Exploring the Relationship Between Human Capital and Innovation at the Firm Level: A study on a Sample of European Firms

Rosamaria D'Amore (), Roberto Iorio and Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera
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Rosamaria D'Amore: CELPE - Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy, University of Salerno - Italy, Postal: via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 - Fisciano (SA)ITALY, http://salerno.academia.edu/rosamariadamore

No 144, CELPE Discussion Papers from CELPE - CEnter for Labor and Political Economics, University of Salerno, Italy

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the relationship between the human capital “embodied” in the workforce and the innovative capabilities of the firm, adopting an international comparative perspective. In fact data come from a survey (EFIGE) run in seven European countries during the 2007-2009 period. They are analysed with several models of multivariate analysis also with the support of a semi-parametric model. Our results show a positive relationship between the ratio of graduated employees and the percentage of turnover from innovative products, being the share of personnel employed in R&D constant. This relationship is not linear: we find decreasing marginal returns for human capital and R&D. We then find a complementarity between human capital and R&D: the strength of the link between human capital and innovation is higher when the firm’s R&D increases. We also find some significant differences in the intensity of the human capital/innovation link across different countries.

Keywords: Human capital; R&D; Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 J24 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2017-04-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-eur, nep-hrm, nep-ino, nep-knm, nep-sbm and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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