The impact of patent protection, economy openness and national culture on R&D investment: a cross-country empirical investigation

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of national culture, openness of the economy, and patent protection framework on R&D investment. We test these assumptions using a cross-country analysis for 50 selected countries. The empirical analysis suggests that national culture, patent protection, and the degree of openness of an economy are determinants of the R&D intensity. The study concludes that (a) countries with a strong patent protection framework invest more in R&D, and (b) the national culture is correlated to the R&D investment. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.