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EU-US differences in the size of R&D intensive firms: Do they explain the overall R&D intensity gap?

Raquel Ortega-Argiles and Andries Brandsma

No 2008-049, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: The average firm size of the top R&D investors among US-based companies is smaller than that of the EU-based firms. Does this help to explain why the US has a greater R&D intensity, or is the higher firm size in the EU, just as its lower R&D intensity, determined by the sectors in which the top R&D investors are operating? Using data on the top-R&D investors from the 2006 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, the size differential between R&D performers in the EU and US is more closely examined. A first observation is that, despite great differences between sectors, the overall distribution of companies' R&D investments in both economies is remarkably similar, as opposed to the distribution of the R&D/sales ratios of the same two sets of companies. The notion that size plays a role, independent of the sectoral composition of R&D, is then confirmed by regression analysis. In the US as well as in the EU, smaller sized Scoreboard companies tend to spend a larger proportion of their income from sales on R&D.

Keywords: R&D intensity; firm size; panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L11 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-06-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-ino, nep-knm and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: EU-US differences in the size of R&D intensive firms: do they explain the overall R&D intensity gap? (2010) Downloads
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