International Technology Diffusion: Effects of Trade and FDI

There has been little analysis of the effect of inward FDI on international R&D diffusion, especially in LDCs, although FDI has become the core of international production and LDCs have been receiving an increasing share of world FDI over the past few decades. Using data from 57 countries from 1988 to 2001, we find that both FDI and trade serve as important channels of international technology diffusion. However, there exist heterogeneous effects of FDI in DCs and LDCs. For inward FDI to promote technology diffusion in LDCs, a certain threshold of human capital has to be reached.     

Global Outsourcing and Wage Inequality in Middle-Income Countries: Evidence from South Korea

A substantial number of studies have suggested that global outsourcing can induce wage inequality. As Feenstra and Hanson [(1996a) Foreign investment, outsourcing, and relative wage, in: R. C. Feestra, G. M. Hanson, and D. A. Irwin (Eds.) Political Economy of Trade Policy: Essays in Honor of Jagdish Bhagwati (Cambridge: The MIT Press), pp. 89–127] argued, global outsourcing is comparable to skill-biased technological change in that global outsourcing is more likely to increase the wage of skilled workers rather than their unskilled counterparts. We examine the effects of outsourcing on wage of skilled and unskilled workers in Korea's manufacturing sector with a focus on the dissimilar effects of outsourcing to developed countries (DCs) and less developed countries (LDCs) on relative wage. The results of system and difference GMM estimation based on manufacturing data from 1992 to 2006 indicate that outsourcing to DCs and LDCs have opposite (and significant) effects on relative wage, that is, outsourcing to DCs (LDCs) decreases the wage of skilled (unskilled) workers.     

香港回归后港商投资内地的区位布局与决策因素分析

香港回归10年来,港商对内地投资总体上呈现显著的空间分异格局,同时也出现了北上西进的空间扩散趋势。本文采用主成分因子分析和多元回归分析方法,解释了港资空间分异与空间转移模式的成因,并预测了港商未来在祖国内地的投资走向。     

Foreign Investment and Industrialization in Malaysia: Exports,Employment and Spillovers*

Over the past two decades, there has been a decisive shift in trade and industry policy in developing countries (DCs) away from import substitution and towards export-orientation. As part of this policy shift, an increasing number of DCs have become more receptive to foreign direct investment (FDI). Despite its policy relevance, the literature on the role of FDI in export expansion, employment generation and spillovers in DCs is sparse. This paper attempts to fill this gap through a case study of the role of export-oriented FDI in Malaysia's rapid industrialization. The overall conclusion of the paper is that export-oriented FDI has brought significant returns to Malaysia principally because the general economic climate has been favourable for the internationalization of production for a considerable period of time.     

Openness and economic growth in developing countries

Openness and Economic Growth in Developing Countries. — Openness appears to have a strong impact on economic growth especially in DCs which typically exhibit a high share of physical capital in factor income and a low share of labor. In the neoclassical growth model with partial capital mobility, physical capital’s share in factor income determines the difference in the predicted convergence rates for open and closed economies. With a 60 percent share as in many DCs, the convergence rates should differ by a factor of 2.5. The regression results for a sample of open and closed DCs roughly confirm this hypothesis.     

Do country characteristics matter for economic growth among the developed countries?

Do long-run growth rates among the developed countries (DCs) depend on country characteristics, or is there on overall long-run growth pattern that dominates the effects of country differences? This paper empirically tests this question. The test involves regressing the pooled sample of their growth rates on dummy variables for the various countries. The test uses Maddison [1991] that provides data for annual estimates for real per capita product for 16 DCs from 1870–1989. Regressors were added for relative per capita product, the time trends of growth, and unusual time periods. The results suggest that country characteristics explain very little of the differences in growth rates. General factors, the tendency of lower per capita developed countries to grow faster, and the time patterns of growth among the DCs explain much more of the differences in growth rates.     

区域经济创新扩散强度与效应研究——以京津冀和长三角地区为例

科技中心城市对周边腹地的技术创新扩散强度和效应对区域技术进步具有举足轻重的作用。运用基于VAR模型的脉冲响应函数测度北京与上海的扩散强度与效应之后,其结果表明：北京扩散的强度以及效应都较弱于上海。因此,北京应弱化政府在科技资源配置中的作用,努力培育企业作为创新主体,提高自身对京津冀区域内其他地区的扩散的强度。     

The brain drain and income taxation: Canadian estimates

It has recently been proposed that a surfax be levied on the incomes of skilled immigrants from LDCs to DCs, with the proceeds used for developmental spending in LDCs. This paper presents estimates of the amounts which would have been collected by such a surfax in Canada in 1972 if it had been levied at a 10 per cent rate on disposable (after regular income taxes) income, assuming skilled immigrants were subject to the surtax for a period of ten years following immigration. Estimates of the elasticity of the response of immigrant flows to such a surtax are also presented.     

Strategic Intrafirm Innovation Adoption and Diffusion

A theory of oligopolistic innovation adoption is developed in which intrafirm diffusions occur because the marginal cost of adoption is increasing in the rate of adoption. The equilibrium intrafirm diffusion curve is S-shaped or concave, as are empirically observed ones. This diffusion curve is more likely to be S-shaped the more competitive the industry, the larger the marginal cost of adoption or the pre-innovation unit cost of production, or the smaller the demand. The diffusion is longer, and so the extent of adoption at any date is lower the more competitive the industry, the larger the marginal cost of adoption or the pre-innovation unit cost of production, or the smaller the demand. A surprising result is that an increase in the unit cost reduction from the innovation has an ambiguous effect on diffusion. Obviously, a larger cost reduction allows each firm to earn a larger flow profit at every date from the same rate of adoption. However, a more subtle effect is that it also allows the firm to earn the same flow of profit with a slower rate of adoption, and so lower adoption costs. That is, the firms also have an incentive to spread out the diffusion over a longer period of time to save on adoption costs.     

Market disruption, export market disruption, compensation and GATT reform

This paper analyzes the problem of market disruption as it currently afflicts the exporting countries, chiefly LDCs. Based on the analysis of optimal policy intervention under endogenous uncertainty, developed by Bhagwati and Srinivasan (Journal of International Economics, November 1976), it develops a complete set of rules by which the developed and less developed countries may abide, under a revised GATT code, when faced by the problem of increased competitiveness of LDC exports to DC markets. These rules include the compensation of LDCs by DCs, in varying degrees, for both potential and actual exercise of import restrictions by DCs.     

The brain drain tax proposal: A lawyer's view

This paper examines, in the context of the UK, the idea that DCs should not only collect but also impose a special tax on PTKs who have left LDCs and settled in DCs. Such a proposal is not unconstitutional: nor does it clearly offend international human rights obligations. Furthermore, the UK tax system already discriminates in a number of ways. However, since the tax would largely affect blacks this could make it politically objectionable (as being racially discriminatory) unless the rationales justifying the tax are clearly defined.The major difficulties for the UK are administrative. While not insuperable, they are very severe, and could affect the practical feasibility of the tax. A search for alternatives should be considered.     

国际文献引用、技术知识扩散与中国的技术创新

本文借助CSCD数据库相关统计数据实证分析跨国文献引用技术知识扩散对中国技术创新的影响。回归结果显示:国际文献引用发生的技术知识扩散对中国技术创新的影响显著为正,其总效应与国际贸易和国际人力资本流动相当,显著高于FDI,但低于国际专利申请;比较其不同作用机制得出,国际文献引用技术知识扩散对中国技术创新的直接促进效应和人力资本增值效应显著高于R&D效率提升效应;较之企业,公共研发机构利用国际文献引用技术知识扩散的创新效果更为显著。     

Current-Account Reversals in Developing Countries: The Role of Fundamentals

This paper studies episodes of current-account reversal in developing countries (DCs) in the period 1965–1994. First, a number of persistent shifts (reversals) in the current-account balance dynamics are identified by structural break and segmented trend tests; then, the relationship between these reversals and a set of fundamentals suggested by the intertemporal approach to the current account is investigated in a panel-data set-up. We find that fundamentals play a different role in episodes of persistent deterioration or improvement of the current-account balance in DCs.     

The technological system of Chinese manufacturing industry: A sectorial approach

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the technological system of Chinese manufacturing. The input–output method and network analysis are applied to investigate the structure and performance at the system level and the role of each sector at the individual level in 1997 and 2002. Firstly, the R&D-flow matrices for per unit output are constructed to examine the technology intensity and constitution of each sector. And then they are combined with the economic size and R&D investment structure in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of the system at the gross level, and reveal the main technology diffusion providers, acquirers and techno-economic flows between sectors. Results of both years show that the R&D performance and technology providing for diffusion are more concentrated than technology acquiring, and this difference becomes even greater in 2002. There are fewer sectors which act as main technology diffusion sources while more sectors participate as acquirers of technology diffusion. The techno-economic flows have high dependence on a few traditional sectors and the contribution of high-tech sectors such as ICT is quite limited.     

创业投资政府引导基金政策扩散研究——基于全国31省数据的事件史分析

创业投资政府引导基金是解决初创企业融资难等市场失灵问题的典型政策工具，本文以2005-2015年全国31个省份数据为例，利用事件史方法分析我国省级创业投资政府引导基金政策的扩散机制。研究发现：创业投资引导基金政策的总体扩散过程主要受到纵向府际关系和政府创新易感性的影响；省级创业投资引导基金政策在时间维度上符合阶梯型累积分布曲线规律，其背后逻辑是不同时期政策创新扩散的动力源和阻力源不同，前期扩散的动力源主要是纵向府际关系和政府创新易感性，经济发展水平对政策扩散存在阻滞作用，而后期扩散的动力源主要是纵向府际关系，企业研发经费支出和省长的相关工作经历对政策扩散存在阻滞作用。本文不仅从公共政策视角加深了对中国创业投资引导基金政策的认识，也丰富和拓宽了已有公共政策扩散的相关成果。     

A diffusion model of long-run state economic development

Most empirical studies of state economic development have been relatively short-term in nature. Here, we examine the causes of growth over a more substantial period of time covering almost six decades. Particular emphasis is placed on the so-called convergence hypothesis. A two-stage methodology originally employed to model the diffusion of new technologies is applied. Results tend to confirm the general convergence of state per capita incomes over time. That is, a large share of the observed variation in state economic growth is explained by initial period incomes, with lower income states growing relatively more rapidly. In addition, we find that low taxes and comparatively strong support for higher education foster more rapid growth.     

Machine-reeling technology diffusion in early Meiji Japan's silk industry

Using 1880 s panel data from Yamanashi and Gifu prefectures in Japan, we estimated the diffusion factors and total factor productivity (TFP) in machine-reeling technology in Japan's silk-reeling sector. While the cost of distance through the traditional highway from the Shimosuwa-shuk post town in the Nagano Prefecture has a negative correlation with technology diffusion, the correlation of silk production per population is positive. Machine-reeling technology is raw-material-intensive and does not show increasing returns to scale. While the TFP in Yamanashi is higher than in Gifu, machine-reeling output expansion is larger in the latter.     

Toward a service-oriented growth strategy

This article suggests that the linkage between industrial modernization and significant service sector employment gains has not been adequately considered and that such consideration might lead to a re-evaluation of the labour absorption argument which calls for more ‘appropriate’ technologies with higher labour intensity. This paper reviews the literature on labour absorption and appropriate technology. It then examines the experience of the service sector in both DCs and LDCs. The key relationships between the service sector and the economy are then developed, leading up to possible implications for LDC growth strategies.     

中国区域经济发展差距的趋势及其特征——基于GDP修正后的数据

本文主要利用第一次全国经济普查所提供的各区域GDP资料,研究了1952—2008年间,中国区域经济发展的差距、趋势及收敛状况。根据实证结果,本文发现:利用修正后GDP计算的变异系数要低于修正之前的;改革开放以后的区域差距要低于改革开放之前;1952年以来中国区域经济发展差距呈现Amos假说的周期性变化过程;较低经济发展水平和较高经济发展水平的区域分别在区域差距缩小和扩大的过程中起到了主要的作用;改革开放以来的区域差距符合收敛假说。     

Labor mobility and technology diffusion: A new concept and its application to rural Southeast Asia

We develop a new concept of rural technology diffusion influenced by labor mobility and business relations. The technology gain effect of labor mobility increases technology diffusion, whereas the technology drain effect decreases it. The concept is applied to survey data from the Mekong region, a new geographic area in this context. In the econometric analysis, which takes spatial correlation and geographic variables into account, technology is measured in the form of the number of mobile phones per village. The results support the technology gain and drain effects and show that labor mobility and business relations can help overcome geographic obstacles to rural development.