R&D, human capital and international technology spillovers: A cross-country analysis

This paper is based on recent developments in the theory of innovation-driven growth that emphasize both the importance of R&D efforts - domestic as well as foreign - for explaining national productivity, and the complementarity between R&D and human capital investments. Estimates of specifications, in growth terms and in level terms, on a cross-section of OECD countries from the early 1960s to the early 1990s lend strong support to this thesis. The data show a significant influence of both domestic and foreign R&D. Moreover, there is clearly a net positive impact of human capital. The level and growth rate of human capital are shown to affect productivity growth and there is evidence of interaction with the catch-up process.