ABSTRACT
Economic growth based on the continuous generation of innovation is a major contribution of the Schumpeterian legacy and endogenous growth models (Romer 1990; Rivera-Batiz and Romer 1991; Grossman and Helpman 1991; Aghion and Howitt 1992, 1998). The subsequent investigation of causes of productivity growth and of differences across regions and industries in the productivity dynamics attracted much attention in the past empirical investigations. The intensive search of the determinants of total factor productivity (TFP) leads to identify such factors as R&D efforts, human capital accumulation, trade openness, financial globalization (Cameron et al. 2005; Biatour and Dumont 2011; Gehringer 2013; Gehringer et al. 2015).1
