Productivity and Innovation

Firms often argue that disclosure and reporting regulations such as the EU Accounting Directive require them to reveal proprietary information, which discourages innovation. This column explores the effects of disclosure requirements on corporate innovation in the EU, and finds that forcing firms to publicly disclose their financial statements does indeed discourage innovative activities. At the industry level, positive information spillovers to competitors, suppliers, and customers appear insufficient to compensate for the negative direct effect on innovation. Indeed, the spillovers seem to concentrate innovation within a few large firms in a given industry.

Little is known about the role of capital in economic growth before the late 19th century. This column provides the first estimates of investment and the capital stock in Britain as far back as 1270. Although important changes did occur in the role of capital, such as the growing importance of fixed capital relative to working capital and a substantial increase in the investment share of GDP, growth accounting analysis shows that productivity growth was more important than capital deepening in explaining the growth of output per head.