Paul Hünermund

Distribution of R&D Investment

Although it is unrealistic to expect every firm to invest in R&D, the concentration of this crucial activity is quite concerning. Paul Hünermund has pointed out, in the Harvard Business Review, that higher concentration of innovation efforts can be a major source of productivity differences between firms; economists, policy makers and business leaders should pay close attention to these trends. Competition at the global research frontier is becoming more and more fierce. At the same time, many firms seem unable to keep up with the pace at which this development is unfolding. Those left standing become the superstar firms; the rest are left behind.

Mr. Hünermund’s areas of interest are Applied Econometrics, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, R&D Policy, Causal Inference and Strategy. His research has been published in Research Policy, the International Journal of Industrial Organization and Harvard Business Review.

Paul Hünermund is an Assistant Professor at Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics (SBE) in the Netherlands. He studied Economics at the University of Mannheim where he earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc, at HEC Lausanne, and at the Stern School of Business of New York University and obtained a PhD in Business Economics from KU Leuven in 2017. During his doctoral studies, he was affiliated with ZEW Mannheim, where he gained experience in policy consulting for, amongst others, the European Commission and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Recently, he has been asked to join the editorial board of the Journal of Causal Inference.