Coe and Helpman, among others, report positive and equivalent R&D spillovers across groups of countries. However, the nature of their econometric tests does not address the heterogeneity of knowledge diffusion across countries. We empirically examine these issues in a sample of 10 OECD countries by extending both the time span and the coverage of R&D activities in the data set. We find that the elasticity of total factor productivity with respect to domestic and foreign R&D stocks is extremely heterogeneous across countries and that data cannot be pooled. Thus, panel estimates conceal important cross-country differences. The United States appears to be a net loser in international R&D spillovers. Our interpretation is that when competitors catch up technologically, they challenge U.S. market shares and investments worldwide.

This paper provides evidence that suggests that financial repression has substantial direct effects on financial development, independently of its well-known influence through the level of the real interest rate. It also demonstrates that the process of economic growth is not weakly exogenous with respect to financial development. Thus financial repression may impose real costs that are additional to those suggested by previous empirical studies.