How to measure innovation? New evidence of the technology-growth linkage

It is an undoubtful fact that economic growth depends, ultima ratio, on the production of new ideas. This article aims to contribute to the long-standing debate on the choice of the best proxy to measure innovation and technological diffusion, by offering alternative variables which are tested empirically by means of a panel dataset of 73 countries between 1980 and 2005. Two different proxies of technological progress (patents and a Intellectual Property Rights Index) are used to explain different growth rates of income per capita and, after controlling for endogeneity, our results suggest that both have a positive effect on innovation (and economic growth).