This paper presents the findings of a recent OECD project on the measurement of the link between public procurement and innovation that is intended to contribute to the review and implementation of the OECD measurement frameworks for R&D and innovation. The report highlights what concepts, definitions and measurement approaches can be used, with currently available data or suitably adapted sources, to produce policy-relevant indicators on the use of innovation procurement and carry out empirical analyses on the impact of public procurement on R&D, innovation and broader economic outcomes. Exploiting recent R&D and innovation survey data and administrative procurement records, it provides novel multi-country evidence on the incidence of public procurement of innovation. An exploratory analysis based on procurement, company account, R&D, patent and trademark data helps showcase the use of combined micro-data sources for analytical applications and points out important links between firm-level procurement activity, R&D and economic performance.
