Determinants of R&D expenditures in OECD countries: a neoschumpeterian approach

The aim of this article is to infer about effect on R&D expenditure from six of its determinants, in 20 OECD countries, for the period 1990-2006. The determinants are: income per capita, foreign trade, researches, information and communication technology investments, machinery and equipment investments and long term interest rate. It was estimated an unbalanced panel data under fixed effects with temporal orientation approach, produced empirically interesting results: three variables, researches, information and communication technology and investments and long term interest rate were statistically significant. However, income per capita, foreign trade and investments in machinery and equipment weren't statistically significant. Among the determinants, only variable long term interest rate showed negative sign, featuring itself as an important element to regard on R&D investment decisions.