R&D SPILLOVERS AND PRODUCTIVITY IN ITALIAN MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the relationship between Research and Development (R&D) spillovers and productivity. To this aim, we develop a non-overlapping generation model to evidence the theoretical idea of the spillovers between firms and then we implement an empirical investigation based on data from 9th and 10th Survey on Italian Manufacturing Firms (IMM) conducted by Capitalia to test for this idea. The results provide evidence of higher productivity in R&D and skill intensive industries and this can be interpreted as the signal of the relevance of spillover effects. Indeed, in-house R&D does not capture all aspects of innovation, which often occurs via other channels, especially in SMEs. Small and medium firms, such as Italian firms, are much more able to innovate by exploiting knowledge created outside of them. Thus, the results of our paper suggest that R&D spillovers reinforce in-house R&D in affecting SMEs productivity. Moreover, the contribution of this paper is also to stress the importance of skill composition of the labour force in the innovation process of firms.