Is a large R&D effort necessarily synonymous with growth?

It is possible that a large R&D effort does not lead to higher potential growth if: The efficiency of research declines; The R&D does not lead to new production or production processes, in particular because of insufficient skills among business owners or wage earners; To be effective, R&D must be combined with additional corporate investment and modernisation, and this is not the case . To estimate the effect of R&D on potential growth and the conditions for this effect to be positive, we compare R&D spending (total, public and private), productivity growth, labour force skills, investment growth and the degree of corporate automation across OECD countries . Our findings are quite straightforward: R&D (total or private) and population skills have a positive effect on productivity gains, but there is no complementarity between R&D and skills.