International Comparisons of R&D Expenditure: Does an R&D PPP make a difference?

Sean M. Dougherty (), Robert Inklaar (), Robert McGuckin and Bart van Ark ()
Additional contact information
Robert McGuckin: The Conference Board
Bart van Ark: The Conference Board and University of Groningen

No 03-03, Economics Program Working Papers from The Conference Board, Economics Program

Abstract: Purchasing power parities (PPPs) for R&D expenditure in 19 manufacturing industries are developed for France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom relative to the United States for the years 1997 and 1987. These PPPs are based on R&D input prices for specific cost categories and differ substantially from current practice of comparing R&D expenditure using GDP PPPs and deflators. After taking into account differences in the relative price of R&D labor and materials, separate PPPs for other R&D cost categories are less essential, and a simpler version using GDP PPPs for these other categories should suffice. Our preferred PPPs are used to compare international R&D costs and intensity. The results suggest that the efforts devoted to R&D in each country are more similar across countries than is apparent using the nominal R&D intensities that are currently the norm.

Keywords: R&D; PPP; price indexes; research; development; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C43 L16 L60 O32 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr and nep-tid
Date: Written
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Published in Ernst R. Berndt and Charles M. Hulten (editors), Hard-to-Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Honor of Zvi Griliches, The University of Chicago Press, Spring 2007.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.conference-board.org/economics/workingpapers.cfm?pdf=E-0018-03-WP First version, 2003 (application/pdf)
http://www.conference-board.org/economics/workingpapers.cfm?pdf=E-0016-04-WP Second version, 2004 (application/pdf)
http://papers.nber.org/papers/w12829.pdf Revised version, 2006 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: International Comparisons of R&D Expenditure: Does an R&D PPP Make a Difference? (2007)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cnf:wpaper:0303

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