The contribution of the publicly-funded R&D capital to productivity growth and an application to the Greek food and beverages industry

This paper follows the dual-cost function methodology and develops a theoretical specification that assesses the contribution of public R&D capital to the productivity growth. The empirical application focuses on the Greek food and beverages industry. For this purpose it employs a micro-aggregated annual data set over the period 1976-2002. The regression analysis shows that publicly-funded R&D capital is a productive input as 8.7% and 7.3% of the total factor productivity growth in the food industry and in the beverages industry respectively is attributed to the publicly-funded R&D capital. The relationship between publicly-funded R&D and privately-purchased inputs is also examined.