Boosting Manufacturing Productivity Through R&D: International Comparisons with Special Focus on Italy

摘要

Using data for twelve manufacturing industries of five developed countries over the period 1980–2002, we perform a dynamic panel estimation of the long-run elasticity of TFP with respect to R&D capital. The highest elasticity is found for the US (0.39), followed by Germany (0.29–32); intermediate values are achieved by France (0.19–0.21) and Spain (0.19), while Italy records the lowest R&D impact (0.08–0.12). The latter finding, supported by an in depth analysis based on a longer time-span and more accurate data, can be ascribed to the declining R&D efforts undertaken, during the Nineties, by Italian manufacturing industries.