How Special Is the Special Relationship? Using the Impact of U.S. R&D Spillovers on U.K. Firms as a Test of Technology Sourcing
Rachel Griffith, Rupert Harrison, John Van Reenen
American Economic Review · 2006 · Volume 96 · Issue 5
Abstract
We examine the "technology sourcing" hypothesis that foreign research labs located in the U.S. tap into U.S. R&D spillovers and improve home country productivity. We show that U.K. firms that established a high proportion of inventors based in the U.S. by 1990 benefited disproportionately from the growth of U.S. R&D stock over the next ten years. We estimate that U.S. R&D during the 1990s was associated with 5 percent higher Total Factor Productivity for U.K. manufacturing firms in 2000 (about $13 billion), with the majority of benefits accruing to firms with an innovative presence in the U.S. (JEL F23, O32, O33)
Keywords
Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope, Technological Change: Choices and Consequences, Diffusion Processes, Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
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