Call for proposals

The European Investment Bank Institute proposes a new EIBURS sponsorship under its Knowledge Programme

(2020/C 219/08)

The Knowledge Programme of the European Investment Bank Institute channels its research grants through different schemes, one of which is:

—	EIBURS, the EIB University Research Sponsorship Programme

EIBURS provides grants to university departments or research centres associated with universities in the EU, candidate or potential candidate countries working on research topics of major interest to the Bank. EIBURS sponsorships – of up to EUR 100 000 per year for a period of three years – are awarded through a competitive process to interested university departments or research centres with recognised expertise in the selected area. Successful proposals entail the delivery of a variety of outputs that will be the subject of a contractual agreement with the European Investment Bank.

For the academic year 2020/2021, the EIBURS programme is seeking proposals on a new research theme:

‘Firm competitiveness, growth and digitalisation’

1.   Focus of the Project

Over the past 20 years, trend economic growth has been slowing down in most developed countries, and in particular in many EU economies. Part of this slowdown is attributed to weak investment in the decade following the financial crisis in 2008. Standard growth-accounting decompositions show, however, that a slowdown in total factor productivity growth plays a much bigger role than investment in explaining slower economic growth across the EU.

Competitiveness is determined by productivity performance. Existing research shows that aggregate productivity growth is the main channel for achieving sustained improvements in competitiveness, economic growth, welfare and living standards. Ultimately, the aggregate productivity of an economy is the sum of the productivities of its firms and businesses. Hence the importance of better understanding the determinants of firm competitiveness and growth.

New technologies provide opportunities for large productivity leaps, and the digitalisation of economic activity may provide the necessary boost to productivity in the EU. Corporate investment in digitalisation is likely to become a key driver in corporate competitiveness. Organising businesses around digital technologies provides opportunities to increase turnover, scale up very quickly, capture large markets and enhance competitive edge.

Climate change may have a negative impact on fixed assets and productivity, adding to existing headwinds for productivity. Policies for addressing climate change may further render assets and even whole industries obsolete. Thus, climate change and mitigation policies increase the challenges for competitiveness and economic growth. However, the ensuing quest for new technologies and innovative solutions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and existing GHG stocks, to adapt to the changing climate and to improve resilience should give a boost to innovation and technological progress.

Understanding the sources of the productivity growth slowdown is of prime importance for policy makers. The EIB pays special attention to studying competitiveness, firm growth, innovation, access to finance and investment. Most of these studies appear in the EIB annual investment report. In addition, in order to further improve understanding of investment and investment finance, the EIB annually carries out a large survey of non-financial corporations in all members of the EU and, since 2018, in the US.

The EIB Investment Survey (EIBIS) gathers qualitative and quantitative information on investment activities by small and medium-sized businesses and larger corporates, their financing requirements and the difficulties they face. The survey covers some 12 000 firms and a wide spectrum of questions on corporate investment and investment finance. Based on a sampling frame from Bureau van Dijk’s ORBIS database, the respondents to EIBIS are linked to their financial information from ORBIS and the anonymised data are made available to researchers who have well-defined research projects.

2.   Proposed Action Plan

The EIB is seeking a comprehensive research proposal to analyse these topics by using firm level data and the EIBIS, in coordination and cooperation with the EIB Economics Department, where the EIBIS data are located. The research project will include several analyses and papers, focusing on the EU or specific EU members, dealing with:

—

The importance of intangible assets in increasing firm productivity and growth. Intangible assets are difficult to measure and quantify and therefore attributing productivity gains to their use remains a difficult, but important, task. It makes it possible to understand how intangible assets are acquired and maintained, the motivation of businesses to invest in intangible capital, the difference in the returns on these assets and tangible capital, and the intrinsic uncertainty of investing in them.

—	Difficulties in quantifying and valuing intangible assets reduce access to external finance in a financial system that is dominated by banks. They underline the importance of further studying corporate finance needs and structure in times of a growing share of intangible assets.

—	Empirical and theoretical work on the importance of regulation and institutions for firm growth and competitiveness.

—	Empirical and theoretical work on the importance of regulation and institutions for the diffusion of knowledge, innovation and technologies.

—	The role of climate change mitigation policies and efforts in boosting innovation and, ultimately, the competitiveness of European firms.

—

European companies, especially in the services sector, lag behind global peers in digitalisation. Is digitalisation investment different from general investment? How do market size, financing, project management expertise and the availability of skilled labour determine the speed and degree of digitalisation of businesses in an economy?

—	Disentangle the nexus of digitalisation and productivity – drivers and causality relationships. How is digitalisation important for productivity?

—	Due to the inherent nearly costless scalability of digitalised businesses, digitalisation often results in increased market concentration and market power. Does market power in digitalised markets have the harmful effects that are observed in traditional industries? What is the role of regulators?

Proposals should be submitted in English by 30 September 2020 24:00 (CET). Proposals submitted after this date will not be considered. Proposals should be sent by email to:

Events.EIBInstitute@eib.org

For more exhaustive information on the EIBURS selection process and on the EIB Institute, please visit: http://institute.eib.org/