R&D and Skills

Firm Dynamic Investments in R&D and Skills

in Service Industries

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship

Project Acronym: INVPROD

Project Abstract

Productivity growth is key to wealth and high living standards. For many years, Europe’s productivity growth has been declining. A possible way to raise productivity is to increase investments in intangible (knowledge based) assets such as workforce skills and Research and Development (R&D). The goal of this project is to enhance the knowledge on productivity and firm investments in the service industries by studying their decision-making process in R&D and worker skills investments.

The project addresses the questions:

(1) What are the incentives each firm faces when making investment decisions in R&D and worker skills improvement?

(2) What is the optimal level of investment for each firm? Moreover, what are the implications of these investments for the firms' longrun productivity development?

The insights gained from INVPROD will be crucial to designing policy measures that effectively facilitate investments and boost productivity growth.