both linear and circular e+e− collider efforts have developed a conceptual design for their detectors and are aggressively pursuing a path to formalize these detector concepts. The U.S. has world-class expertise in particle detectors, and is eager to play a leading role in the next generation e+e− collider, currently slated to become operational in the 2040s. It is urgent that the U.S. organize its efforts to provide leadership and make significant contributions in detector R&D. These investments are necessary to build and retain the U.S. expertise in detector R&D and future projects, enable significant contributions during the construction phase and maintain its leadership in the Energy Frontier regardless of the choice of the collider project. In this document, we discuss areas where the U.S. can and must play a leading role in the conceptual design and R&D for detectors for e+e− colliders. 

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4. A policy mix experiment to promote start-up success: exploratory evaluation of the NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Industry University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) membership supplement

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09794-6  

   Gray, Denis; McGowen, Lindsey; Michaelis, Timothy L.; Leonchuk, Olena; Rivers, Drew (January 2020, The Journal of Technology Transfer)

   This paper investigates the outcomes of a policy experiment, the NSF SBIR/IUCRC Membership Supplement, designed to promote the success of small high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by providing subsidized memberships in university-based cooperative research centers (IUCRCs). Data collected via semi-structured interviews with representatives of 61 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) firms indicated that SBIR firms who used the supplement to join an IUCRC reported multiple R&D benefits including research cost avoidance, research savings, and access to expensive equipment. A vast majority of SBIR firms also reported realizing or anticipated realizing commercial benefits (e.g., new investors, new products, and improvements to existing products). As suggested by social capital theory, SBIR firms reported that the policy mix experiment helped them make new connections with faculty and industry. Following our qualitative results, a structural equation model was applied to test the effect of social capital as an antecedent of SBIR firm R&D and commercialization outcomes. Results suggested that the SBIR firms who developed more social capital through interactions with faculty and industry members realized significantly more R&D and commercialization benefits. Further, commercialization benefits mediated the relationship between social capital and the SBIR firm’s perceived return on investment. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of subjecting mixed policy interventions to evaluative scrutiny and provides evidence that such instruments can have substantive and positive effects on small high-tech entrepreneurial ventures. We discuss implications for social capital theory, policy mix initiatives and entrepreneurship policy. 

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5. Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovation in the U.S. High-Tech Sector

   https://doi.org/10.3386/w25565  

   Brown, J. David; Earle, John S.; Kim, Mee Jung; Lee, Kyung Min (January 2020, The Roles of Immigrants and Foreign Students in US Science, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship edited by Ina Ganguli, Shulamit Kahn and Megan MacGarvie University of Chicago Press, 2020)

   We estimate differences in innovation behavior between foreign versus U.S.-born entrepreneurs in high-tech industries. Our data come from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, a random sample of firms with detailed information on owner characteristics and innovation activities. We find uniformly higher rates of innovation in immigrant-owned firms for 15 of 16 different innovation measures; the only exception is for copyright/trademark. The immigrant advantage holds for older firms as well as for recent start-ups and for every level of the entrepreneur’s education. The size of the estimated immigrant-native differences in product and process innovation activities rises with detailed controls for demographic and human capital characteristics but falls for R&D and patenting. Controlling for finance, motivations, and industry reduces all coefficients, but for most measures and specifications immigrants are estimated to have a sizable advantage in innovation. 

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