A Model of Technology Gap,Product Cycle,and the Process of Catching up Between the North and the South*

The paper presents a multi-product two-country overlapping generations model of trade and innovation. We show that for a low level of innovation (unitation) in the South, firms in the North innovate at a level which guarantees a long-term technological gap between the North and the South. However, a high innovation level in the South leads to a situation where the South can catch up the North in a finite time. This model differs from the existing literature in two major aspects. a) Except for the head start of the North we assume that the North and the South are identical with respect to factor endowment and their ability to develop new goods. b) It is general enough to explain both the product cycle phenomena and the catching-up process.