Abstract:

Theoretically, the innovation-based growth hypothesis suggests that there is a positive linkage between innovation and economic growth. R&D plays a major role in innovation, raising productivity and increasing economic growth. In this study, this hypothesis is tested empiricially. The paper examines the causal relationship between R&D expenditures and economic growth. We apply our methodology, based on the standart Granger and Toda-Yamamoto tests for causality, to time-series data covering the period 1981-2008 for nine European countries. In consideration of standart Granger causality test, our empirical findings clearly exhibit that R&D expenditures cause GDP in the cases of Finland, France and Spain. The results also indicate that GDP causes R&D expenditures in Denmark and there is no causality between variables in other countries. On the other hand, the results of Toda-Yamamoto test imply that there is no causality between R&D expenditures and GDP in Holland, Ireland and Italy. However, there is bidirectional causality in Finland and France. Empirical results also indicate that there is a causal relationship between variables running from R&D expenditures to GDP for Austria, while the direction of causality is from GDP to R&D expenditures for Denmark, Spain and Portugal. Consequently, this study provides further evidence supporting the hypothesis for some European countries

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