[Paper presented at the DRUID Summer Conference on “Appropriablity, Proximity, Routines and Innovation”, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, 18-20 June, 2007]

Abstract.  R&D spillovers are unanimously considered as one of the main driving forces of technical change, innovation and economic growth. This paper aims at measuring inter-industrial R&D spillovers, as a useful information for policy-makers. We apply an “uncertainty-sensitivity analysis” to the Italian input-output table of intermediate goods split into 31 economic sectors for the year 2000. The value added of using this methodology is the opportunity of distinguishing (separately) between spillover effects induced by productive linkages (the Leontiev forward multipliers) and those activated by R&D investments, capturing also the uncertain and non-linear nature of the relations between spillovers and factors affecting them.

Keywords: R&D spillovers, Input-output models, Sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo simulations

JEL Codes:    O32, C67, C15

We wish to thank prof. Koen Frenken (Urban & Regional Research Centre, Utrecht University) and prof. Elad Harison (Department of Business & ICT, University of Groningen) for their useful comments and valuable suggestions.