Endogenous growth theory is based on the concept that innovation drives productivity growth. This mechanism incentivizes government to invest in activities that promote innovation, such as research and development (R&D). However, the relationship between R&D funded by the government and economic growth is not that clear. The result from this study shows that public investments in research and development in certain socioeconomic objectives are increasing the level of technical efficiency. Energy, environmental, exploration & exploitation and defense increase the technical efficiency, and health related investment reduce the technical efficiency in the production of GDP amongst the OECD countries. Additionally, the findings indicate that private R&D investments increase total factor productivity growth, which is in line with the literature. None of the public investments showed any significant impact on total factor productivity growth. This study may be a starting point to analyze public R&D investments by their different socioeconomic objectives, rather than collectively. By doing it on a smaller scale, we will be able to derive more detailed conclusions.