Intangible Inputs and Swedish Research Productivity

Abstract: In this paper, we set out to explore research productivity in Sweden and the role of intangible inputs in production. We examine the primitives of an already existing model using financial account data from Swedish firms to evaluate its applicability in the context of Swedish research productivity. This includes measuring the strengths of the relationships between fixed-cost share and the use of intangibles, markups, R&D, and sales growth, respectively. On the basis of this, Swedish firm concentration and research productivity is measured to analyze whether the predicted outcomes of the model can be observed, given the development of the use of intangibles. Our findings include a significant fit of the model, which, given an observed relative increase in investments in intangibles, would predict increasing concentration and decreasing research productivity. While we observe no significant increase in concentration, we find a decreasing research productivity in line with our expectations.