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Knowledge Generality, Competition and Growth
This paper studies how the generality of knowledge—its applicability across technologies and industries—shapes firms’ innovation strategies, market structure, and aggregate growth. I build an endogenous growth model in which firms decide between general and firm-specific R\&D while competing for market leadership. General innovations strengthen firms’ ability to absorb and apply outside knowledge, creating spillovers both across and within industries, whereas firm-specific innovations primarily benefit the innovating firm. The model predicts—and the data confirms—that leaders tilt toward firm-specific R\&D, while followers rely on general innovations to catch up, and that the gap in innovation generality between them follows a U-shaped relationship with market concentration. Leveraging variation in the enforceability of non-compete agreements across states, I provide evidence consistent with the model’s spillover mechanisms. The findings highlight the importance of policies that encourage general R\&D—particularly among leading firms—for sustaining long-run growth.
Date:
31 October 2025, 13:00
Venue:
Manor Road Building, Manor Road OX1 3UQ
Venue Details:
Seminar Room A
Speaker:
Chenchuan Shi (University of Oxford)
Organising department:
Department of Economics
Part of:
Macroeconomics Workshop
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Edward Valenzano
