Journal Article
Supply chain constraints and research spending: An international investigation
Supply chain issues have garnered considerable attention during recent years, especially with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas many causes and effects of supply chain have been studied, this paper focuses on an aspect that has largely been ignored – the effects of supply chain constraints on research and development (R&D) spending. Using cross-country data from numerous countries over the past decade, we find support for our main hypothesis that supply chain constraints undermine R&D spending. However, different dimensions of the supply chain have quantitatively different effects on research spending. Interestingly, we find evidence of the legacy of supply chain issues from pre-pandemic days to impact more recent R&D spending. Finally, the main findings are robust to consideration of reverse causality issues. Implications for technology policy are discussed.
Key Words
- R&D
- supply chain
- infrastructure
- supply logistics
- pandemic
- globalization