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This paper analyses the evolution of innovation in the mining sector and how this innovation responds to the economic environment, in particular to changes in commodity prices. For this purpose, we combine commodity price data with innovation data as proxied by patent filings extracted from a novel unit record database containing comprehensive patent and firm-level data for the mining sector from 1970 to 2015. We include patents registered both by mining companies and mining equipment, technology, and service (METS) firms. With a multi-country panel analysis, we find that innovation in the mining sector is cyclical. Innovation increases in periods of high commodity prices while decreasing during commodity price recessions. Our results suggest that innovation increases mostly with long price cycle variations, while mostly unaffected by medium and short cycles. METS-related innovation seem the driving force of this mechanism. In contrast, countries specializing in mining industries are found to be slower in reacting to price changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the role of innovation and economic performance across European and Latin American countries, using firm-level data from France, Spain, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. We implement a standard structural model linking R&D intensity, innovation and productivity. We find evidence revealing structural differences between Europe and Latin America, but also the presence of heterogeneity within each. In particular, firms tend to engage in innovation activities in order to achieve better economic performance on a similar basis among countries, but their interaction with national systems is weaker in developing countries. The fact of being a foreign subsidiary of a foreign multinational is found to have a heterogeneous effect on innovativity, whereas it leads to increased productivity in every country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]