"It is so widely recognized that innovation is a key driver of economic growth that it is cliche to say so. This … article studies product innovation by firms with data from 68 countries, covering more than 25,000 firms in eight … manufacturing sectors. The author assesses the predictions of inter-disciplinary research on innovation by firms. The econometric …

include measures of innovation outcomes as well as variables related to innovation effort. The main indicator of innovation … outputs is patents. The main variables related to innovation inputs are investment in research and development (R&D) and … of innovation outputs and inputs by looking at the over-time behavior of the relevant series and comparing the …