European R&D efficiency

This paper explores the capacity to produce new knowledge proxied by patents granted in 18 industries in 11 European economies. For each industry in each country, the number of granted U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patents is recorded over the 1991-2005 period. Controlling for research and development, industry composition, and institutional setting, the paper shows that systematic differences in patent intensity exist between the studied countries, such that almost all industries are affected by country-specific conditions, suggesting that the countries' innovation systems differ in efficiency. The countries with the highest R&D efficiency are Sweden and Finland, followed by the Netherlands and Germany.