Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the productivity impact of business visits, relative to traditional drivers of productivity enhancement, namely capital formation and R&D. To carry out the analysis, we combine unique and novel data on business visits sourced from the U.S. National Business Travel Association with OECD data on R&D and capital formation. The resulting unbalanced panel covers on average 16 sectors per year in 10 countries during the period 1998-2011 (2,262 observations). Our results suggest that mobility through business visits is an effective mechanism to improve productivity. The estimated effect is about half as large as investing in R&D, supporting viewing business visits as a form of long-term investment rather than pure consumption expenditure. In a nutshell, our outcomes support the need to recognise the private and social value of business mobility.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | UNU-MERIT working papers |
| Volume | 2017 |
| Edition | 004 |
| Publication status | Published - 12 Jan 2017 |
JEL classifications
- o32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
- o33 - "Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes"
- o34 - Intellectual Property Rights
- j24 - "Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity"
- d83 - "Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief"
Keywords
- Business visits
- labour mobility
- knowledge
- R&D
- productivity