The Impact of Research and Development o
The Impact of Research and Development o
The Impact of Research and Development o
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Keywords: development, developing countries, research, innovation, socio-economic growth,
sub-saharan africa.
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INTRODUCTION Utterback (1984), Fischer (1980) and Jaffe (1986).
The importance of research and innovation Sratmann (2005), one of the latest contributors in this
(technological, product, process, organisational and area, has clearly demonstrated that there is a direct
marketing innovations) in achieving economic positive correlation between R&D investment and
growth in developed countries has been firmly economic growth. To date, however, the link between
established by theoretical and empirical studies. The research and innovation and economic growth has
pioneering studies on this subject include Adam been left largely unexplored in the case of developing
Smith (1776), Schumpeter (1934), and Solow (1957). countries. The purpose of this study is to attempt to
Later studies firmly establishing a critical link supply this necessary link by examining the effect of
between innovation and growth include Pelz and research and innovation on economic growth in sub-
Andrews (1966); Allen (1970), Rothwell and Saharan Africa (SSA).
Robertson (1973), Mansfield (1977), Ebadi and
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As noted by Gaillard (2008) research and innovation method in business practices, workplace organization
comprises all fields of Science and Technology (i.e. or external relations”. The definition indicates that
natural sciences, social sciences, engineering and innovation is not limited to technological innovation
humanities). Link (1982) perceives research as but also to product, process, organisation and
primarily concerned with the search for technical or marketing innovations. Clearly, the minimum
scientific advancement and development, and the requirement for a phenomenon to qualify as
translation of such advancement into product or innovation is that the product, process, marketing
process innovation. It is important to note that the method or organizational method must be new, or
first international attempt to arrive at a standard involve a new application of the old. Innovation
definition of research and development was made by activities therefore encompass all scientific,
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and technological, organizational, financial and
Development (OECD) at a conference in Frascati, commercial steps which lead to positive novelty and
Italy, in 1963. Following the approach advocated by change. Examples of innovation, according to the
the Frascati Manual research and development European Commission’s “Green Paper on
(R&D)1 is defined in this study as “creative work Innovation” (1995), include development of vaccines
undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase and medicines, improved safety in transport, (ABS,
the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, airbags), easier communications (mobile phones,
culture and society, and the use of this stock of video-conferencing), more open access to know-how
knowledge to devise new applications”. (CD-ROM, multimedia), new marketing methods
(home banking), better working conditions, more
It is clear that research (both academic and environment-friendly techniques, more efficient
commercial) is a key and vital component of public services, etc.
economic development. However, there is
widespread recognition that although research per se The importance of research and innovation in
is a necessary condition for economic growth, it is enhancing economic growth and development has
not sufficient. Other factors such as political will, the long been recognised and emphasized in the
symbiosis between academia and industry, etc. play developed economies. Goldin (2000), in an article
key roles. In other words, for research to yield published in the Fast Company magazine, noted that
practical fruits, the results must inform and shape “the first 100 years of the United States of America’s
socio-economic policies and be adaptable to the history were about who could build the biggest, most
needs of the particular environment. This is where efficient farm. The second 100 years were about the
innovation comes in. race to build efficient factories. The third 100 years
are about ideas.” This clearly and unambiguously
Schumpeter (1934) is credited with being the first emphasises the critical and vital nexus between
economist to draw attention to the significance of research-generated knowledge and innovation.
innovation in the context of economic development.
Schumpeter cited in de Haan and de Groot (2009), Until now, very little attention has, however, been
defined innovation as “the introduction of new or paid to the link between research and innovation in
improved products, production techniques and developing economies. The purpose of this study,
organisation structures as well as the discovery of therefore, is to undertake an empirical investigation
new markets and the use of new input factors”. of the practical application and utilisation of research-
Schumpeter argued that competition through fuelled innovation for industrial and economic
innovation is the driving force of economic growth in the developing economies of Sub-Saharan
development. Indeed, prior to this period the term Africa (SSA). In other words, the study specifically
innovation was not extensively referred to, instead investigates the practical utilisation of innovation as a
the processes that are associated with innovation and positive catalyst for economic growth in developing
economic and technological change were emphasised economies.
as being important (Lorenzi et al., 1912; Veblen,
1899). THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Adam Smith (1776) is thought of as the first
Building on these various definitions, the Oslo economist to have pioneered a theoretical link
Manual (2005) authoritatively defines innovation as between innovation and economic growth (Agrawal,
“the implementation of a new or significantly 2002). Following Smith’s work, numerous theoretical
improved product (goods or services), or process, a studies have examined the link between innovation
new marketing method, or a new organizational and economic growth, and have developed a number
of innovation models. Tidd (2006), cited in Gerryts
and Buy (2008), classified these models into the
1
It is im port ant to not e t hat t he t er m “ resear ch and experimental following generational categories:
developm ent” is used as synonym ous to the t erm “ resear ch and
developm ent” and ar e bot h abbr eviat ed as “ R& D”
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First and second generation models, also called to US$ 1137.9 in current purchasing power parities
linear models, emphasise need or market pull or (PPP$). Expenditure by “developed” countries
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investment in R&D and the quality of the The positive relationship between a country’s R&D
and productivity growth has been confirmed by
There is a positive correlation between R&D
human capital
studies using international panel data, such as
intensity and the inflow of foreign direct Frantzen (2000) and Griffith, Redding and Reenen
investment (FDI). (2002). These studies provide strong evidence that
R&D spillovers from industrialized countries to
It should be pointed out that several research findings developing countries have positive effects on the TFP
suggest that certain specific socioeconomic growth of the latter (Coe, Helpman and Hoffmaister,
conditions must be met for R&D investment to 1995; Griffith, Redding and Reenen, 2002). In
actually lead to innovation. For example, there is another study Savvides and Zachariadis (2003) found
some evidence from empirical regional studies that that both domestic R&D and foreign direct
‘innovation averse’ and ‘innovation prone’ regions investment increase the domestic productivity and
have different capacities to ensure high R&D value added growth.
productivity (Bilbao-Osorio and Rodríguez-Pose,
2004; Rodríguez-Pose, 1999). There is also some Birdsall and Rhee (1993) used UNESCO data for
evidence that social capital – defined by Putnam research and development (R&D) expenditures and
(1993) as features of social organisation, such as personnel to analyse the differences in R&D
civic participation, norms of reciprocity and trust in activities and assess the determinants of these
others – facilitates cooperation for mutual benefit and differences and the link between R&D and economic
that firms and regions with higher levels of social growth. They found that R&D activity (expenditure)
and economic growth are positively correlated only
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in countries in the OECD while there was no million population, the share of government
significant relationship in the case of developing expenditure on research in GDP, and the scientific
countries. Even for OECD countries, the study found output of each country. Their findings, based on
no evidence that R&D activity fuels growth. These panel data regressions indicate that in general, no
findings suggest that R&D activities contribute to significant positive relationship exists between R&D
productivity only when a country attains a threshold and economic growth in the countries studied.
level of economic prosperity.
Gerryts and Buy (2008) studied the link between
Ulku (2004) investigated the link between R&D and innovation in South Africa based on data
innovation, R&D and economic growth. The writer from the South African Innovation Survey of 2001.
employed various panel data techniques and relied on The findings suggest that South African enterprises
patent and R&D data for 20 OECD and 10 Non- had a relatively high level of innovation with very
OECD countries for the period 1981-97. The results low innovation costs. In addition, a cross tabulation
suggest a positive relationship between per capita analysis of the data revealed a significant positive
GDP and innovation in both OECD and non-OECD link between innovation and R&D.
countries, while the effect of R&D stock on
innovation is significant only in the OECD countries Cameron (1996) presents an overview of the
with large markets. empirical literature that investigates the link between
innovation and economic growth. The author relied
Goel and Ram (1994) used data from a cross-section on a number of different measures of innovation,
of 52 countries in the late 1970s and early 1980s to such as R&D spending, patenting, and innovation
assess the effect of research and development (R&D) counts, as well as the pervasive effect of
outlays on economic growth. The variables in the technological spillovers between firms, industries,
growth model include labour, capital and R&D and countries. Three conclusions were drawn from
expenditure. The estimated impact of R&D outlays the study: i) innovation makes a significant
on economic growth is positive and large, but its contribution to growth; ii) there are significant
statistical significance is low. spillovers between countries, firms and industries,
and to a lesser extent from government funded
Yang (2006) investigated the importance of research; and iii) the spillovers tend to be localized,
innovation efforts and the discovery of new ideas with foreign economies gaining significantly less
worldwide in promoting Taiwan’s economic growth. from domestic innovation than other domestic firms.
Using patents application as proxy of innovation, the
empirical estimates show that increase in patenting METHODOLOGY
leads to increase in economic growth for both the The Model
long-run and short-run. The findings suggest further We conducted this study on a number of Sub-Saharan
that part of the post-war economic growth of Taiwan African countries and used annual data for the ten
might plausibly be attributed to innovation, even year period, 1997 – 2007. This time period and
though factor accumulations have indeed helped the frequency was largely dictated by the availability of
rapid growth of Taiwan. data on R&D.
The basic model estimated on panel data for selected
Using country-level data Coe and Helpman (1995) developing countries is a simple Cobb-Douglas
and Engelbrecht (1997) established a relationship production function and the sample period is 2000-
i's
results. Otherwise if the estimators are (statistically)
= Social output elasticities with respect to different, one uses the fixed effect results. When
applied to the analysis of the panel data for this study,
lagged GDP, Labour, Investment and Research and
the Hausman test showed a statistically significant
i'
Innovation, respectively.
difference between fixed effect and random effect
= an index of efficiency or total factor models. Accordingly, we report in Table 1 below, the
productivity regression results using the fixed effect model.
U it = error term
Table 1: Fixed Effect Regression Results
Dependent variable: Ln (GDP)
Data Observations (countries): 5
The model was estimated using the Cobb-Douglas Period: 1997-2007
production function and panel data for a selected Total panel observations: 55
Variable Coefficient Std error t-statistic
number of Sub-Saharan African countries for the ten Prob.
year period, 1997 - 2007. The main sources of data C 0.022 0.0103 2.14
are the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the 0.0385
World Bank, UNESCO Institute of Statistics, and Ln(GDPt-1) 0.148 0.0382 3.87
0.0004
IMF’s International Financial Statistics (IFS). Ln(Labour) 0.126 0.3818 0.33
0.5789
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Ln(K) 0.236 0.0918 2.57
The study utilised panel data regression to estimate 0.0295
Ln(R&D) 0.326 0.0600 5.43
the parameters (output elasticities) of the model. 0.0000
Panel data regression technique is the most R- Squared: 0.904
appropriate technique for an investigation of this Adjusted R- Squared: 0.901
nature as it enables researchers to use data with cross- Durbin Watson Statistic: 2,128
section and time series dimensions to conduct a study Source: Model estimates obtained from panel data
that cannot be carried out with cross-section or time compiled by authors and derived using the STATA
series data separately. statistical software.
Generally, a regression model for panel data analysis
U it vit
important dimension in the empirical literature on the
role of research and innovation in economic growth.
Where E (U i ) 0 and has a constant variance.
On the one hand, our results are consistent with many
previous studies on the impact of R&D on developed
µ includes fixed effects that show differences among countries which have indicated strong positive
vit IND(0, 2 )
countries’ characteristics association between R&D and growth rates (Barro,
1991; Birdsall and Rhee, 1993; Coe and Helpman,
1995; Ulku, 2004).
To obtain the estimates of the effects of the On the other hand, the results are inconsistent with
independent variables R&D, Labour, Investment and many a number of studies on developing countries
lagged GDP, Fixed effect (fe) model was first which have shown generally insignificant and, in
estimated. The random effect (re) model was also some cases, negative impact of R&D on economic
estimated. In panel data regression, a choice is growth in developing economies (Samini &
usually made between fixed effect and random effect Alerasoul, 2009, Birdsall &Rhee, 1993, Goel & Ram,
models. Statistically, fixed effect regression always 1994).
gives consistent results but they may not be the most
efficient or accurate (results).On the other hand, From our regression results, the estimated parameters
random effect regression yields more efficient of all the independent variables, with the exception of
estimators. Therefore, it is advisable to use random labour, are statistically significant at the 5 percent (or
effect model if it is statistically justifiable to do so. better) level of significance. The coefficients
The Hausman test is the usual test employed to make (elasticities) of lagged GDP, gross fixed capital
a choice between a more efficient (random effect) formation (investment) and R&D are all positive and
model and a less efficient but consistent (fixed effect) significant. The size of the coefficients implies that a
model. The Hausman test, tests the hypothesis that 1% increase in investment, increases economic
the coefficients estimated by the efficient random growth by about 0.236%. Similarly our results show
effect estimators are the same as the ones estimated that a 1% increase in gross domestic expenditure on
by the consistent fixed effect estimators.
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Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences (JETEMS) 3(6):915-922 (ISSN:2141-7024)
R&D leads to an increase of about 0.326% in Collaborative Economics, 2008. The innovation
economic growth. driven economic development model: A practical
guide for the regional innovation broker.
The insignificance of the labour variable may be
attributed to how the variable was measured in this European Commission, 1995. Green paper on
study. Our inability to obtain comparable measure of innovation, December, 1995.
the quality of labour across all countries in the study
meant that the only measure of labour we could use Frascati Manual 2002. Proposed standard practice for
was the total number of economically active surveys on research and experimental development
population (aged between 15-65 years) (OECD. 2002).
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