How special is the special relationship?: using the impact of R&D spillovers on UK firms as a test of technology sourcing
Rachel Griffith,
Rupert Harrison and
John van Reenen
LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library
Abstract:
How much does US-based R&D benefit other countries and through what mechanisms? We test the "technology sourcing" hypothesis that foreign research labs located on US soil tap into US R&D spillovers and improve home country productivity. Using panels of UK and US firms matched to patent data we show that UK firms who had established a high proportion of US-based inventors by 1990 benefited disproportionately from the growth of the US R&D stock over the next 10 years. We estimate that UK firms’ Total Factor Productivity would have been at least 5% lower in 2000 (about $14bn) in the absence of the US R&D growth in the 1990s. We also find that technology sourcing is more important for countries and industries who have "most to learn". Within the UK, the benefits of technology sourcing were larger in industries whose TFP gap with the US was greater. Between countries, the growth of the UK R&D stock did not appear to have a major benefit for US firms who located R&D labs in the UK. The "special relationship" between the UK and the US appears distinctly asymmetric.
Keywords: International spillovers; technology sourcing; productivity; patents; R&D. JEL classification codes: O32; O33; F23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 O32 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2004-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)
Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/711/ Open access version. (application/pdf)
Related works:
Journal Article: How Special Is the Special Relationship? Using the Impact of U.S. R&D Spillovers on U.K. Firms as a Test of Technology Sourcing (2006) 
Working Paper: How Special is the Special Relationship? Using the Impact of US R&D Spillovers on UK Firms as a Test of Technology Sourcing (2004) 
Working Paper: How Special is the Special Relationship? Using the Impact of US R&D Spillovers on UK Firms as a Test of Technology Sourcing (2004) 
Working Paper: How special is the special relationship? Using the impact of US R&D spillovers on UK firms as a test of technology sourcing (2004) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:711
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().