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Are International R&D Spillovers Costly for the United States?

Kul B. Luintel1; Mosahid Khan2

1 Brunel University of London · 2 Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2004 open access

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.

DOI
10.1162/0034653043125266
Volume
86 (4)
Pages
896-910
Language
en
Export
BibTeX
Sources
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