Economics - Theses
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ItemEmpirical studies on firm-level productivity and innovation( 2019)In Chapter 1, I define a novel concept of low productivity spells. Instead of treating productivity as a continuous variable, I define a low-productivity state as poor productivity growth over 2 years consecutively. This provides an alternative insight into understanding firms which pose a potential drag on aggregate productivity growth. Using a competing risk framework, I find that over the course of 1991--2014, the exposure of import competition from China had a significant and negative effect on the exit from these low-productivity spells into high-productivity performance for listed firms in the U.S. On the other hand, this import exposure had no effect on the same firms shutting down. Together, these imply that the growth in import penetration from China had the effect of trapping U.S. manufacturing firms in low-productivity spells for longer. In Chapter 2, I investigate the effect of the America Invents Act (AIA) in 2011 on the patents granted by small firm compared with large firms. In first constructing my dataset, I further bootstrap the algorithm proposed by Autor, Dorn, Hanson, Pisano and Shu (2017) in merging patent data from the United States Patents and Trademarks Office USPTO with firm-level data from COMPUSTAT to better correct for false positives and true negatives, as well as enabling it to be more replicable. With a difference-in-difference framework using de-trended patenting data, I find a negative effect by the AIA on patents granted to small firms compared with large firms. However, this effect appears to be driven primarily by the amount of cash holdings firms have. A triple-difference framework which includes cash holdings finds the AIA had no significant effect on the patents granted to small firms which are cash-poor compared with large firms which are also cash-poor. In Chapter 3, I examine the effect of Chinese import competition on innovation by U.S. manufacturing firms originally investigated by Autor, Dorn, Hanson, Pisano and Shu (2017) but within a framework that differentiates this effect between small and large firms. In addition, I also measure the innovation response by firms using patents granted to them instead of their patent applications per se. With a model without heterogeneous effects, I find that the import penetration growth from China had increased innovation on average by all U.S. manufacturing firms when innovation is measured by the patents granted each firm. In a model with heterogeneous effects, I find this effect to be insignificantly different for large firms compared with small firms, and for cash-rich firms compared with cash-poor firms.
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ItemRedesigning hospital care, an innovation implementation process( 2012)It is well observed that healthcare in Australia continues to face financial, operational, efficiency, reputation and quality challenges. The establishment of the Redesigning Hospital Care Program (RHCP) by the Department of Health Victoria (Department) in 2008 was commissioned to create a focus on improvements in efficiency, access and service quality innovations, to identify replicable, scalable and transferrable models which could be commissioned across the Victorian health system. Participating HCOs were assisted to assess their readiness for redesign, using a redesign readiness tool, and to inform a return on investment (ROI) discussion. Using a healthcare based total quality management (TQM) framework as a theoretical lens, this study uses multiple cross case analysis to research the success of the RHCP to date, including what has worked effectively and where there are opportunities for project improvement. A semi structured interview process was used for case analysis which followed a disciplined reference to the case protocol. This process was used due to the subject matter and richness and diversity of the case data. Thematic coding based on case interviews, field notes as well as organisational annual quality reports facilitated intra and inter - case / cross case analysis. The analysis of the qualitative data was conducted concurrently with data gathering and triangulated with case participant documents. The study also explores those HCO characteristics identified in the literature, with respect to innovation implementation and change management capacity. The case study organisations represented in this report have been nominated by the Department as exemplars of HCOs that have had varying degrees of success with respect to RHCP implementation to date. Finally, the study describes key elements identified throughout the case analyses, of critical success factors informing the profile of a redesign ready organisation. These findings include a focus on leadership, a commitment to improvement capability and systems, striking a manageable balance between innovation implementation and risk management, and having a clear focus on results through all levels of the organisation. It also identifies recommendations for further study.