R&D human resources in firms: What determines the educational level required?

Abstract

This article analyses the determinants of the demand for R&D employees with different educational levels. The results from the estimations of an ordered logit model show that the main characteristics of the firms that explain the level of education required are university–firm cooperation, R&D intensity and how internal R&D activities are organized.

Keywords:

• R&D
• skills
• human resources

JEL Classification:

• O30
• O32

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Alto Consejo Consultivo en I+D of the Generalitat Valenciana and IMPIVA for facilitating access to the survey on which this article is based and, particularly, Manuel López Estornell and Emilio Cubel for preparing the questionnaire and the sample. We are grateful for the support of the CYD Foundation. José Garcia-Quevedo gratefully acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (ECO2010-16934) and from the Generalitat of Catalonia (2009SGR102). Francisco Mas-Verdú thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (Project ECO2008-04708/ECON and ECO2010-16934).