The paper investigates the association between total factor productivity growth and the research and development (R&D) expenditures of Swedish manufacturing firms in the presence of domestic- and international R&D spillovers. Results indicate that a catch-up process exists by which the non-frontier firms in the Swedish manufacturing sector absorb knowledge spillovers from the leading firms in the industry.
Link
http://www.fief.se/publications/working_paper/pdf/WP200.pdf