IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/12829.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

International Comparisons of R&D Expenditure: Does an R&D PPP Make a Difference?

Author

Listed:
  • Sean M. Dougherty
  • Robert Inklaar
  • Robert H. McGuckin
  • Bart van Ark

Abstract

Purchasing power parities (PPPs) for R&D expenditure in 19 manufacturing industries are developed for France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom relative to the United States for the years 1997 and 1987. These PPPs are based on R&D input prices for specific cost categories and differ substantially from current practice of comparing R&D expenditure using GDP PPPs and deflators. After taking into account differences in the relative price of R&D labor and materials, separate PPPs for other R&D cost categories are less essential, and a simpler version using GDP PPPs for these other categories should suffice. Our preferred PPPs are used to compare international R&D costs and intensity. The results suggest that the efforts devoted to R&D in each country are more similar across countries than is apparent using the nominal R&D intensities that are currently the norm.

Suggested Citation

  • Sean M. Dougherty & Robert Inklaar & Robert H. McGuckin & Bart van Ark, 2007. "International Comparisons of R&D Expenditure: Does an R&D PPP Make a Difference?," NBER Working Papers 12829, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12829
    Note: PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12829.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert J. Hill, 2004. "Constructing Price Indexes across Space and Time: The Case of the European Union," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1379-1410, December.
    2. Zvi Griliches, 1984. "R&D, Patents, and Productivity," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril84-1, December.
    3. Robert H. McGuckin & Bart van Ark & Sean M. Dougherty & Robert Inklaar, 2006. "Appendices to Internationally Comparable Science, Technology and Competitiveness Indicators," Economics Program Working Papers 06-01, The Conference Board, Economics Program.
    4. repec:dgr:rugggd:199411 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Robert H. McGuckin & Robert Inklaar & Bart van Ark & Sean M. Dougherty, 2004. "The Structure of Business R&D: Recent Trends and Measurement Implications," Economics Program Working Papers 04-01, The Conference Board, Economics Program.
    6. repec:dgr:rugggd:200362 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Gersbach, Hans & Ark, Bart van, 1994. "Micro Foundations for International Productivity Comparisons," GGDC Research Memorandum 199411, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    8. Heston, Alan & Summers, Robert, 1996. "International Price and Quantity Comparisons: Potentials and Pitfalls," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 20-24, May.
    9. Carol Corrado & John Haltiwanger & Dan Sichel, 2005. "Measuring Capital in the New Economy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number corr05-1, December.
    10. Danzon, Patricia M. & Chao, Li-Wei, 2000. "Cross-national price differences for pharmaceuticals: how large, and why?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 159-195, March.
    11. Charles R. Hulten & Edwin R. Dean & Michael J. Harper, 2001. "New Developments in Productivity Analysis," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hult01-1, December.
    12. Barbara M. Fraumeni & Sumiye Okubo, 2005. "R&D in the National Income and Product Accounts: A First Look at Its Effect on GDP," NBER Chapters,in: Measuring Capital in the New Economy, pages 275-322 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. David E. Lebow & Jeremy B. Rudd, 2003. "Measurement Error in the Consumer Price Index: Where Do We Stand?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 159-201, March.
    14. Charles R. Hulten, 2001. "Total Factor Productivity: A Short Biography," NBER Chapters,in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 1-54 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. repec:dgr:rugsom:03c20 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. MacDonald, A S, 1973. "Exchange Rates for National Expenditure on Research and Development," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 83(330), pages 477-494, June.
    17. DiMasi, Joseph A. & Hansen, Ronald W. & Grabowski, Henry G., 2003. "The price of innovation: new estimates of drug development costs," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 151-185, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jakob Madsen, 2008. "Semi-endogenous versus Schumpeterian growth models: testing the knowledge production function using international data," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-26, March.
    2. Stéphane Lhuillery & Julio Raffo & Intan Hamdan-Livramento, 2016. "Measuring creativity: Learning from innovation measurement," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 31, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    3. Evers, Lisa & Spengel, Christoph, 2014. "Effective tax rates under IP tax planning," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-111, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
    4. Robert H. McGuckin & Robert Inklaar & Bart van Ark & Sean M. Dougherty, 2004. "The Structure of Business R&D: Recent Trends and Measurement Implications," Economics Program Working Papers 04-01, The Conference Board, Economics Program.
    5. Lisa Evers & Helen Miller & Christoph Spengel, 2015. "Intellectual property box regimes: effective tax rates and tax policy considerations," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(3), pages 502-530, June.
    6. Gersbach, Hans & Schetter, Ulrich & Schneider, Maik, 2015. "How Much Science? The 5 Ws (and 1 H) of Investing in Basic Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 10482, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Suen, Richard M.H., 2013. "Research Policy and U.S. Economic Growth," MPRA Paper 49103, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Sabine Visser, 2007. "R&D in Worldscan," CPB Memorandum 189, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12829. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.