Trade, Human Capital, and Technology Spillovers: an Industry-level Analysis

This paper studies whether trade promotes North–South and South–South technology spillovers at the industry level, and how the absorptive capacity of the South affects the impact of the technology spillovers. Using data from 16 manufacturing industries in 25 developing countries from 1976 to 1998, the paper shows: (i) North–South trade‐related R&D has a substantial impact on total factor productivity in the South; (ii) South–South trade‐related R&D also promotes technology spillovers but with a smaller magnitude; and (iii) human capital is very important in facilitating North–South and South–South technology spillovers: an increase in human capital could lead to over three times the size of technology spillovers from an increase in trade‐related foreign R&D.     

Technology Gap Matters on Spillover

This paper develops an oligopoly model with endogenous technology spillovers through foreign direct investment (FDI). The foreign entrant brings a superior technology and therefore may spend resources to prevent spillovers of its technology to the home firm. The home firm has an incentive to spend resources to gain these spillovers. After firms strategically choose their expenditures to influence technology spillovers, they compete in a Cournot–Nash quantity game. This study provides theoretical insight on the positive and negative empirical spillover results of FDI on productivity of local firms. Up to a critical bound, the larger the initial technology gap between the foreign and home firms, the more the home firm spends to gain spillovers. Past that boundary, the home firm decreases spending. As a result, the home firm's profits from spillovers vary, but larger technology gaps engender greater net profit losses from FDI.     

R＆D、R＆D溢出、内生增长和内生收敛

根据强调知识与技术创新、知识与技术溢出重要性的当代内生增长理论，本文建立了一个将R＆D和R＆D溢出与资本积累之间、R＆D和R＆D溢出与总产出增长之间直接关联起来的动态模型。面板数据协整检验实证分析结果表明R＆D和R＆D溢出与资本积累之间、R＆D和R＆D溢出与总产出增长之间分别存在显著的正面长期协整关联。进一步的分析表明，R＆D与资本积累之间、R＆D与总产出增长之间分别存在显著的长期双向格兰杰因果关系。由此观知，R＆D乃长期经济增长源泉之所在。另一方面，尽管资本积累或总产出增长并不格兰杰导致R＆D溢出，证据表明R＆D溢出格兰杰导致资本积累和总产出增长。这种由R＆D溢出到资本积累和总产出增长的单向格兰杰因果关系意味着尽管知识与技术的跨国传播并非必然发生。其实为世界经济增长的重要动力。     

Technology Sourcing and Strategic Foreign Direct Investment

Empirical evidence suggests that technological spillovers are limited by distance. The present paper investigates the implications of this observation for the investment decisions of a technologically leading and lagging firm, located in different countries. Technological spillovers may induce “technology sourcing” foreign direct investment by the less advanced firm, as it seeks to upgrade its technology. Our main result, however, is that there may be strong incentives for the leading firm to undertake strategic investment abroad in order to prevent technology sourcing by the lagging firm. We analyze how trade costs, the technology gap between firms, technological spillovers, and the ability of a firm to transfer technology between plants affect the two firms’ entry decisions.     

进口贸易与工业行业全要素生产率

本文利用我国三位码工业行业的月度面板数据,依据扩展的R&D与生产率方程同时控制物化型、非物化型溢出与竞争效应,发现进口竞争与物化型溢出具有显著正相关关系;在此基础上,还发现进口贸易对三位码工业行业的全要素生产率和技术效率具有直接的负溢出效应;而且,大部分三位码工业行业面临着日益激烈的进口竞争,引致了行业内和行业间正向的要素再配置过程,并通过提高技术效率的方式最终促进了工业行业全要素生产率的增长。     

Impact of firm heterogeneity on direct and spillover effects of FDI: Micro-evidence from ten transition countries

This paper presents a comparative study of the importance of direct technology transfer and spillovers through FDI on a set of 10 transition countries, using a common methodology and appropriate methods to account for selection and simultaneity correction. This paper considers by far the largest firm level dataset (more than 90,000 firms) used by any study on the spillover effects of FDI. The main novelty of the paper is the explicit control for various sources of firm heterogeneity when accounting for different effects of FDI on firm performance. This work shows that the heterogeneity of firms in terms of absorptive capacity, size, productivity and technology levels affect the results. Controlling for these variables leads to some interesting results, which contrast with the previous empirical work in the field. We find that horizontal spillovers have become increasingly important over the last decade, and they may even become more important than vertical spillovers. Positive horizontal spillovers are equally distributed across size classes of firms, while negative horizontal spillovers seem to be more likely to accrue to smaller firms. Moreover, positive horizontal spillovers seem more likely to be present in medium or high productivity firms with higher absorptive capacities, while negative horizontal spillovers are more likely to affect low to medium productivity firms. These findings suggest that both direct effects from foreign ownership as well as the spillovers from foreign firms substantially depend on the absorptive capacity and productivity level of individual firms. In addition, these results show that foreign presence may also affect smaller firms to a larger extent than larger firms, but this impact may be in either direction.     

R&D spillover effects on firms’ export behavior: evidence from South Korea

This paper investigates the spillover effects of R&D investments made by foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) and domestic firms on their export activities, using a manufacturing firm-level panel dataset from South Korea. The theoretical framework predicts two conflicting spillover effects: positive technology spillovers and negative market rivalry spillovers. Thus, the net spillover effect is determined by the relative degree of the two conflicting spillovers. The empirical results show that negative intra-industry spillovers exist from the R&D of foreign MNEs on the export performance of firms, which implies that, in general, negative market rivalry spillovers dominate positive technology spillovers. However, notably, in the case of firms equipped with absorptive capacity, the negative spillovers can be alleviated; firms can gain positive spillovers by muting negative ones. Firms without absorptive capacity cannot avoid such negative effects. This paper shows that absorptive capacity is vital in capturing positive spillovers as firms build competency by accumulating their own know-how and improving their ability to capture better external technologies.     

FDI与技术垂直溢出：基于动态面板数据模型的检验

本文选取2003～2007年的行业面板数据,采用基于GMM估计的动态面板数据模型方法,对FDI与我国15个工业部门生产技术水平间的溢出效应进行了实证检验,结果表明技术溢出带来的技术效率的提高与我国工业部门自身前期技术水平积累具有密切相关性,FDI的行业内溢出效应不太明显,而行业间垂直溢出效应显著,是重要的技术溢出途径。为此,应该鼓励本地企业融入外资产业链,以提升技术水平。     

外商直接投资、技术溢出与相对工资差距

本文从技术溢出的角度考察了外商直接投资对相对工资差距的影响。FDI主要通过两种技术溢出渠道作用于相对工资差距：其一为FDI引致的进口贸易而产生的技术溢出,其二为外资企业在当地从事生产、经营活动而产生的技术溢出。基于我国省际面板数据的实证研究分析表明：FDI的两种技术溢出渠道均扩大了我国的相对工资差距,但存在区域差异。     

Climate Change Mitigation with Technology Spillovers

We explore the implications of an increase in clean technology spillovers between developed and developing countries. We build a game of abatements in which players are linked with technology spillovers determined by an initial choice of absorptive capacities by developing countries. We show that, within a non-cooperative framework, the response of clean technology investments in developed countries to an increase in cross-country technology spillovers is ambiguous. If the marginal benefits of these additional abatements are not sufficiently high, developed countries have a strategic incentive to decrease investments. Such a strategic response jeopardizes the initial effects of an increase in technology spillovers on climate change mitigation and decreases the incentives for developing countries to enhance their absorptive capacities.     

International R&D Spillovers: Trade,FDI, and Information Technology as Spillover Channels*

With the rapid pace of economic integration, the productivity of a country depends not only on domestic R&D, but also on foreign R&D through technology diffusion across countries. The advancement of information technology (IT) has made the international transmission of knowledge faster and more efficient, providing an important channel for international R&D spillovers. This paper investigates three channels of international R&D spillovers: trade, FDI, and information technology. Applying panel cointegration and dynamic OLS analysis to the data for 21 OECD countries plus Israel during the period from 1981 to 1998, we find that bilateral trade remains an important conduit for international R&D spillovers. Although bilateral FDI is found to be positively related to international R&D spillovers, their impact on productivity growth is relatively small. We also find that the development of information technology has played a more important role in international R&D spillovers and productivity growth in recent years.     

To innovate or to transfer?

FDI has been considered by many development economists as an important channel for transfer of technology to developing countries. It is suggested that modern, advanced technologies introduced by multinational firms can diffuse to domestic firms through spillovers. In this paper, we study innovation and technology transfer activities of domestic and foreign firms in Turkish manufacturing industries, and the impact of horizontal, vertical and labor spillovers on these activities. Our analysis shows that foreign firms are more innovative than their domestic counterparts, and transfer technology from abroad (mostly from their parent companies). Horizontal spillovers from foreign firms seem to be insignificant. The effects of foreign firms on technological activities of other firms in vertically related industries are ambiguous. High-tech suppliers tend to have a high rate of innovation when the share of foreign users is high, but the opposite is true for users: high-tech users supplied mainly by foreign firms tend to have a lower rate of innovation. Labor turnover is found to be the main channel of spillovers. Our findings reiterate the importance of tacitness of knowledge, and confirm that technology cannot easily be transferred through passive mechanisms.     

Foreign direct investment and spillovers: gradualism may be better

Abstract.  The standard argument says that in the presence of positive spillovers foreign direct investment should be promoted and subsidized. In contrast, this paper claims that the very existence of spillovers may require temporarily restricting FDI. Our argument is based on two features of spillovers: they are limited by the economy's absorptive capacity and they take time to materialize. By letting in capital more gradually, initial investment has the time to create spillovers – and upgrade the economy's absorptive capacity – before further investment occurs. The economy converges to a steady state with a superior technology and a greater capital stock.     

R&D spillovers and productivity: Evidence from U.S. manufacturing microdata

This paper deals with the estimation of the impact of technology spillovers on productivity at the firm level. Panel data for American manufacturing firms on sales, physical capital inputs, employment and R&D investments are linked to R&D data by industry. The latter data are used to construct four different sets of `indirect' R&D stocks, representing technology obtained through spillovers. The differences between two distinct kinds of spillovers are stressed. Cointegration analysis is introduced into production function estimation. Spillovers are found to have significant positive effects on productivity, although their magnitudes differ between high-tech, medium-tech and low-tech firms. First version received: April 1997/final version received: April 1999     

基于长三角地区FDI技术溢出渠道的实证分析

本研究将FDI的技术溢出渠道划分为六类。以此作为理论依据，选择长三角地区的七大城市作为研究对象，运用调查问卷这一实证研究方法分析了各溢出渠道的不同技术溢出情况，并在此基础上提出了相应的政策建议。     

Technology Spillovers between Sectorsand over Time

Technology spillovers are an important source of economic growth. This article presents a new method to measure technology spillovers at the macroeconomic or sectoral level by means of a so-called technology flow matrix. The main novelty relative to existing technology flow matrices is that the matrix in this article provides insight into the time dimension of the spillover process. The matrix is used to assess whether or not R&D spillovers lead to a more equal distribution of technology investment over sectors.     

Threshold effect of international technology spillovers on China's regional economic growth

ABSTRACT

This study uses China's provincial panel data for 2003–2016 to estimate the turning point of technology spillovers promoting economic growth in the coastal and inland areas. The results show that the turning point in coastal areas is significantly higher than that in inland areas. However, improved absorptive capacity as a result of regional disparity increases the threshold of technology spillovers from promotion to suppression in inland areas but decreases it in coastal areas. Then, this study further tests the threshold characteristics of absorptive capacity factors influencing international technology spillovers using a double-threshold regression model and estimates the threshold values of both forward and reverse spillovers from the viewpoint of knowledge context, economic development, opening degree and human resources infrastructure. In conclusion, the effect of absorptive capacity factors on international spillovers is nonlinear, that is, when absorptive capacity factors are between the two threshold values, technology spillovers are maximised.     

高技术产业集群中技术创新与扩散的系统基模分析与政策解析

技术扩散(或知识溢出)是企业集群发展的一个主要诱因,但是技术扩散(或知识溢出)的微观过程依然是一个"黑箱"。将高技术产业集群看成一个系统,应用系统动力学的方法,建立了技术创新动力成长上限基模、技术扩散动力成长上限基模、知识生产与搭便车者两败俱伤基模、知识生产富者愈富基模、集群成长与投资不足基模、集群创新舍本逐末基模、集群发展饮鸩止渴基模共7个系统基模,用以揭示高技术产业集群中技术创新、技术扩散、知识生产、集群成长与集群发展之间因果关系的作用机理及运作机制,并对基模根本解作了政策解析。     

我国军民两用技术双向溢出效应评价模型研究

发展军民两用高技术,有助于发展新兴产业,对国民经济和国防建设具有非常重要的意义。通过验证军民两用技术双向溢出的存在及建立军民两用技术溢出效应评价模型,为我国加强军民两用技术R&D合作及制定相关政策提供理论支持,以达到有效利用有限的国防预算和发展经济的目标。     

The effects of foreign direct investment on domestic firms

This paper uses firm‐level panel data to investigate empirically the effects of foreign direct investment on the productivity performance of domestic firms in three emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. To this end, a unique firm‐level panel dataset is used with detailed information on foreign ownership at the firm level. Two main questions are addressed in the present paper: (1) do foreign firms perform better than their domestic counterparts? (2) do foreign firms generate spillovers to domestic firms? The estimation technique in this paper takes potential endogeneity of ownership, spillovers and other factors into account by estimating a fixed effects model using instrumental variables in the general methods of moment technique for panel data. Only in Poland, do foreign firms perform better than firms without foreign participation. Moreover, for all three countries studied here, I find no evidence of positive spillovers to domestic firms, on average. In contrast, on average, there are negative spillovers to domestic firms in Bulgaria and Romania, while there are no spillovers to domestic firms in Poland. This suggests a negative competition effect that dominates a positive technology effect. JEL classification: D24, F14, O52, P31.