This study examines the impact of research & development on employees’ productivity in public service of Nigerian fourth republic from 1999 to 2023. The annual data for the study is sourced from World Bank’s Development Indicators (WDI) and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. The dependent variable is employee’s productivity proxied by total factor productivity while the explanatory variables are research & development expenditure as percentage of GDP, employee compensation proxied for income and institutional quality components of governance effectiveness and regulatory quality. The preliminary test of Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test reveals mixed order of integration among the series under consideration, which reinforces the choice of Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) as estimation technique. The ARDL bounds result reveal the existence of long-run among the series under consideration. On the result, the series of research & development exhibit negative and significant relationship with employee productivity in the Nigerian public service. The complementary series of employee compensation exert negative effect and significant impact on employee productivity. Also, governance effectiveness further exerts negative and insignificant nexus while regulatory quality demonstrates significant positive effect on employee productivity. This study concludes that research & development has not enhanced employee productivity in the Nigeria public service within the period considered. Therefore, the research recommends the need for government agencies and parastatals to make adequate provision for resources to fund high-quality training programs for public sector employees. This can include providing on-the-job training, skill development workshops, and opportunities for continuous learning and professional development
Keywords: Development, Public Service, Research, employee’s productivity
