R&D, export and investment decision: evidence from European firms

TitleR&D, export and investment decision: evidence from European firms
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsCarboni, OA, Medda, G
JournalApplied Economics
Volume50
Issue2
Pagination187-201
Abstract

This article provides an empirical investigation of the mechanism through which R&D influences export and tangible investment decisions. The analysis is based on a large representative and cross-country comparative sample of manufacturing firms across seven European countries. The novelty of this work lies in the three aspects. First, we expand the results on the R&D–export and R&D–investment relationships to a wide sample of cross-European firms. This differentiates from previous works based on single-country samples. Second, to the best of our knowledge, this study is the first in years which assess empirically the relationship between R&D and tangible investment at the micro level. Third, we control for endogeneity of R&D and simultaneity in firms’ decision whether to export and carry out tangible investment. The results of the analysis suggest that R&D positively affects export propensity and tangible investment. The results also reveal that neglecting endogeneity and simultaneity issues leads to underestimate the effect of R&D to both export and investment propensities.

URLhttp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00036846.2017.1332747
DOI10.1080/00036846.2017.1332747
Keywordsexport, IV model, r&d, tangible investment