Half a century of innovation and technological transfer in Spain, 1950-2000

Abstract

In this study we analyse the effect of both foreign and domestic technological innovation on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) for Spain in the second half of the XXth century. For this purpose we estimate an extended version of Coe and Helpman (1995) model including a general human capital variable. The foreign and domestic stock of knowledge have been approximated throughout several variables such as the stock of R&D, the stock of patents and the expenses for using foreign licenses and patents. Our results suggest that the inflow of foreign technology had a positive and significant effect on the Spanish TFP, being this effect higher than the effect of the domestic stock of knowledge. Moreover, the openness to foreign trade has also favoured the arrival of foreign technology and the increase of productivity. Finally, it is interesting to highlight that our results indicate that human capital played also a relevant role on the evolution of TFP.