Employment Effects of Innovation at the Firm Level

This paper analyzes empirically the effects of innovation on employment at the firm level using a uniquely long panel dataset of German manufacturing firms. The overall effect of innovations on employment often remains unclear in theoretical contributions due to reverse effects. We distinguish between product and process innovations and introduce in addition different innovation categories. We find clearly positive effects for product and process innovations on employment growth with the effects for process innovations being slightly higher. The effects are stronger in small firms and differ between firms in former West and East Germany.