Sectoral cognitive skills, R&D, and productivity: a cross-country cross-sector analysis

S. Sasso; J. Ritzen

doi:10.1080/09645292.2018.1515309

Sectoral cognitive skills, R&D, and productivity: a cross-country cross-sector analysis

S. Sasso, J. Ritzen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

We focus on human capital measured by skills and analyse its relationship with R&D investments and productivity across 12 OECD economies and 17 industries. We compute a measure of sectoral human capital defined as the average cognitive skills of the workforce in each country-sector combination. The variation in labour productivity that can be explained by human capital is remarkably large when measured by the sectoral skills, whereas it appears statistically insignificant when measured by the sectoral school attainment. This suggests that using measures of sectoral cognitive skills can represent a major step forward in any future sectoral growth accounting exercise.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	35-51
Number of pages	17
Journal	Education Economics
Volume	27
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2018.1515309
Publication status	Published - 2019

JEL classifications

o49 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: Other
j24 - "Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity"
o15 - "Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration"
o32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

Keywords

human capital
labour productivity
R&D
Sectoral cognitive skills
cognition
investment
labor productivity
research and development
skilled labor
QUALITY
SET
RETURNS
EDUCATION
ISSUES
TECHNICAL CHANGE
GROWTH
WORLD
SECTION

Access to Document

10.1080/09645292.2018.1515309Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

@article{2989a73f200f4faeafa190d23b63c62b,

title = "Sectoral cognitive skills, R&D, and productivity: a cross-country cross-sector analysis",

abstract = "We focus on human capital measured by skills and analyse its relationship with R&D investments and productivity across 12 OECD economies and 17 industries. We compute a measure of sectoral human capital defined as the average cognitive skills of the workforce in each country-sector combination. The variation in labour productivity that can be explained by human capital is remarkably large when measured by the sectoral skills, whereas it appears statistically insignificant when measured by the sectoral school attainment. This suggests that using measures of sectoral cognitive skills can represent a major step forward in any future sectoral growth accounting exercise.",

keywords = "human capital, labour productivity, R&D, Sectoral cognitive skills, cognition, investment, labor productivity, research and development, skilled labor, QUALITY, SET, RETURNS, EDUCATION, ISSUES, TECHNICAL CHANGE, GROWTH, WORLD, SECTION",

author = "S. Sasso and J. Ritzen",

note = "Funding Information: Financial support from IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany (Research Project {\textquoteleft}Adult Skills, Educational Investments and Productivity{\textquoteright}) is gratefully acknowledged. Funding Information: Financial support from IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany (Research Project ?Adult Skills, Educational Investments and Productivity?) is gratefully acknowledged. We would like to thank Pierre Mohnen, Bart Verspagen, Eddy Szirmai, and two anonymous referees for the valuable suggestions provided during the development of this paper. We are also grateful to Anja Perry and Jan Paul Heisig for the useful information on the PIAAC data design generously shared at the PIAAC Workshop in Cologne. All errors remain our own. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, {\textcopyright} 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.1080/09645292.2018.1515309",

language = "English",

volume = "27",

pages = "35--51",

journal = "Education Economics",

issn = "0964-5292",

publisher = "Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group",

number = "1",

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T1 - Sectoral cognitive skills, R&D, and productivity: a cross-country cross-sector analysis

AU - Sasso, S.

AU - Ritzen, J.

N1 - Funding Information: Financial support from IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany (Research Project ‘Adult Skills, Educational Investments and Productivity’) is gratefully acknowledged. Funding Information: Financial support from IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany (Research Project ?Adult Skills, Educational Investments and Productivity?) is gratefully acknowledged. We would like to thank Pierre Mohnen, Bart Verspagen, Eddy Szirmai, and two anonymous referees for the valuable suggestions provided during the development of this paper. We are also grateful to Anja Perry and Jan Paul Heisig for the useful information on the PIAAC data design generously shared at the PIAAC Workshop in Cologne. All errors remain our own. Publisher Copyright: © 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - We focus on human capital measured by skills and analyse its relationship with R&D investments and productivity across 12 OECD economies and 17 industries. We compute a measure of sectoral human capital defined as the average cognitive skills of the workforce in each country-sector combination. The variation in labour productivity that can be explained by human capital is remarkably large when measured by the sectoral skills, whereas it appears statistically insignificant when measured by the sectoral school attainment. This suggests that using measures of sectoral cognitive skills can represent a major step forward in any future sectoral growth accounting exercise.

AB - We focus on human capital measured by skills and analyse its relationship with R&D investments and productivity across 12 OECD economies and 17 industries. We compute a measure of sectoral human capital defined as the average cognitive skills of the workforce in each country-sector combination. The variation in labour productivity that can be explained by human capital is remarkably large when measured by the sectoral skills, whereas it appears statistically insignificant when measured by the sectoral school attainment. This suggests that using measures of sectoral cognitive skills can represent a major step forward in any future sectoral growth accounting exercise.

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KW - labour productivity

KW - R&D

KW - Sectoral cognitive skills

KW - cognition

KW - investment

KW - labor productivity

KW - research and development

KW - skilled labor

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KW - SET

KW - RETURNS

KW - EDUCATION

KW - ISSUES

KW - TECHNICAL CHANGE

KW - GROWTH

KW - WORLD

KW - SECTION

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DO - 10.1080/09645292.2018.1515309

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JO - Education Economics

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