This paper studies the impact of research and development (R&D) and innovation on employment growth, focusing on small and medium-sized firms. Employment effects of R&D and process innovation are unclear a priori as process innovation may be labor-saving or labor might have complementarities with other inputs. Employing firm-level data from 125 nations, results show that both R&D and innovation increased employment growth, suggesting that innovation was either capital-saving or labor had strong complementarities with other inputs. Upon splitting the sample into growing and contracting firms showed that contracting firms benefit from innovation but not from R&D. In other findings, sole proprietorships, larger firms, firms with relatively more experienced managers, firms with females as top managers, and firms facing the threat of informal competition had lower employment growth, while foreign-owned and government-owned enterprises have positive influences on employment growth. Finally, employment growth in shrinking firms was boosted in nations with greater economic freedom, but this growth is undermined by informal sector competition.

本文研究了研发 (R&D) 和创新对就业增长的影响，重点关注中小型企业。研发和流程创新对就业的影响尚不清楚，因为流程创新可能会节省劳动力，或者劳动力可能与其他投入具有互补性。使用来自 125 个国家的企业级数据，结果表明研发和创新都促进了就业增长，这表明创新要么是资本节约，要么劳动力与其他投入具有很强的互补性。将样本分成成长型公司和承包公司后表明，承包公司从创新中受益，而不是从研发中受益。在其他调查结果中，独资企业、较大的公司、经理相对更有经验的公司、女性担任高级经理的公司、面临非正规竞争威胁的企业就业增长较低，而外资和国有企业对就业增长有积极影响。最后，在经济自由度更大的国家，收缩企业的就业增长得到了提振，但这种增长受到非正规部门竞争的破坏。