Domestic R&D Intensity, Technology Transfer and Growth of Productivity : An Empirical Investigation of Tunisian’s Case

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of productivity growth in the Tunisian economy context over the period 1976 to 2010. Our theoretical model incorporates as key variables, domestic innovation, human capital, distance to technology frontier and external technology spillovers through import of high-tech products and foreign direct investments. Empirical results identify that the impact of domestic R&D intensity on the productivity growth is negative but not significant in all alternative regressions. The effect of import of technologically advanced products is positive and more enhanced by the distance to technology frontier but the effect of foreign direct investment is significantly negative. Our findings confirm also that human capital has a positive impact on technology accumulation in Tunisia but not highly significant. Its role is rather more important in the assimilation and absorption of foreign technology