DO R&D EXPENDITURES MATTER FOR LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN OECD COUNTRIES? AN UNRESOLVED QUESTION

Year 2013, Volume: 31 Issue: 1, 71 - 82, 30.06.2013

Erkan Erdil , Seyit Cilasun Ayşegül Eruygur

https://doi.org/10.17065/huniibf.103656

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between labor productivity and R&D expenditures. We have tested this relationship using a panel of 22 OECD countries that covers the period 1991-2003. ACobb-Douglas production function was estimated in growth form where physical capital, knowledge capital, human capital, and labor stock were included as the factors of production. The estimation results that also controlled for the effect of openness, and R&D spillovers implied a positive long-run R&D elasticity with respect to labor productivity growth. This result is robust to an alternative model where capital to labor ratio and labor variables are excluded. In this new model, the coefficient of the international trade variable included to account for openness was found to be positive.

Keywords

Research and development expenditures, labor productivity, OECD, panel data

OECD ÜLKELERINDE ARGE HARCAMALARI İŞGÜCÜ VERIMLILIĞI İÇIN ÖNEMLI MI? ÇÖZÜLMEMİŞ BİR SORU

Abstract

Çalışmanın amacı,
22 OECD ülkesi için 1991–2003 dönemi verilerini kullanarak araştırma geliştirme
harcamaları ile işgücü verimliliği arasındaki ilişkiyi panel veri yöntemleri
kullanarak incelemektir. Bu amaçla, fiziki sermeye, bilgi sermayesi, beşeri
sermaye ve emekten oluşan bir Cobb-Douglas tipi üretim fonksiyonu tahmin
edilmiştir. Bu değişkenlere ilave olarak dış ticaret hacmi ve ARGE yayılımı
kontrol değişkenlerinin eklendiği tahmin sonuçlarına göre işgücü verimliliği
ile ARGE arasında pozitif bir uzun dönem esnekliği vardır. Bu sonuç, işgücü ve
sermaye yoğunluğu değişkenlerinin dışarıda bırakıldığı alternatif bir model
için de geçerlidir. Dışa açıklığı yansıtan dış ticaret hacmi değişkeni de bu
modelde istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bulunmuştur. 

Keywords

ARGE harcamaları, işgücü verimliliği, OECD, panel veri

References

• Aitken, B., A. Harrison (1999) “Do Domestic Firms Benefit from Foreign Direct Investment? Evidence from Venezuela”, The American Economic Review, 89, 605-618.
• Arvanitis, S. (2006) “Innovation and Labour Productivity in the Swiss Manufacturing Sector: An Analysis Based on Firm Panel Data”, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Working Paper 149.
• Atella, V., B. Quintieri (2001) “Do R&D Expenditures Really Matter for TFP?”, Applied Economics, 33, 1385-1389.
• Balcombe, K., A. Bailey, I. Fraser (2005) “Measuring the Impact of R&D on Productivity from a Econometric Time Series Perspective”, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 24, 49-72.
• Baltagi, B.H. (2001) Econometric Analysis of Panel Data, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, New York.
• Bönte, W. (2003) “Does Federally Financed Business R&D Matter for US Productivity Growth”, Applied Economics, 35, 1619-1625.
• Branch, B.S. (1974) “Research and Development Activity and Profitability: A Distributed Lag Analysis”, Journal of Political Economy, 82, 999-1011.
• Esposti, R., P. Pierani (2003) “Building the Knowledge Stock: Lags, Depreciation, and Uncertainty in R&D Investment and Link with Productivity Growth”, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 19, 33-58.
• Fase, M.M.G., A.F. Tieman (2001) “Wage Moderation, Innovation, and Labour Productivity: Myths and Facts Revisited”, De Economist, 149, 115-27.
• Frantzen, D. (2003) “The Causality between R&D and Productivity in Manufacturing: An International Disaggregate Panel Data Study”, International Review of Applied Economics, 17, 125-46.
• Geroski, P.A., S. Machin, J. van Reenen (1993) “The Profitability of Innovating Firms”, Rand Journal of Economics, 24, 198-211.
• Griffith, R., S. Redding, J. van Reenen (2004) “Mapping the Two Faces of R&D: Productivity Growth in a Panel of OECD Industries”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 86, 883-895.
• Griliches, Z. (1979) “Issues in Assessing the Contribution of Research and Development to Productivity Growth”, Bell Journal of Economics, 10, 92- 116.
• Griliches, Z. (1980) “R&D and Productivity Slowdown”, American Economic Review, 70, 343-348.
• Guellec, D., B. Potterie (2001) “R&D and Productivity Growth: Panel Data Analysis of 16 OECD Countries”, OECD Economic Studies, 33, 103-26.
• Hurlin, C. (2004) Testing Granger Causality in Heterogeneous Panel Data Models with Fixed Coefficients, Miméo, University Orléans.
• http://www.univ-orleans.fr/leo/pdf/s24_02_04hurlin.pdf
• Hurlin, C., B. Venet, (2001) Granger Causality Tests in Panel Data Models with Fixed Coefficients, Miméo, University Paris IX. http://www.dauphine.fr/eurisco/eur_wp/causalfixed.pdf
• Hsiao, C. (1986) Analysis of Panel Data, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Kim, T., C. Park (2006) “Productivity Growth in Korea: Efficiency Improvement or Technical Progress”, Applied Economics, 38, 943-54.
• Mansfield, E. (1980) “Basic Research and Productivity Increase in Manufacturing”, American Economic Review, 70, 863-73.
• Mansfield, E., J. Rapoport, J, Schnee, S. Wagner, M. Hamburger (1971) Research and Innovation in the Modern Corporation, Norton, New York.
• Mátyás, L., P. Sevestre (1996) The Econometrics of Panel Data: A Handbook of the Theory with Applications, Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Ravenscraft, D., F.M. Scherer (1982) “The Lag structure of Returns to Research and Development”, Applied Economics, 14, 603-20.
• Rouvinen, P. (2002) “R&D-Productivity Dynamics: Causality, Lags, and ‘Dry Holes”, Journal of Applied Economics, 5, 123-56.
• Serbu, S.G. (2006) “FDI Role in Promoting the Economic Growth - A Problem Still Ambiguous”, Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=962346
• Smith, V., M. Dilling-Hansen, T. Eriksson, E.S. Madsen (2004) “R&D and Productivity in Danish Firms: Some Empirical Evidence”, Applied Economics, 36, 1797- 1806.
• Sterlacchini, A. (1989) “R&D, Innovations and Total Factor Productivity Growth in British Manufacturing”, Applied Economics, 21, 1549-1562.
• Wakelin, K. (2001) “Productivity Growth and R&D Expenditure in UK Manufacturing Firms”, Research Policy, 30, 1079-90.