Do Competitive Markets Stimulate Innovation? - An Empirical Analysis Based On Japanese Manufacturing Industry Data -

Going all the way back to Schumpeter (1934), economists have long discussed whether market competition stimulates innovation. To reconcile conflicting earlier empirical evidence, Aghion and Griffith (2005) developed a model showing that competition can have both a positive and a negative effect on innovation, depending on the degree of competition in the market. Following Aghion and Griffith's work, this paper empirically examines the effect of market competition - measured either by the Herfindahl Index or the Lerner Index - on productivity growth and R&D intensity using micro data for Japan's manufacturing sector.