Factors Affecting the Relationship between Research and Development (R&D) and Economic Development in EU

This paper explores the relation between R&D and economic growth using data from the EU-28 countries for the period 2001-2014. We consider panel data econometric techniques and control variables commonly used in the literature are analyzed together with a number of other variables to which existing studies often give little attention. Our results suggest that R&D expenditure and the patents (European Patent Office – EPO) have a positive and significant effect on economic growth for all countries.