A Comparative Analysis of Research and Development Spending and Total Factor Productivity Growth in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Singapore

In this paper, we focus on three locations in the Asia-Pacific region—Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Singapore—to analyse the impact of variations in research and development (R&D) spending on total factor productivity (TFP) growth. In each of the three cases, we compare and contrast the role of public and private R&D in boosting TFP growth as well as the pattern of causality involving public and private R&D and the capacity of both types of R&D to generate economic spillovers. Our results show that the impact of both public and private R&D varies across the three cases, with significant but limited outcomes for TFP growth in the case of Hong Kong, no significant growth in Shenzhen, but strong and positively significant growth in Singapore.

Key insights and policy recommendations out of this paper are discussed in the HKUST IEMS Thought Leadership Brief #55 authored by Prof. Naubahar Sharif. Read the HKUST IEMS Thought Leadership Brief at https://iems.ust.hk/publications/thought-leadership-briefs/tlb55-sharif-rd-spending-productivity-hongkong-shenzhen-singapore.