Innovation and job creation and destruction : evidence from Spain

Abstract

In this paper we examine the effect of innovation on job creation and job destruction in Spanish manufacturing. Our empirical analysis is based on firm-level longitudinal data from which we have information on employment and innovation activity. The estimation approach consists of a two-step procedure that takes into account the fact that firms endogenously choose positive, negative or zero growth in employment, in which the selection mechanism is an ordered probit. Our results point out the importance of innovation variables on employment growth: innovative firms create more jobs -and destroy fewer- than non-innovative, and the degree of technological effort has a strong positive effect on net employment creation.