Technology trade in economic development

Arbeitspapier

Recent evidence on the respective contributions of institutions and trade to income levels across countries has demonstrated that - once endogeneity is considered - institutional quality clearly dominates the effect of trade. We argue that overall trade is not the most appropriate measure for technology diffusion as a source of productivity growth and propose to focus on imports of research and development (R&D) intensive goods instead. Overall, we confirm previous findings that institutions matter most and that overall trade is not positively associated with per-capita income levels. Yet this does not hold for technology trade, as there is a positive and significant linkage between technology imports and income levels. This outcome is robust to various model specifications, including an instrumental variable approach.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: HWWI Research Paper ; No. 2-9

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: Growth ; Technology Diffusion ; Trade ; R&D Spillovers

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Busse, Matthias ; Groizard, José Luis
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Hamburgisches WeltWirtschaftsInstitut (HWWI)
• (where): Hamburg
• (when): 2007

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/48181
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET