@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp9937,
            	author={Castellani, Davide and Piva, Mariacristina and Schubert, Torben and Vivarelli, Marco},
            	title={The Productivity Impact of R&D Investment: A Comparison between the EU and the US},
            	year={2016},
	month={May},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={9937},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/publications/dp9937},
	abstract={Using data on the US and EU top R&D spenders from 2004 until 2012, this paper investigates the sources of the US/EU productivity gap. We find robust evidence that US firms have a higher capacity to translate R&D into productivity gains (especially in the high-tech industries), and this contributes to explaining the higher productivity of US firms. Conversely, EU firms are more likely to achieve productivity gains through capital-embodied technological change at least in medium and low-tech sectors. Our results also show that the US/EU productivity gap has worsened during the crisis period, as the EU companies have been more affected by the economic crisis in their capacity to translate R&D investments into productivity. Based on these findings, we make a case for a learning-based and selective R&D funding, which – instead of purely aiming at stimulating higher R&D expenditures – works on improving the firms' capabilities to transform R&D into productivity gains.},
	keywords={R&D;productivity;economic crisis;US;EU},
            }