Appropriate technology in a Solovian nonlinear growth model

We propose a Solovian growth model with a convex–concaveproduction function and international technological spillovers.We test the empirical implications of the model, analysing theeffects of the productivity slowdown that followed the oil shocksof the 1970s. We argue that this slowdown, altering the worldincome distribution, affected the pattern of international technologicalspillovers, taking the poorest countries further away from thetechnological leaders, and therefore unable to exploit theirtechnologies. The result is the emergence of a poverty trapfor low-income countries.