Growth policies in developing countries

Long-term growth in most developing countries is driven by the adaptation of technology from developed countries. The question, however, of how to promote technology adaptation is a difficult one. The following article introduces a transaction cost perspective and applies it to the concrete and—against the background of the 4th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in November 2001—topical question: how do WTO rules impact on development in terms of technology adaptation? This issue is of utmost importance to the EU, which put forward the argument that the new Trade Round had to become a “Development Round”.