R&D and productivity in the US and the EU: Sectoral specificities and differences in the crisis

Davide Castellani, Mariacristina Piva, Torben Schubert and Marco Vivarelli ()

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2019, vol. 138, issue C, 279-291

Abstract: Using data on the US and EU top R&D spenders from 2004 until 2012, this paper investigates the sources of the US/EU productivity gap. We find robust evidence that US firms have a higher capacity to translate R&D into productivity gains (especially in the high-tech macro sector), and this contributes to explaining the higher productivity of US firms. Conversely, EU firms are more likely to achieve productivity gains through capital-embodied technological change, at least in the medium- and low-tech macro sectors. Our results also show that the US/EU productivity gap has worsened during the crisis period, as the EU companies have been more affected by the economic crisis in their capacity to translate R&D investments into productivity. Based on these findings, we make a case for a learning-based and selective R&D funding, which, instead of purely aiming at stimulating higher R&D expenditures, works on improving the firms' capabilities to transform R&D into productivity gains.

Keywords: R&D; Productivity; Economic crisis; US; EU (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 O51 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Related works:
Working Paper: R&D and Productivity in the US and the EU: Sectoral Specificities and Differences in the Crisis (2016)
Working Paper: R&D and Productivity in the US and the EU: Sectoral Specificities and Differences in the Crisis (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:138:y:2019:i:c:p:279-291

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.10.001

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