International R&D Spillovers

A model is presented based on recent theories of economic growth that treat commercially oriented innovation efforts as a major engine of technological progress. We study the extent to which a country`s total factor productivity depends on domestic and foreign Ramp;D capital stocks, both proxied by cumulative Ramp;D expenditures. We estimate our equations on a pooled data set of 22 countries during 1970-90 and interpret our results as pooled cointegrating equations. While the beneficial effects on TFP from domestic Ramp;D is well established, we find that foreign Ramp;D is also important. Our estimates suggest that foreign Ramp;D has a stronger effect on domestic productivity the more open an economy is to foreign trade, and that the rate of return on Ramp;D capital stocks is very high, both in terms of domestic output and in terms of international spillovers