Productivity Growth, Human Capital, and Technology Spillovers: Nonparametric Evidence for EU Regions

This paper assesses the strength of productivity spillovers nonparametrically in a data-set of 12 industries and 231 NUTS2 regions in 17 European Union member countries between 1992 and 2006. It devotes particular attention to measuring catching up through spillovers depending on the technology gap of a unit to the industry leader and the local human capital endowment. We find evidence of a non-(log-)linear relationship between the technology gap to the leader as well as human capital and growth. Spillovers are strongest for units with a small technology gap to the leader and with abundant human capital.