Technology and Development: Stylized Facts and Policy Directions
The adoption of technologies from abroad is a necessary component of rapid and sustained growth in developing countries, enabling them to catch up with the more advanced economies. The speed at which technology is adopted depends essentially on a country's own efforts--there are few external im...
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2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5566 |
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okr-10986-55662021-04-23T14:02:22Z Technology and Development: Stylized Facts and Policy Directions Dadush, Uri Macroeconomics: Production E230 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences Diffusion Processes O330 Measurement of Economic Growth Aggregate Productivity Cross-Country Output Convergence O470 The adoption of technologies from abroad is a necessary component of rapid and sustained growth in developing countries, enabling them to catch up with the more advanced economies. The speed at which technology is adopted depends essentially on a country's own efforts--there are few external impediments to the spread of most technologies. Contributing outright "new to the world" innovations is unlikely to be an important part of this process for developing countries, though creative adaptation of preexisting technologies can be necessary and valuable. Thus, much of the technology gap relates not to new technologies but to older technologies and the failure to spread them widely within developing countries. Newer technologies are spreading increasingly rapidly, partly because they generally require less infrastructure investment and because government involvement is facilitating quicker access to disadvantaged regions within countries. A sound development strategy should include a concerted effort to import technology and be based on three pillars. The first two pillars are openness and absorptive capacity (education, investment climate) and are essential pursuits on their own merits. The third pillar is more controversial and involves direct intervention to deal with market failures that impede technology diffusion. Success in this difficult area depends on the quality of execution as well as on the design of policies, and avoiding their capture by special interests. Many developing countries have demonstrated that they can catch-up rapidly, and yet the technology frontier continues to push outward and the gap between the developing and industrial countries remains significant--pointing to their still largely untapped potential. 2012-03-30T07:33:27Z 2012-03-30T07:33:27Z 2008 Journal Article Economia Politica 11202890 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5566 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
EN |
| topic |
Macroeconomics: Production E230 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences Diffusion Processes O330 Measurement of Economic Growth Aggregate Productivity Cross-Country Output Convergence O470 |
| spellingShingle |
Macroeconomics: Production E230 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences Diffusion Processes O330 Measurement of Economic Growth Aggregate Productivity Cross-Country Output Convergence O470 Dadush, Uri Technology and Development: Stylized Facts and Policy Directions |
| relation |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo |
| description |
The adoption of technologies from abroad is a necessary component of rapid and sustained growth in developing countries, enabling them to catch up with the more advanced economies. The speed at which technology is adopted depends essentially on a country's own efforts--there are few external impediments to the spread of most technologies. Contributing outright "new to the world" innovations is unlikely to be an important part of this process for developing countries, though creative adaptation of preexisting technologies can be necessary and valuable. Thus, much of the technology gap relates not to new technologies but to older technologies and the failure to spread them widely within developing countries. Newer technologies are spreading increasingly rapidly, partly because they generally require less infrastructure investment and because government involvement is facilitating quicker access to disadvantaged regions within countries. A sound development strategy should include a concerted effort to import technology and be based on three pillars. The first two pillars are openness and absorptive capacity (education, investment climate) and are essential pursuits on their own merits. The third pillar is more controversial and involves direct intervention to deal with market failures that impede technology diffusion. Success in this difficult area depends on the quality of execution as well as on the design of policies, and avoiding their capture by special interests. Many developing countries have demonstrated that they can catch-up rapidly, and yet the technology frontier continues to push outward and the gap between the developing and industrial countries remains significant--pointing to their still largely untapped potential. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Dadush, Uri |
| author_facet |
Dadush, Uri |
| author_sort |
Dadush, Uri |
| title |
Technology and Development: Stylized Facts and Policy Directions |
| title_short |
Technology and Development: Stylized Facts and Policy Directions |
| title_full |
Technology and Development: Stylized Facts and Policy Directions |
| title_fullStr |
Technology and Development: Stylized Facts and Policy Directions |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Technology and Development: Stylized Facts and Policy Directions |
| title_sort |
technology and development: stylized facts and policy directions |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5566 |
| _version_ |
1764395511350034432 |