This paper presents a firm-level examination of the European Union (EU) vs US research and development (R&D) intensity differences based on four pictures taken during the time span 2005–2017. It contributes to the literature on the topic by inspecting for the first time which sectors and firms account the most for the aggregate R&D intensity performance of these two economies. Analyzing the top 1250 R&D investors worldwide in four different years, it finds that (i) only few companies within key (for their relative impact on the overall R&D intensity) high-tech sectors determine (positively and negatively) the bulk of the sector’s intensity, (ii) the EU holds a much lower number of both larger and smaller R&D investors than the United States in the key high-tech sectors, and (iii) there is a high heterogeneity in firms’ R&D intensity within such key sectors. These findings are crucial to better understand the aggregate transatlantic corporate R&D intensity gap.

中文翻译：

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欧盟与美国企业研发强度差距：调查关键行业和企业

本文基于 2005-2017 年期间拍摄的四张照片，对欧盟 (EU) 与美国的研发 (R&D) 强度差异进行了企业层面的检验。它通过首次检查哪些部门和公司对这两个经济体的总体研发强度表现贡献最大，为有关该主题的文献做出了贡献。对四年来全球前 1250 名研发投资者进行分析后发现，(i) 只有少数关键公司（就其对整体研发强度的相对影响而言）高科技行业决定了该行业的大部分强度（正向和负向） , (ii) 与美国相比，欧盟在关键高科技领域拥有的大型和小型研发投资者数量要少得多，并且 (iii) 公司的研发存在高度异质性 D 在这些关键部门内的强度。这些发现对于更好地了解跨大西洋企业研发强度的总体差距至关重要。