Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion

The authors examine the impact on productivity of technologies imported by a sample of developing, and transition economies in Central and Easter Europe, and the Southern Mediterranean - economies becoming increasingly integrated with the European...

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Main Authors:	Barba Navaretti, Giorgio, Soloaga, Isidro
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES CAPITAL GOODS CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS ECONOMIC INTEGRATION ELASTICITIES ELASTICITY EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ENGINEERS EXOGENOUS VARIABLES EXPORTS EXTERNALITY FACTORS OF PRODUCTION FREE TRADE GDP GDP PER CAPITA GNP GNP PER CAPITA GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT HIGH TECHNOLOGY IMPORTS INCOME LEVELS INVENTORS LEARNING MARKET POWER NATIONAL INCOME NEW TECHNOLOGIES OPEN ECONOMIES PRODUCTION FUNCTION PRODUCTIVITY PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH PRODUCTIVITY INCREASES SUBSIDIARIES TECHNICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGY CHOICE TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY TRADE BARRIERS TRADE LIBERALIZATION TRADE REFORMS TRADE STATISTICS TRANSITION ECONOMIES WAGES
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/1121279/weightless-machines-costless-knowledge-empirical-analysis-trade-technology-diffusion http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19654

id	okr-10986-19654
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-196542021-04-23T14:03:43Z Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion Barba Navaretti, Giorgio Soloaga, Isidro APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES CAPITAL GOODS CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS ECONOMIC INTEGRATION ELASTICITIES ELASTICITY EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ENGINEERS EXOGENOUS VARIABLES EXPORTS EXTERNALITY FACTORS OF PRODUCTION FREE TRADE GDP GDP PER CAPITA GNP GNP PER CAPITA GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT HIGH TECHNOLOGY IMPORTS INCOME LEVELS INVENTORS LEARNING MARKET POWER NATIONAL INCOME NEW TECHNOLOGIES OPEN ECONOMIES PRODUCTION FUNCTION PRODUCTIVITY PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH PRODUCTIVITY INCREASES SUBSIDIARIES TECHNICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGY CHOICE TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY TRADE BARRIERS TRADE LIBERALIZATION TRADE REFORMS TRADE STATISTICS TRANSITION ECONOMIES WAGES The authors examine the impact on productivity of technologies imported by a sample of developing, and transition economies in Central and Easter Europe, and the Southern Mediterranean - economies becoming increasingly integrated with the European Union. They depart from earlier studies of technology diffusion by focusing on the technology embodied in the machines imported. Earlier work focused mostly on spillovers from foreign research, and development conveyed through trade, without controlling for the characteristics of the goods imported. The authors jointly estimate the choice of foreign technology, and its impact on domestic productivity for a set of manufacturing sectors. They proxy the technological level of the machines imported, by using an index relating the unit value of the machines imported by a given country, to the unit value of similar machines imported by the United States. At any point in time between 1989 and 1997, there is a persistent (even increasing) gap between the unit values of the machines imported by the United States, and those imported by the sample of developing countries. Although developing economies buy increasingly productive machines, the technology embodied in the machines persistently lags behind that in the machines purchased by the United States - so far as unit values are good proxies of embodied technologies. The authors also find that productivity growth in manufacturing, depends on the types of machines imported in a given industry. So although the optimal choice for developing countries is to buy cheaper, less sophisticated machines, given local skills and factor prices, this choice has a cost in long-run productivity growth. If productivity is low, countries buy low-technology machines, but doing so keeps them in a low-technology, low-growth trap. 2014-08-26T14:28:27Z 2014-08-26T14:28:27Z 2001-05 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/1121279/weightless-machines-costless-knowledge-empirical-analysis-trade-technology-diffusion http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19654 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2598 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Europe and Central Asia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES CAPITAL GOODS CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS ECONOMIC INTEGRATION ELASTICITIES ELASTICITY EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ENGINEERS EXOGENOUS VARIABLES EXPORTS EXTERNALITY FACTORS OF PRODUCTION FREE TRADE GDP GDP PER CAPITA GNP GNP PER CAPITA GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT HIGH TECHNOLOGY IMPORTS INCOME LEVELS INVENTORS LEARNING MARKET POWER NATIONAL INCOME NEW TECHNOLOGIES OPEN ECONOMIES PRODUCTION FUNCTION PRODUCTIVITY PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH PRODUCTIVITY INCREASES SUBSIDIARIES TECHNICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGY CHOICE TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY TRADE BARRIERS TRADE LIBERALIZATION TRADE REFORMS TRADE STATISTICS TRANSITION ECONOMIES WAGES
spellingShingle	APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES CAPITAL GOODS CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS ECONOMIC INTEGRATION ELASTICITIES ELASTICITY EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ENGINEERS EXOGENOUS VARIABLES EXPORTS EXTERNALITY FACTORS OF PRODUCTION FREE TRADE GDP GDP PER CAPITA GNP GNP PER CAPITA GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT HIGH TECHNOLOGY IMPORTS INCOME LEVELS INVENTORS LEARNING MARKET POWER NATIONAL INCOME NEW TECHNOLOGIES OPEN ECONOMIES PRODUCTION FUNCTION PRODUCTIVITY PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH PRODUCTIVITY INCREASES SUBSIDIARIES TECHNICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGY CHOICE TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY TRADE BARRIERS TRADE LIBERALIZATION TRADE REFORMS TRADE STATISTICS TRANSITION ECONOMIES WAGES Barba Navaretti, Giorgio Soloaga, Isidro Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2598
description	The authors examine the impact on productivity of technologies imported by a sample of developing, and transition economies in Central and Easter Europe, and the Southern Mediterranean - economies becoming increasingly integrated with the European Union. They depart from earlier studies of technology diffusion by focusing on the technology embodied in the machines imported. Earlier work focused mostly on spillovers from foreign research, and development conveyed through trade, without controlling for the characteristics of the goods imported. The authors jointly estimate the choice of foreign technology, and its impact on domestic productivity for a set of manufacturing sectors. They proxy the technological level of the machines imported, by using an index relating the unit value of the machines imported by a given country, to the unit value of similar machines imported by the United States. At any point in time between 1989 and 1997, there is a persistent (even increasing) gap between the unit values of the machines imported by the United States, and those imported by the sample of developing countries. Although developing economies buy increasingly productive machines, the technology embodied in the machines persistently lags behind that in the machines purchased by the United States - so far as unit values are good proxies of embodied technologies. The authors also find that productivity growth in manufacturing, depends on the types of machines imported in a given industry. So although the optimal choice for developing countries is to buy cheaper, less sophisticated machines, given local skills and factor prices, this choice has a cost in long-run productivity growth. If productivity is low, countries buy low-technology machines, but doing so keeps them in a low-technology, low-growth trap.
format	Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author	Barba Navaretti, Giorgio Soloaga, Isidro
author_facet	Barba Navaretti, Giorgio Soloaga, Isidro
author_sort	Barba Navaretti, Giorgio
title	Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion
title_short	Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion
title_full	Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion
title_fullStr	Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion
title_full_unstemmed	Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion
title_sort	weightless machines and costless knowledge : an empirical analysis of trade and technology diffusion
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2014
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/1121279/weightless-machines-costless-knowledge-empirical-analysis-trade-technology-diffusion http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19654
_version_	1764440256654868480

Weightless Machines and Costless Knowledge : An Empirical Analysis of Trade and Technology Diffusion

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