Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade
Abstract
Purpose – The level of R&D spending of a country tends to increase the national patent rate and, inconsequence, can collaborate with its economic development. However, there are a few empirical studiesinvestigating this phenomenon by comparing countries from all over the globe. The purpose of this paper is todisassemble the sources of R&D spending and identify the role of national patent applications as a mediatorin the relationship between R&D spending and national development.Design/methodology/approach – Panel data on patent applications in 35 countries of all continents(except Africa) over 15 years (from 1999 to 2013) regarding four levels of national R&D intensity (i.e. byenterprises, governments, higher education institutions and private non-profit organisations), gross domesticproduct (GDP) per capita, gross national income (GNI) and human development index (HDI) were collectedfrom the OCDE. Then, two-stage panel regressions were conducted to test the hypotheses.Findings – The empirical findings indicated that R&D spending from firms and higher educationinstitutions (public and private) help to directly improve national patent applications, thus contributing to thenational development (measured by GDP per capita, GNI per capita and HDI).Originality/value – The importance of this study was to show that the investments in R&D made byuniversities and firms are more effective in leading to patent applications, which contributes to promotingnational development. With these findings, governments can focus their efforts on stimulating these types ofinvestments if they want to foster the growth of national patent rates
