TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lichtenberg,Frank R.
TI  - R&D Investment and International Productivity Differences
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4161
PY  - 1993
Y2  - September 1993
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4161
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4161.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Frank R. Lichtenberg
Columbia University
504 Uris Hall
3022 Broadway
New York, NY  10027
Tel: 212/854-4408
Fax: (212) 854-9895
E-Mail: frl1@columbia.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1992-12-01
AB  - This paper extends previous research on the effect of investment on labor productivity at the country level by accounting for investment in R&D, as well as for investment in fixed and human capital. Privately-funded R&D investment is found to have a significant positive effect on productivity. Moreover, this effect appears to be quite large. The estimated social (national) rate of return to private R&D investment is about seven times as large as the return to investment in equipment and structures. The elasticity of GNP with respect to the privately-funded research capital stock is about 7 %--about 1(3 as large as the physical-capital elasticity (whose estimate is substantially reduced when R&D is accounted for). These findings do not support the hypothesis that there arecomplete, or at least instantaneous, international R&D spillovers. The social marginal product of government-funded research capital appears to be much lower than that of private research capital.
ER  -