Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Wakelin, Katharina
Author-workplace-name: MERIT 
Title: Productivity growth and R & D expenditure in UK manufacturing firms
Abstract: This paper analyses the relationship between productivity growth and R&D expenditure at the firm level. A Cobb-Douglas function is estimated for 170 UK quoted firms including R&D intensity as well as the capital to labour ratio. A positive and significant role is found for the firm’s own R&D expenditure in influencing productivity growth from 1988-1992; the relationship is no longer significant when sector fixed effects are included. To capture these sector effects, two spillover variables are included: the R&D expenditure of other firms in the same sector, and the weighted R&D expenditure of innovation-supplying industries. The former is found to play a large positive role in productivity growth, increasing it by around 1%, while no significant role is found for the latter. The variation in technological opportunity across sectors appears to play an important role in the efficacy of R&D expenditure.
Keywords: research and development ; 
Series: Research Memoranda
Creation-Date: 1997
Number: 012
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/rmpdf/removed.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 101921
Handle: RePEc:unm:umamer:1997012