Data and Code for: Industrial Espionage and Productivity

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Albrecht Glitz, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, IPEG and Barcelona GSE; Erik Meyersson, Handelsbanken Capital Markets

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  Data 10/05/2022 05:40:PM
  Programs 10/05/2022 05:39:PM
  Rawdata 10/25/2019 11:54:AM
README.pdf application/pdf 403.8 KB 10/05/2022 01:43:PM

Project Citation: 

Glitz, Albrecht, and Meyersson, Erik. Data and Code for: Industrial Espionage and Productivity. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-10-06. https://doi.org/10.3886/E112121V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary In this paper, we investigate the economic returns to industrial espionage. We show that the flow of information provided by East German informants in the West over the period 1970-1989 led to a significant narrowing of sectoral TFP gaps between West and East Germany. These economic returns were primarily driven by relatively few high-quality pieces of information and particularly large in sectors closer to the West German technological frontier. Our findings suggest that the East-to-West German TFP ratio would have been 13.3 percent lower at the end of the Cold War had East Germany not engaged in industrial espionage in the West.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Espionage; Productivity; R&D; Technology Diffusion
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      D24 Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
      F52 National Security; Economic Nationalism
      N34 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: 1913-
      N44 Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Europe: 1913-
      O30 Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights: General
      O47 Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
      P26 Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: Political Economy; Property Rights
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Germany
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1970 – 1989
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) aggregate data; observational data; other; text


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Published Versions

V2 [2022-10-06]

V1 [2020-03-23]

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