Income inequality and the development of environmental technologies

Within rich countries, a large dispersion in the capacity of generating environmental innovations appears correlated to the level of inequality. Previous works analyze the relationship between inequality and environmental quality in a static setting. This paper builds a dynamic model more suitable to analyze technological externalities driven by the emergence of a new demand for green products. Under fairly general assumptions on technology and preferences, we show that: 1. the relationship between inequality and environmental innovation is highly non-linear and crucially depends on per-capita income; 2. an excessive inequality harms the development of environmental technologies especially in rich countries. Key to our results is the fact that externalities generated by pioneer consumers of green products benefit the entire population only for relatively low income distances. The empirical analysis robustly confirms our theoretical results, that is: whereas for rich countries inequality negatively affects the diffusion of innovations, per-capita income is paramount in poorer ones.     

Trade-induced technological change: Analyzing economic and environmental outcomes

We analyze how changes in trade openness are related to induced technological innovations that are not only GDP increasing but also pollution saving. Our model includes by-products of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions. We estimate a directional distance function for 76 countries over the period 1963–2000 to measure exogenous and trade-induced technological change. On average, we find substantial trade-induced technological progress, and its magnitude is about one third of the overall technological change. The trade-induced technological changes, however, are GDP reducing and pollution increasing. Empirically, we find that increased trade openness correlates to increased pollution.     

Technology Strategies For Economic Development In A Fast Changing Global Economy

East Asian development experience provides the basis for understanding which are the essential elements of effective technology strategy and policy, those that are required for the efficacious development of countries that have not yet embarked on a path of sustained modernization. Globalization has had a profound impact on development, enabling countries that could exploit its propelling forces to pursue a potent strategy of export-led economic and technological development. The policies needed to sustain this strategy are those required to foster institutions that permit effective commerce among economic agents, those necessary to generate the rapid accumulation of human and physical capital, and those essential to ensure that resources are allocated in accord with the economy's dynamic comparative advantage. Of crucial importance among the latter are effectively implemented policies of selective intervention designed to develop infant industries and to foster their fast-paced achievement of international competitiveness through rapid attainment of the requisite technological capabilities.     

Technological differences and convergence in the OECD

Abstract. In this paper we test the homogeneity of the technological parameters among OECD countries, which is the maintained hypothesis in most of the empirical growth literature. We first identify differences in the constant term of the convergence equation estimated for the OECD 1960/1990 sample using a fixed- effects estimator. Then we provide a formal test of the homogeneity of technological parameters across groups of countries. We identify at least two different groups within the OECD, with significantly different technologies. Convergence within each group is fast, supporting the notion of club convergence. Nevertheless, the implausible parameter values obtained for the leading technology club casts some doubts on the validity of the Solow model to account for the long run behaviour of this group of countries.     

The Early Careers Of Engineers And The Accumulation Of Skills In The Canadian Economy

In this paper we use world cycling records to study the pattern of technological development of the track bicycle. We find that there is a strong evidence of ‘contagious’ effects among cycling records which in turn provides indirect evidence of ‘contagious’ effects among technological innovations. Interestingly, the ‘contagiousness’ of records is not a salient characteristic of track and field competitions where, arguably, technology plays a smaller role.     

Technological specialization and economic performance in oecd countries

The paper investigates the growing sectoral specialization in technological activities of OECD countries (measured using patent data) and its impact on countries innovative-and economic performance in the 1975-1990 period. Aggregate indicators of sectoral specialization are introduced, showing the extent to which countries concentrate their innovations in few fields, or spread them across several sectors. A general positive relationship us found between the degree of specializatin in technology and higher rates of growth, while specialization in electronics-related fields in not associated to better economic or technological performances.The position of individual countries in these patterns is also examined, showing that specialization has been an element of the catching-up process of the past decades, which has led to a growing economic convergence among OECD countries.     

Technological innovation and multinational expansion: A two-way link?

The paper examines how investment in research influences the form of foreign expansion chosen by the firm, and vice versa. We consider a two-country model where a monopolist producing in one country can choose between export and foreign direct investment. We assume process innovation, where the cost-reducing technological innovations are an outcome of the firm's investment in R&D. The role of technology transfer costs is explored. The model shows that, with low costs of technology transfer, there is a two-way link between the firm's R&D effort and multinational expansion. We also prove that both the research choice and the multinational choice have a positive effect on consumers' welfare in both countries.     

技术自立是如何实现的 ——中国复杂产品工业的历史经验

工业竞争力的行业分化是过去三十年中国工业发展的重要特征。对这一分化的合理解释有利于形成有效的工业与技术政策。本文首先将技术自立定义为一种与技术依赖相对的技术学习,并通过对三个复杂产品工业的比较案例研究,分析了从技术依赖向技术自立转变的关键特征。这些特征都与高度本地化的嵌入性需求的发展以及国家技术能力的积累相关。这两方面因素的互动决定了引进技术和本土创新的命运,只有引进技术在经济上的破产或技术上的失败才能使本土创新得到扩散,从而使局部突破转变为更广泛的竞争力。本文最后就政府定位、技术战略、需求政策和国际合作给出了政策建议。     

Democratization is the driving force for technological and economic change

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between democratization and technological innovation. In primis, the paper shows, through economic history, that democratization is an antecedent process (cause) to technological and economic change (effect). In particular, the primary finding is that democratization is a driving force for technological change: most free countries, measured with liberal, participatory, and constitutional democracy indices, have a higher level of technology than less free and more autocratic countries. In fact, “democracy richness” generates a higher rate of technological innovation with fruitful effects for the wellbeing and wealth of nations. These findings and predictions lead to the conclusion that policy makers need to be cognizant of positive associations between democratization and technological innovation paths in order to support the modern economic growth and future technological progress of countries.     

Different Impacts of Scientific and Technological Knowledge on Economic Growth: Contrasting Science and Technology Policy in East Asia and Latin America

This paper conducts country‐panel econometric analysis with a focus on the different roles of scientific and technological knowledge on economic growth and on the knowledge production functions. It finds that it is not scientific knowledge (academic articles) but technological knowledge (patents) that matters for economic growth, and that generating scientific knowledge does not automatically lead to the generation of technological knowledge. We find that technological knowledge is primarily determined by corporate research and development efforts, which used to be more lacking in Latin American countries, compared with East Asia. This finding sheds new light on the question of why Latin American and East Asian countries have shown such divergent economic performances.     

Coopetition for radical innovation: technology,market and business-model perspectives

Coopetition (collaboration between competing firms) is used in many contemporary industries to achieve various innovation-related benefits. However, there is still a lack of consensus in the existing literature as to whether it is beneficial in the case of radical innovations or whether it only supports incremental improvements due to the similarity of knowledge bases among competitors. We address this issue in an empirical study based on a cross-industrial survey in Finnish markets. The study focuses on three types of technological coopetition and on their effect on the technological, market and business-model radicalness of the firms’ innovations. The results show that coopetition is negatively related to technological radicalness and positively related to business-model radicalness. The implications are that coopetition is likely to benefit incremental technological development over time and to promote the emergence of radical business-model innovations as competitors seek to differentiate their offerings.     

Technological complexity and economic development

Although technological complexity seems to be a crucial determinant of economic development, it remains insufficiently explored. Relying on microinformation stored in individual patent applications and by applying the network view of countries linked to the technologies they develop, we create a global technology space and derive complexity measures that position countries in this space. We use then the measures of technological diversification and the ubiquity of technologies present in a country’s technology portfolio as an input to explain the role of technological complexity in countries’ income and economic development. We show that a country’s position in the global technology space affects its level of income and growth. The main channel through which it happens is the exclusiveness and uniqueness of the technological portfolio a country has, as compared to the remaining countries.     

外包与技术转移:基于发展中国家异质性模仿的分析

本文构建了一个模型来研究外包以及依附于外包活动中的技术转移,对发展中国家经济发展的多重影响效应.我们的研究表明,在发展中国家为低模仿类型时,外包活动中发达国家对发展中国家的技术转移,有利于发达国家与发展中国家双方的福利增进;在发展中国家为高模仿类型时,技术转移有利于发达国家,而不利于发展中国家可持续发展能力的培育.我们的研究支持这样一种观点:外包条件下发达国家对发展中国家的技术转移,并不必然会带来发展中国家的经济可持续增长,一个不可忽略的必要条件是,发展中国家自身制度条件制约了外包与技术转移对发展中国家可持续发展能力的作用.     

Environmental Policy and the International Diffusion of Cleaner Energy Technologies

Technology transfer is an important channel of technological change and sustainable development for countries with less innovative ability than technological leaders. This paper studies whether domestic environmental policies affect the inward technology transfer of cleaner innovation from abroad. We focus specifically on the power sector, for its important role in the decarbonization process, by looking at zero-carbon (renewable) and carbon-saving (efficient fossil) technologies for energy production. Using data on cross-country patent applications, we provide evidence that environmental policy contributes to attracting foreign cleaner technology options to OECD markets but not to non-OECD markets. We show that this is due to the nature of the implemented policy instruments. Market-based approaches positively impact technology transfer to both OECD and non-OECD economies, while non-market based approaches have at best only a weak effect in OECD countries. Domestic environmental policies may provide too weak a signal for foreign innovators in countries off the technological frontier. This calls for a strengthening of policy incentives for technology transfer in light of pressing climate change objectives.     

Technological Innovations and the Interest Rate

We build a dynamic general equilibrium model that adds a banking sector to the standard RBC model. We look at the response of the real interest rate to innovations in the banks' technology and in the nonbank firms' technology. While technological innovations in the nonbanking sector put upward pressure on the interest rate, technological innovations in banks exert downward pressure on the interest rate. This implies that, if the technological innovations in banks are strong enough, stochastic simulation experiments generate negative correlations between the real interest rate and current and future values of real output. This is especially significant because negative correlations between the interest rate and output are a key post-war U.S. business cycle fact difficult to replicate in benchmark dynamic models.     

Experiencing change and the evolution of adaptive skills: Implications for economic growth

We distinguish learning in a static environment from that in a dynamic environment to show the existence of an important interaction between the development of new technologies and human capital accumulation. Because technological progress creates a more dynamic environment, it complements education in the production of human capital by enhancing adaptive skills. Higher levels of adaptability and human capital in turn determine the profitability of new inventions and the incentive to invest in new R&D. Differences in the history of technological progress produce different levels of adaptability and our results suggest why countries that have comparable levels of education and per capita incomes may differ significantly in their growth performance.     

东北地区高技术产业技术体制研究

本文首先建立技术体制的框架模型,对影响和决定产业技术体制的四个主要因素：市场容量、创新独占性、技术内化性、社会动力进行分析。这些因素影响和决定着产业技术体制的结构和特点,而技术体制的结构和特点将影响到产业的产品结构、技术结构、生产结构、创新结构和竞争结构,进而影响到产业创新能力的提升和核心竞争力的构筑;其次,根据概念模型中对市场容量、创新独占性、技术内化性、社会动力的界定构建技术体制评价指标体系;再次,以电子及通信设备制造业为例,对东北地区高技术产业技术体制的发展规律进行探索,并对存在的问题进行深入分析,力求为东北地区高技术产业技术体制的建设提供理论参考。     

VENTURE CAPITAL AND INNOVATION: WHICH IS FIRST?

Policy‐makers typically interpret positive relations between venture capital (VC) investments and innovations as evidence that VC investments stimulate innovation (VC‐first hypothesis). This interpretation is, however, one‐sided because there may be a reverse causality that innovations induce VC investments (innovation‐first hypothesis): an arrival of new technology increases demand for VC. We analyze this causality issue of VC and innovation in the US manufacturing industry using both total factor productivity growth and patent counts as measures of innovation. We find that, consistent with the innovation‐first hypothesis, total factor productivity growth is often positively and significantly related with future VC investment. We find little evidence that supports the VC‐first hypothesis.     

Technology import,secondary innovation,and industrial structure optimization: A potential innovation strategy for China

To enhance people’s lives, China needs to maximize the opportunities of technological changes and conduct innovations to optimize its industrial structure in the context of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. The present paper analyses how industrial structure can be optimized by considering technology imports and innovations, and proposes an innovation strategy for China. We decompose imported technology into embodied technology imports (ETI) and disembodied technology imports (DTI). We found that ETI and DTI have negative effects on industrial structure rationalization and supererogation. Moreover, secondary innovations based on ETI depress industrial rationalization and supererogation, while secondary innovations based on DTI contribute positively. Therefore, DTI should be valued and the absorption of introduced technology improved. It is important to choose the appropriate mode of technology imports, to coordinate on the ratio of technology imports to secondary innovations, and to enhance the absorption of imported technology with the gradual improvement of IPR protection.     

Innovation and Economic Growth in East Asia: An Overview

East Asia has been one of the most dynamic regions of economic growth and development. The past two decades have seen tremendous economic and technological catching up in the region. Using South Korea as a case to illustrate the process of technology catching up, we find that the process of graduating from imitation to innovation is a nonlinear one, and requires conscious efforts to invest in research and development and other technological capability‐enhancing activities. Successful technology upgrading also calls for policies and institutions that are relevant to technological innovation to evolve and adapt as an economy goes through the different stages of economic and technological development.