R&D, invention and economic growth.

摘要

This dissertation consists of three empirical papers—using R&D spending as a measure of endogenous investment in technological change, successful patent applications as an indicator of the rate of invention resulting from that investment; growth in total factor productivity (TFP) as an indicator of technological change, and the growth rate of GDP as a measure of economic growth. Each paper analyzes the relationship among R&D, invention and economic growth from a different perspective. The first paper uses macro level panel data for 36 countries from 1981 to 1997 to investigate the relationship between R&D and invention, and between invention and economic growth. The results suggest that there are positive returns to R&D in terms of invention in both developed and developing countries, with the latter exhibiting higher returns. The results also indicate that the relationship between invention and economic growth is positive and significant, and this relationship is stronger in developed countries than in developing countries. The second paper uses sector-level panel data from electrical and electronic, chemicals and chemical products and drugs and medicine sectors in 16 OECD countries for the period of 1981–1997 to empirically examine the relationships among R&D, invention and TFP growth. The findings suggest a positive and significant relationship between R&D and invention in the electrical and electronic sector for both developed and developing countries, with the higher returns to R&D in the latter. In the drugs and medicine sector there is evidence of significant returns to R&D efforts in terms of measured invention only in developed countries. However, in the chemicals and chemical products sector there is no significant relationship between these two variables for either group of countries. According to the results, the effect of invention on TFP growth in the three manufacturing sectors is significant only in developed countries. This might imply that developing countries rely on the invention of developed countries, or patent counts are not a good indicator of inventing activity in developing countries. The third paper examines the relationship between output and technology shocks using a two-factor “unobservables” model and aggregate level panel data for 24 OECD countries for the period of 1981–1997. The findings imply that unobserved technology shocks are associated with increases in aggregate output and that the magnitude of the increase in output is about one third as large as the associated increase in patenting (in both the full sample and the sample without the G-7 countries).