%0 Report
        %A Castellani, Davide
%A Piva, Mariacristina
%A Schubert, Torben
%A Vivarelli, Marco
        %T The Productivity Impact of R&D Investment: A Comparison between the EU and the US
        %D 2016
        %8 2016 May
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 9937
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp9937
        %X 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.
        %K R&D
%K productivity
%K economic crisis
%K US
%K EU