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While the extant innovation literature has provided extensive evidence of the so-called “demand-pull” effect, the possible diverse impact of demand evolution on product vs process innovation activities has not been yet investigated. This paper develops a formal model predicting a larger inducing impact of past sales in fostering product rather than process innovation. This prediction is then tested through a dynamic microeconometric model, controlling for R&D persistence, sample selection, observed and unobservable individual firm effects and time and sectoral peculiarities. Results are consistent with the model and suggest that an expansionary economic policy may benefit the diffusion of new products or even the emergence of entire new sectors.

We report a hitherto undocumented causal mechanism of how patent protection affects exports. The empirical analysis leverages unique data on the worldwide patenting and exporting activities at the product level for the universe of French firms. Exploiting heterogeneity of patent coverage within firm-product-country destinations, we find evidence of a patent premium. Goods protected by patents in a destination country are associated with higher export quantities, ceteris paribus. The effect ranges between four and eleven percent. The causality of the finding is confirmed using rejected patent applications, which are exogenous to the firm. Exports collapse when firms lose patent protection.

In this work, we test the employment impact of distinct types of innovative investments using a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2002-2013. Our GMM-SYS estimates generate various results, which are partially in contrast with the extant literature. Indeed, estimations carried out on the entire sample do not provide statistically significant evidence of the expected labor-friendly nature of innovation. More in detail, neither R&D nor investment in innovative machineries and equipment (the so-called embodied technological change, ETC) turn out to have any significant employment effect. However, the job-creation impact of R&D expenditures becomes highly significant when the focus is limited to the high-tech firms. On the other hand - and interestingly - ETC exhibits its labor-saving nature when SMEs are singled out.

The present document provides the take of innovation economists on the current pandemic. It is addressed to the general public and focuses on questions related to the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) ecosystem. It does not present new research findings. Instead, it provides a reading of current real-world developments using economic reasoning and relying on existing economic research.The first part of the report explains the root causes for a general underinvestment in Research and Development (R&D), with a particular focus on vaccines. These causes include an insufficient demand for vaccines in normal times and the very characteristics of R&D. Governments can intervene to mitigate these problems, but government intervention comes with its own set of issues. We discuss three of them, namely free riding, setting research priorities, and acting on scientific knowledge.The second part discusses several aspects related to current STI policy reactions. First, we observe a sizable shift of funds towards research on SARS-CoV-2. Aren’t we wasting money by allocating so much of it on one single scientific problem? Using the concept of the ‘elasticity of science,’ we argue that we are far from a situation where additional funding would represent a waste of money.Second, we also observe an unprecedented level of cooperation among researchers but also an intense competition to find therapeutic solutions and vaccines. We seek to make sense of this apparent antonymy, highlighting how both cooperative and competitive forces might accelerate research.Third, we focus on one policy tool, namely patents, and we discuss whether the existence of patents hampers the search for a solution. We argue that it might, but we provide ways in which patents can be beneficial. They can accelerate research (such as through patent pools) or ensure greater access to innovations (such as with compulsory licensing).Fourth, we notice that the whole STI ecosystem has been rapidly refocusing on SARS-CoV-2 in a way similar to mission-oriented R&D (MOR) programs such as the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. We highlight the fundamental differences between MOR and the present situation. Today’s response is characterized by a proliferation of a wide range of innovative solutions offered by a complex set of institutions and actors with great intellectual freedom and decentralized competition.The third part of the report assesses some potential long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We firstly discuss its impact on R&D investment. We explain how innovation might be negatively affected by a prolonged economic downturn and highlight the crucial role of stimulus packages in confronting the recession. We also address the influence of the crisis on ICT, arguing that it has been a formidable catalyst for ICT adoption. Next, we focus on clean technologies, another major societal challenge besides the pandemic. There are strong reasons for why cleantech investment may suffer. However, the crisis also offers significant opportunities to accelerate the green transition. Finally, we focus on open science, in particular on open access and open data. The current crisis could be a catalyst for the adoption of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) Data Practices.The last part of the report offers some concluding thoughts. The STI policy response cannot be limited to the urgent need for ‘technological fixes.’ A second line of response involves the production of new knowledge to prevent outbreaks (ex-ante) or mitigate their effects (ex-post). Furthermore, the current crisis is a reminder that all branches of science matter. The pandemic has many facets, and a significant number of scientific disciplines can contribute to dealing with it. We conclude with a forward-looking note, arguing that the most substantial impact of the pandemic may lie outside of the public health realm or the science system. It offers a unique opportunity to adapt the set of rules that govern our society.

This paper provides novel empirical evidence that patents enable knowledge disclosure. The analysis exploits the Invention Secrecy Act, which grants the U.S. Commissioner for Patents the right to prevent disclosure of new inventions that represent a threat to national security. Using a two-level matching approach, we document a negative and large relationship between the enforcement of a secrecy order and follow-on inventions, as captured with patent citations and text-based measures of invention similarity. The effect of secrecy orders is particularly salient for geographically-distant parties and for inventions in the same technological field as the secreted patent.

In this paper we investigate how the knowledge production function is at work in different industrial sectors comparing mature and young companies in Italy. We estimate a two-step model using community innovation survey data. We provide evidence that young firms are particularly effective in translating R&D into product innovation in ‘entrepreneurial sectors’ (especially in services where it is likely that capital requirements and experience are negligible), while mature companies turn out to be more effective in translating technological acquisitions (TAs) into process innovation in ‘routinized sectors’ (especially in low-tech manufacturing industries where the main strategy is cost reduction).

The present document provides the take of innovation economists on the current pandemic. It is addressed to the general public and focuses on questions related to the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) ecosystem. It does not present new research findings. Instead, it provides a reading of current real-world developments using economic reasoning and relying on existing economic research. The first part of the report explains the root causes for a general underinvestment in Research and Development (R&D), with a particular focus on vaccines. These causes include an insufficient demand for vaccines in normal times and the very characteristics of R&D. Governments can intervene to mitigate these problems, but government intervention comes with its own set of issues. We discuss three of them, namely free riding, setting research priorities, and acting on scientific knowledge. The second part discusses several aspects related to current STI policy reactions. First, we observe a sizable shift of funds towards research on SARS-CoV-2. Aren’t we wasting money by allocating so much of it on one single scientific problem? Using the concept of the ‘elasticity of science,’ we argue that we are far from a situation where additional funding would represent a waste of money. Second, we also observe an unprecedented level of cooperation among researchers but also an intense competition to find therapeutic solutions and vaccines. We seek to make sense of this apparent antonymy, highlighting how both cooperative and competitive forces might accelerate research. Third, we focus on one policy tool, namely patents, and we discuss whether the existence of patents hampers the search for a solution. We argue that it might, but we provide ways in which patents can be beneficial. They can accelerate research (such as through patent pools) or ensure greater access to innovations (such as with compulsory licensing). Fourth, we notice that the whole STI ecosystem has been rapidly refocusing on SARS-CoV-2 in a way similar to mission-oriented R&D (MOR) programs such as the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. We highlight the fundamental differences between MOR and the present situation. Today’s response is characterized by a proliferation of a wide range of innovative solutions offered by a complex set of institutions and actors with great intellectual freedom and decentralized competition. The third part of the report assesses some potential long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We firstly discuss its impact on R&D investment. We explain how innovation might be negatively affected by a prolonged economic downturn and highlight the crucial role of stimulus packages in confronting the recession. We also address the influence of the crisis on ICT, arguing that it has been a formidable catalyst for ICT adoption. Next, we focus on clean technologies, another major societal challenge besides the pandemic. There are strong reasons for why cleantech investment may suffer. However, the crisis also offers significant opportunities to accelerate the green transition. Finally, we focus on open science, in particular on open access and open data. The current crisis could be a catalyst for the adoption of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) Data Practices. The last part of the report offers some concluding thoughts. The STI policy response cannot be limited to the urgent need for ‘technological fixes.’ A second line of response involves the production of new knowledge to prevent outbreaks (ex-ante) or mitigate their effects (ex-post). Furthermore, the current crisis is a reminder that all branches of science matter. The pandemic has many facets, and a significant number of scientific disciplines can contribute to dealing with it. We conclude with a forward-looking note, arguing that the most substantial impact of the pandemic may lie outside of the public health realm or the science system. It offers a unique opportunity to adapt the set of rules that govern our society.

The paper adds to the literature on the barriers to innovation in two ways. First, we assess comparatively what mostly constrains firms' ability to translate investment in innovation activity into new products and processes, whether it is mainly finance, as most of the literature would suggest, or whether it is mostly knowledge and market-related aspects. Second, we suggest a method to correct for the sample selection bias that often affects empirical contributions to this scholarship. By filtering out firms that are not interested in innovation from those that struggle to engage in it, we obtain a relevant sample of potential innovators, which allows us to analyse the comparative effect of financial and non-financial barriers on innovation success. We find that demand-side factors, particularly concentrated market structure and lack of demand, are as important as financial constraints in determining firms' innovation failures. This evidence redirects attention from financial to non-financial barriers by considering traditional demand, market structure and regulation factors involved in reduced firm innovation performance. The empirical analysis is based on an unbalanced panel of firm-level data from four waves of the UK Community Innovation Survey (CIS) between 2002 and 2010 merged with data from the UK Business Structure Database. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper studies the relationship between migration and the productivity of high-skilled workers, as captured by inventors listed in patent applications. Using machine learning techniques to identify inventors across patents uniquely, we are able to track the worldwide migration patterns of nearly one million individual inventors. Migrant inventors account for more than ten percent of inventors worldwide. The econometric analysis seeks to explain the recurring finding in the literature that migrant inventors are more productive than non-migrant inventors. We find that migrant inventors become about thirty-percent more productive after having migrated. The disambiguated inventor data are openly available.

International audience; This article explores the relations between firm growth and a set of four innovation indicators (in-house R&D, external sourcing, product innovation, and process innovation) that capture the different sources, modes, and outcomes of the innovative strategies adopted by firms. While existing studies tend to focus on the individual effects on growth of each innovation activity, we stress that firms adopt heterogeneous innovation strategies, choosing to perform different combinations of the basic innovation activities. We directly address the empirical question as to whether jointly performing two basic innovation activities boosts sales growth above and beyond the separate contribution of each innovation activity when performed individually. Exploiting a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms observed between 2004 and 2011, we document instances of super-modularity of the growth function, and reveal the presence of complementarities between internal R&D and product innovation, and between product and process innovations. As such, the combination of these three basic innovation activities appears to be the most effective strategy for sustaining growth and market shares, while external sourcing does not appear to make any systematic contribution.

This paper builds upon Pellegrino et al. (Struct Chang Econ Dyn 23:329–340, 2012) further analysing the determinants of product innovation in Italian young innovative companies (YICs) by looking at in-house and external RD however, YICs turn out to be less in-house R&D-based and, unlike their mature counterparts, more dependent on external sources of knowledge. While this outcome corroborates and further reinforce what found—using a different methodology—in Pellegrino et al. (Struct Chang Econ Dyn 23:329–340, 2012), in this study, other entrepreneurial attitudes such as the ability to cooperate with other firms in producing innovation or the capacity to develop significant organizational changes are also investigated. The results of the econometric estimations show that these attitudes turn out to be key innovative strategies in the incumbent firms but, in some specific cases (such as for the ability to cooperate), appear to be far less important in the YICs. These results are somehow worrying, since they show that Italian innovative entrepreneurs are mostly driven by routinized rather than creative strategies.

While the extant innovation literature has provided extensive evidence of the so-called "demand-pull" effect, the possible diverse impact of demand evolution on product vs process innovation activities has not been yet investigated. This paper develops a formal model predicting a larger inducing impact of past sales in fostering product rather than process innovation. This prediction is then tested through a dynamic microeconometric model, controlling for R&D persistence, sample selection, observed and unobservable individual firm effects and time and sectoral peculiarities. Results are consistent with the model and suggest that an expansionary economic policy may benefit the diffusion of new products or even the emergence of entire new sectors.

This paper looks at the effects of demand uncertainty and stagnancy on firms’ decisions to engage in R&D activities and the amount of financial effort devoted to it. The paper contributes to the innovation literature in three respects: first, it adds to the revived debate on demand-pull perspectives in innovation studies, by specifically looking at demand-related (lack of) incentives to invest in innovation. Also, importantly, it complements the emerging literature on barriers to innovation in a two-fold way: first, by focusing on demand-related obstacles rather than the more explored financial barriers; second, by analyzing in detail whether experiencing uncertainty or lack of demand is a sector-specific feature, namely whether firms active in high or low tech manufacturing or in knowledge intensive or low tech services are more or less dependent on demand conditions when deciding to perform R&D. We find that uncertain demand and lack of demand are perceived as two completely different barriers. While uncertainty on demand does not seem to constrain R&D efforts, the perception of lack of demand does strongly reduce not only the amount of investment in R&D but also the likelihood of firms to engage in R&D activities. We interpret this evidence in terms of the specific phase of the innovation cycle in which decisions to invest in R&D are taken. Sectoral affiliation does not seem to matter when it relates to demand conditions, supporting the conjecture that positive expectations on market demand is a structural and necessary condition to be fulfilled for all firms prior to invest in R&D.

The availability of information on technology is a key factor in the innovation process. Firms that lack such information thereby face a major barrier to innovation. Yet little is known about the types of companies that lack this information. This paper examines what characterises firms that lack information on technology and analyses how innovative companies can overcome this gap in their knowledge. Empirical analysis was conducted with the Panel of Technological Innovation (PITEC), based on the information from the Spanish version of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). The analysis leads to three principal conclusions. First, a large number of firms perceive the lack of information on technology as a barrier to innovation. Second, there are notable sector differences in the way firms perceive this barrier: High-tech firms perceive lower levels of this barrier. Third, not all sources of information on technology are equally effective at overcoming this barrier. The most useful sources are consultants, commercial laboratories and private R&D institutes.

The efficacy of standard rehabilitation for improving upper limb functionality after stroke is limited; thus, alternative strategies are needed. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) combined with rehabilitation is a promising approach, but the invasiveness of this technique reduces its clinical application. Recently, a non-invasive technique for stimulating vagus nerve has been developed. Aim of this study is to evaluate safety, feasibility, and efficacy of noninvasive VNS combined with robotic rehabilitation for improving upper limb functionality in chronic stroke. We designed a proof-of-principle, double-blind, semi-randomized, sham-controlled trial. Fourteen patients with either ischemic or haemorrhagic chronic stroke were randomized to robot-assisted therapy associated with real or sham VNS, delivered for 10 consecutive working days. Efficacy was evaluated by change in upper extremity Fugl-Meyer score. After intervention, there were no adverse events and Fugl-Meyer scores were significantly better in the real group compared to the sham group. Our pilot study confirms that VNS is feasible in chronic stroke patients and can produce a slight clinical improvement in association to robotic rehabilitation. Compared to traditional stimulation, noninvasive VNS seems to be safer and more tolerable. Further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of this innovative approach.

In this work, we explore the relations between sales growth and a set of innovation indicators that capture the different sources, modes and results of the innovative activity undertaken within firms. We exploit a rich panel on innovation activity of Spanish manufacturing firms, reporting detailed CIS-type information continuously over the period 2004-2011. Standard GMM-panel estimates of the average effect of innovation activities reveal significant and positive effect for internal R&D, while no effect is found for external sourcing of knowledge (external R&D, acquisition of embodied and disembodied technologies) as well as for output of innovation (process and product innovation). However, fixed-effects quantile regressions reveal that innovation activities, apart from process innovation and disembodied technical change, display a positive effect on high-growth performance. Finally, we find evidence of super-modularity of the growth function, revealing complementarities of internal R&D with product innovation, and between product and process innovation.

This paper analyses the determinants of product innovation in Italian young innovative companies (YICs) by looking at in-house and external R&D and at the acquisition of external technology in its embodied and disembodied components. A Tobit approach is applied to study jointly the occurrence of product innovation and the intensity of such innovation. Results provide evidence that in-house R&D is linked to product innovation both in mature firms and YICs; however, YICs turn out to be less in-house R&D-based and more dependent on external sources of knowledge. Moreover, other entrepreneurial attitudes such as the ability to cooperate with other firms in producing innovation or the capacity to develop significant organizational changes appear to be less important or even absent in Italian YICs. These results are somehow worrying, since they show that Italian innovative entrepreneurs are mostly driven by routinized rather than creative strategies.

This paper examines how firm age can affect a firm’s perception of the obstacles (deterring vs. revealed) that hamper and delay innovation. Using a comprehensive panel of Spanish firms for the period 2004-2011, the empirical analysis conducted shows that distinct types of obstacle are perceived differently by firms of different ages. First, a clear-cut negative relationship is identified between firm age and a firm’s assessment of both the internal and external shortages of financial resources. Second, young firms seem to be less sensitive to the lack of qualified personnel when initiating an innovative project than when they are already engaged in such activities. By contrast, the attempts of mature firms to engage in innovation activity are significantly affected by the lack of qualified personnel. Finally, mature incumbents appear to attach greater importance to obstacles related to market structure and demand than is the case of firms with less experience.

This paper investigates the determinants of the choice of different types of innovative input (R&D and technological acquisitions) and their relationship with different innovative outputs (product and process innovation), distinguishing between firms of different ages (mature vs young). In order to do so we apply a nonlinear structural model estimated on the third and fourth waves of the Italian Community Innovation Survey (CIS). We find that firm and market characteristics play a distinct role in boosting different types of innovation activities for firms of different ages. In particular, while methods of appropriability and international market exposure are relevant for both forms of innovative input, cooperation in innovation activities appears to be important for increasing the level of investment in R&D but not for technological acquisition. Moreover, young firms show a higher level of sensitivity than their mature counterparts to sources of information regarding innovation when we consider the magnitude of their innovative effort. On the contrary, factors such as methods of appropriability and support for innovation appear to be more important for enhancing the level of investment in both R&D and technological acquisitions for the mature firms only. Finally, the two innovative inputs appear to be equally important in determining both forms of innovative output for the two sub-samples of firms.

This paper analyses the effect of financial, knowledge, demand, market structure and regulation barriers to innovation on firms’ economic performance. It contributes to the literature on barriers to innovation in a two-fold way. First, it disentangles the mediated effect of obstacles, via product, process and organisational innovation, on labour productivity. Second, it accounts for the differentiated effect that each of the barriers has on firms positioned along the productivity distribution. We do so by employing both quantile regression techniques and propensity score matching on the UK CIS panel 2002-2010 merged with the Business Structure database. While we find evidence that financial obstacles negatively affect productivity across the distribution, and are more pronounced for young rather than small firms, knowledge and regulatory obstacles mostly affect high productivity firms. Interestingly, the perceptions of market structure and demand obstacles are positively associated to productivity performance, confirming their “revealed” rather than “deterring” nature.

This paper discusses the determinants of product innovation in young innovative companies (YICs) by looking at in-house and external RD however, innovation intensity in the YICs is mainly dependent on embodied technical change from external sources, while − in contrast with the incumbent firms − in-house R&D does not play a significant role.

The paper adds to the scattered empirical evidence on the role of obstacles to innovation in a three-fold way. First, we correct for the usual sample selection bias by filtering out firms not interested in innovation from ‘potential innovators’. Second, we assess what mostly affects firms’ propensity to realize innovative outputs. Third, we do so in a panel framework by using an unbalanced panel of UK firm for the period 2002 - 2010. We find that demand- and market-related factors are as important as financing conditions in determining firms’ innovation failures. This evidence puts much of the latest hype on finance in perspective.

Purpose: This work investigates how a direct bidirectional connection between brain and hand prosthesis modifies the bi-hemispheric sensorimotor system devoted to the movement control of the lost limb. Hand prostheses are often unable to satisfy users' expectations, mostly due to the poor performance of their interfacing system. Neural Interfaces implanted inside nerves of the stump offer the advantage of using the bidirectional neural pathways 'naturally' dispatching signals to control proper hand actions and feed-back sensations. Learning to control a neurally-interfaced hand prosthesis and decode sensory information was previously observed to reduce the inter-hemispheric asymmetry of cortical motor maps and the clinical symptoms of phantom limb syndrome. Methods: Electroencephalographic (EEG) data was analysed using Functional Source Separation (FSS), a semi-blind method that incorporates prior knowledge about the signal of interest into data decomposition to give access to cortical patch activities. Results: Bi-hemispheric cortices showed normalization of their activity (topographical and spectral patterns) and of functional connectivity between homologous hand controlling areas, during the delivery of the motor command to the cybernetic prosthesis. Conclusions: The re-establishment of central-peripheral communication with the lost limb induced by a neurally-interfaced hand prosthesis produces beneficial plastic reorganization, not only restructuring contralateral directly-connected control areas, but also their functional balance within the bi-hemispheric system necessary for motor control.

This paper discusses the determinants of product innovation in young innovative companies (YICs) by looking at in-house and external R&D and at the acquisition of external technology in its embodied and disembodied components. These ‘innovative’ input-output relationships are tested on a sample of 2,713 innovative Italian firms. A sample-selection approach is applied to study both the determinants of product innovation and the factors affecting the intensity of innovation. Results show that in-house R&D is linked to the propensity to introduce product innovation both in mature firms and YICs; however, innovation intensity in the YICs is mainly dependent on embodied technical change from external sources, while in-house R&D does not play a significant role.

This paper examines the determinants of young innovative companies’ (YICs) R&D activities taking into account the autoregressive nature of innovation. Using a large longitudinal dataset comprising Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990-2008, we find that previous R&D experience is a fundamental determinant for mature and young firms, albeit to a smaller extent in the case of the YICs, suggesting that their innovation behaviour is less persistent and more erratic. Moreover, our results suggest that firm and market characteristics play a distinct role in boosting the innovation activity of firms of different age. In particular, while market concentration and the degree of product diversification are found to be important in boosting R&D activities in the sub-sample of mature firms only, YICs’ spending on R&D appears to be more sensitive to demand-pull variables, suggesting the presence of credit constraints. These results have been obtained using a recently proposed dynamic type-2 tobit estimator, which accounts for individual effects and efficiently handles the initial conditions problem.

This paper examines the determinants of young innovative companies’ (YICs) R&D activities taking into account the autoregressive nature of innovation. Using a large longitudinal dataset comprising Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990-2008, we find that previous R&D experience is a fundamental determinant for mature and young firms, albeit to a smaller extent in the case of the YICs, suggesting that their innovation behavior is less persistent and more erratic. Moreover, our results suggest that firm and market characteristics play a distinct role in boosting the innovation activity of firms of different age. In particular, while market concentration and the degree of product diversification are found to be important in boosting R&D activities in the sub-sample of mature firms only, YICs’ spending on R&D appears to be more sensitive to demand-pull variables, suggesting the presence of credit constraints. These results have been obtained using a recently proposed dynamic type-2 tobit estimator, which accounts for individual effects and efficiently handles the initial conditions problem.

This paper examines the determinants of young innovative companies’ (YICs) R&D activities taking into account the autoregressive nature of innovation. Using a large longitudinal dataset comprising Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990-2008, we find that previous R&D experience is a fundamental determinant for mature and young firms, albeit to a smaller extent in the case of the YICs, suggesting that their innovation behaviour is less persistent and more erratic. Moreover, our results suggest that firm and market characteristics play a distinct role in boosting the innovation activity of firms of different age. In particular, while market concentration and the degree of product diversification are found to be important in boosting R&D activities in the sub-sample of mature firms only, YICs’ spending on R&D appears to be more sensitive to demand-pull variables, suggesting the presence of credit constraints. These results have been obtained using a recently proposed dynamic type-2 tobit estimator, which accounts for individual effects and efficiently handles the initial conditions problem.

This paper discusses the determinants of product innovation in young innovative companies (YICs) by looking at in-house and external R&D and at the acquisition of external technology in embodied and disembodied components. These input-output relationships are tested on a sample of innovative Italian firms. A sample-selection approach is applied. Results show that in-house R&D is linked to the propensity to introduce product innovation both in mature firms and YICs; however, innovation intensity in the YICs is mainly dependent on embodied technical change from external sources, while − in contrast with the incumbent firms − in-house R&D does not play a significant role.

Objective Delta waves are the most prominent electroencephalographic (EEG) feature of non-rapid eye movement sleep with cortical origin. Several human studies suggested they are sensor of synaptic weight and possible effectors of sleep-dependent synaptic plasticity. During wakefulness delta waves are almost absent in physiological conditions, but they come out when a subcortical brain lesion occurs. For these reasons delta waves during wakefulness are considered as a lesional sign but no definitive data about its functional significance were provided. Our aim was to verify whether delta waves can be a sign of plastic cortical modifications. Materials and methods 11 young healthy subjects (28 ± 3) were enrolled in the study. Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) was administered on left primary motor cortex to induce enduring cortical motor plasticity. High density scalp EEG (32 channels) was recorded all along the experiment. PSD for standard frequency bands (delta 1–3.5 Hz, theta 4–7.5 Hz, alpha 8–12 Hz, beta 13–22 Hz) was calculated in each longitudinal bipolar derivation. 5-min resting opened-eyes EEG was analyzed pre-iTBS (T0) and immediately after iTBS (T1), after 15 (T2) and 30 (T3) min. MEP amplitude and visual analogic scales about sleepiness, alertness, and the Stanford Sleepiness Scale were analyzed at the same time-points to explore motor plasticity induction and alertness status. Results iTBS induced a 9%-increase of MEP amplitude which remained stable until 30 min after stimulation (T1vsT0 p = 0.005; T2vsT1 p = 0.560; T3vsT2 p = 0.158). A selective increase (+87.5%) in delta band PSD was evident at T1 vs T0, remaining stable all along the experiment (T1vsT0 p = 0.019, T2vsT1 p = 0.724, T3vsT2 p = 1). Significant changes were bilaterally present only in fronto-central derivations ( p Discussion Our experiment firstly demonstrated a large and enduring increase in EEG delta activity in cortical areas undergoing plasticity induction during wakefulness. Present results may open new scenarios in interpreting scalp EEG slow waves after brain lesions not only as sign of lesion but also as sign of neuronal plastic rearrangement not with a negative value.

This paper examines how firm age can affect a firm’s perception of the obstacles (deterring vs. revealed) that hamper and delay innovation. Using a comprehensive panel of Spanish firms for the period 2004–2011, the empirical analysis conducted shows that distinct types of obstacle are perceived differently by firms of different ages. First, a clear-cut negative relationship is identified between firm age and a firm’s assessment of both the internal and external shortages of financial resources. Second, young firms seem to be less sensitive to the lack of qualified personnel when initiating an innovative project than when they are already engaged in such activities. By contrast, the attempts of mature firms to engage in innovation activity are significantly affected by the lack of qualified personnel. Finally, mature incumbents appear to attach greater importance to obstacles related to market structure and demand than is the case of firms with less experience.

The paper analyzes the effect of financial, knowledge, demand, market structure and regulation barriers to innovation on firms’ economic performance. It contributes to the literature on barriers to innovation by accounting for the heterogeneous effects that each barrier has on firms across the productivity distribution. We do so by employing both quantile regression techniques and matching estimators on this UK CIS panel 2002–2010 merged with the Business Structure Database. While we find evidence that both the cost and also the availability of finance negatively affect productivity across the whole distribution, the lack of qualified personnel mostly hinders high productivity firms. Moreover, quantile regression reveals some interesting variation in effect sizes across the (conditional) productivity distribution.

This study examines the relationship between R&D drivers and firm's age, taking into account the autoregressive nature of innovation.