‘Two faces’ of human capital and research and development activities: Effects of related technologies and the regional technology portfolio on total factor productivity in Polish regions

In this article, we study the role of technological relatedness/unrelatedness in explaining the relationship between research and development and human capital and total factor productivity growth at the regional level using system Generalized Method of Moments and statistical data for 16 Polish regions over the period 2003–2019. Using the research and development effects-based approach, we weight the number of patents relative to the employed in the research and development sector by measures that identify related technologies in the regional technology portfolio. Our results show positive and statistically significant effects of human capital and technological relatedness on both technological progress and technology diffusion. Moreover, technological unrelatedness exerts a negative effect on technological progress and does not lead to technology diffusion. The study also shows the importance of local technology resources.