IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v20y2009i3p414-424.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Double-edged effects of the technology gap and technology spillovers: Evidence from the Chinese industrial sector

Author

Listed:
  • Lai, Mingyong
  • Wang, Hua
  • Zhu, Shujin

Abstract

This paper proposes a new insight that the technology gap plays double-edged roles in the technology spillovers of foreign direct investment (FDI) through two channels, technology choice set and technology absorptive capability. Applying a multiple-threshold model, we examine the non-linear relationship between the technology gap and technology spillovers based on the provincial panel data of the Chinese industrial sector during 1993-2006. The empirical results support the hypothesis of two thresholds, which are 0.3071 and 0.5214 in terms of the technology gap respectively. The estimated thresholds indicate the sufficient absorptive capability is the premise for FDI technology spillovers. Moreover, it implies the marginal decrease of FDI technology spillover effects in the long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Lai, Mingyong & Wang, Hua & Zhu, Shujin, 2009. "Double-edged effects of the technology gap and technology spillovers: Evidence from the Chinese industrial sector," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 414-424, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:20:y:2009:i:3:p:414-424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043-951X(09)00082-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fleisher, Belton M. & Chen, Jian, 1997. "The Coast-Noncoast Income Gap, Productivity, and Regional Economic Policy in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 220-236, October.
    2. Magnus Blomström & Ari Kokko & Mario Zejan, 2000. "Local Technological Capability and Productivity Spillovers from FDI in the Uruguayan Manufacturing Sector," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Foreign Direct Investment, chapter 11, pages 177-186, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Hansen, Bruce E., 1999. "Threshold effects in non-dynamic panels: Estimation, testing, and inference," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 345-368, December.
    4. Brian J. Aitken & Ann E. Harrison, 2022. "Do Domestic Firms Benefit from Direct Foreign Investment? Evidence from Venezuela," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization, Firms, and Workers, chapter 6, pages 139-152, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Xiaming Liu & Pamela Siler & Chengqi Wang & Yingqi Wei, 2000. "Productivity Spillovers From Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence From UK Industry Level Panel Data," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(3), pages 407-425, September.
    6. Griffith, Rachel & Redding, Stephen & Simpson, Helen, 2002. "Productivity Convergence and Foreign Ownership at the Establishment Level," CEPR Discussion Papers 3765, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Wang, Jian-Ye & Blomstrom, Magnus, 1992. "Foreign investment and technology transfer : A simple model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 137-155, January.
    8. Alfaro, Laura & Chanda, Areendam & Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem & Sayek, Selin, 2004. "FDI and economic growth: the role of local financial markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 89-112, October.
    9. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong-Wha, 1993. "International comparisons of educational attainment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 363-394, December.
    10. Magnus Blomström & Ari Kokko & Mario Zejan, 2000. "Technology, Market Characteristics and Spillovers," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Foreign Direct Investment, chapter 10, pages 160-176, Palgrave Macmillan.
    11. Fredrik Sjoholm, 1999. "Technology gap, competition and spillovers from direct foreign investment: Evidence from establishment data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 53-73.
    12. Sourafel Girma & David Greenaway & Katharine Wakelin, 2013. "Who Benefits from Foreign Direct Investment in the UK?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(5), pages 560-574, November.
    13. Stephen L. Parente & Edward C. Prescott, 1991. "Technology adoption and growth," Staff Report 136, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    14. Blomstrom, Magnus & Wolff, E.N., 1989. "Multinational Corporations And Productivity Convergence In Mexico," Working Papers 89-28, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
    15. Bruce E. Hansen, 2000. "Sample Splitting and Threshold Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(3), pages 575-604, May.
    16. Benhabib, Jess & Spiegel, Mark M., 1994. "The role of human capital in economic development evidence from aggregate cross-country data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 143-173, October.
    17. Kugler, Maurice, 2000. "The diffusion of externalities from foreign direct investment: theory ahead of measurement," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0023, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    18. Tommaso Perez, 1997. "Multinational enterprises and technological spillovers: An evolutionary model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 169-192.
    19. Wolfgang Keller, 2004. "International Technology Diffusion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 752-782, September.
    20. Jonathan E. Haskel & Sonia C. Pereira & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2007. "Does Inward Foreign Direct Investment Boost the Productivity of Domestic Firms?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(3), pages 482-496, August.
    21. Sourafel Girma & David Greenaway & Katharine Wakelin, 2013. "Who Benefits from Foreign Direct Investment in the UK?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(5), pages 560-574, November.
    22. Sourafel Girma, 2005. "Absorptive Capacity and Productivity Spillovers from FDI: A Threshold Regression Analysis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 67(3), pages 281-306, June.
    23. Holger Görg & Eric Strobl, 2016. "Multinational Companies And Productivity Spillovers: A Meta-Analysis," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 8, pages 145-161, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    24. Jasminka Sohinger, 2005. "Growth and Convergence in European Transition Economies : The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 73-94, March.
    25. Lai, Mingyong & Peng, Shuijun & BAO, Qun, 2006. "Technology spillovers, absorptive capacity and economic growth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 300-320.
    26. Liu, Zhiqiang, 2008. "Foreign direct investment and technology spillovers: Theory and evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1-2), pages 176-193, February.
    27. Jushan Bai, 1997. "Estimation Of A Change Point In Multiple Regression Models," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 551-563, November.
    28. Glass, Amy Jocelyn & Saggi, Kamal, 1998. "International technology transfer and the technology gap," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 369-398, April.
    29. Aitken, Brian & Harrison, Ann & DEC, 1994. "Do domestic firms benefit from foreign direct investment? Evidence from panel data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1248, The World Bank.
    30. Jingjing Yang & Helian Xu & Chengang Wang & Mingyong Lai & Yingqi Wei, 2009. "Productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment in Chinese industries," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 429-446.
    31. Ronald Findlay, 1978. "Relative Backwardness, Direct Foreign Investment, and the Transfer of Technology: A Simple Dynamic Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 92(1), pages 1-16.
    32. Klara Sabirianova & Jan Svejnar & Katherine Terrell, 2005. "Distance to the Efficiency Frontier and Foreign Direct Investment Spillovers," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 576-586, 04/05.
    33. Demurger, Sylvie, 2001. "Infrastructure Development and Economic Growth: An Explanation for Regional Disparities in China?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 95-117, March.
    34. Cohen, Wesley M & Levinthal, Daniel A, 1989. "Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 569-596, September.
    35. Cheung Kui-yin & Lin, Ping, 2004. "Spillover effects of FDI on innovation in China: Evidence from the provincial data," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 25-44.
    36. Kinoshita, Yuko, 2001. "R&D and Technology Spillovers through FDI: Innovation and Absorptive Capacity," CEPR Discussion Papers 2775, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    37. Y Wei & X Liu, 2006. "Productivity spillovers from R&D, exports and FDI in China's manufacturing sector," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(4), pages 544-557, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mengzhen Wang & Baekryul Choi, 2023. "An Analysis of the Impact of International R&D Spillovers and Technology Innovation in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-25, January.
    2. Bin Ni & Hayato Kato, 2017. "Productivity Gaps and Vertical Technology Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Vietnam," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2017-022, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    3. Bin Ni, 2016. "Productivity Gap and Vertical Spillover: Evidence from Vietnam," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 16-04, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    4. Nimisha Pandey & Heleen de Coninck & Ambuj D Sagar, 2022. "Beyond technology transfer: Innovation cooperation to advance sustainable development in developing countries," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), March.
    5. Zhou Wei & Adel Ben Youssef, 2012. "The productivity impact of international technology transfer in China: Empirical investigation on Chinese regions," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 1590-1603.
    6. Hu, Feng & Xi, Xun & Zhang, Yueyue, 2021. "Influencing mechanism of reverse knowledge spillover on investment enterprises’ technological progress: An empirical examination of Chinese firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    7. Bin Ni & Hayato Kato, 2020. "Do vertical spillovers differ by investors’ productivity? Theory and evidence from Vietnam," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 1046-1072, August.
    8. Zhang, Cheng & Guo, Bingnan & Wang, Jianke, 2014. "The different impacts of home countries characteristics in FDI on Chinese spillover effects: Based on one-stage SFA," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 572-580.
    9. Ying Wang & Xiangyu Mao & Hashim Zameer, 2022. "Designing benefit distribution driven innovation strategy for local enterprises under the global value chain system," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2358-2373, September.
    10. Zhang, Gupeng & Lv, Xiaofeng & Zhou, Jianghua, 2014. "Private value of patent right and patent infringement: An empirical study based on patent renewal data of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 37-54.
    11. Yong He & Hongyan Zuo & Nuo Liao, 2023. "Assessing the impact of reverse technology spillover of outward foreign direct investment on energy efficiency," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 4385-4410, May.
    12. Li, Cunfang & Li, Danping & Dong, Mei, 2019. "The spillage effect of the transfer behavior of coal resource-exhausted enterprises and science and technology projects," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 385-396.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Holger Görg & David Greenaway, 2016. "Much Ado about Nothing? Do Domestic Firms Really Benefit from Foreign Direct Investment?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 9, pages 163-189, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Neil Foster-McGregor, 2012. "Innovation and Technology Transfer across Countries," wiiw Research Reports 380, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    3. Klaus E Meyer & Evis Sinani, 2009. "When and where does foreign direct investment generate positive spillovers? A meta-analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(7), pages 1075-1094, September.
    4. Greenaway, David & Görg, Holger, 2002. "Much Ado About Nothing? Do Domestic Firms Really Benefit from Foreign Investment?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3485, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Lu, Qian & Zhao, Yunhui, 2010. "Spillover Effects of FDI in China: From the Perspective of Technology Gaps," MPRA Paper 81084, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Ben Hamida, Lamia & Gugler, Philippe, 2009. "Are there demonstration-related spillovers from FDI?: Evidence from Switzerland," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 494-508, October.
    7. Sourafel Girma, & Holger Görg, 2003. "Foreign direct investmant, spillovers and absorptive capacity: Evidence from quantile regressions," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp01, IIIS.
    8. Crespo, Nuno & Fontoura, Maria Paula, 2007. "Determinant Factors of FDI Spillovers - What Do We Really Know?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 410-425, March.
    9. Sourafel Girma, 2005. "Absorptive Capacity and Productivity Spillovers from FDI: A Threshold Regression Analysis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 67(3), pages 281-306, June.
    10. Hamida, Lamia Ben, 2013. "Are there regional spillovers from FDI in the Swiss manufacturing industry?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 754-769.
    11. Tomáš Havránek & Zuzana Iršová, 2010. "Meta-Analysis of Intra-Industry FDI Spillovers: Updated Evidence," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 60(2), pages 151-174, May.
    12. Damijan, Jože P. & Rojec, Matija & Majcen, Boris & Knell, Mark, 2013. "Impact of firm heterogeneity on direct and spillover effects of FDI: Micro-evidence from ten transition countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 895-922.
    13. Della Temenggung, 2007. "Productivity Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment: Indonesian Manufacturing Industry’s Experience 1975-2000," DEGIT Conference Papers c012_048, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    14. Harrison, Ann & Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés, 2010. "Trade, Foreign Investment, and Industrial Policy for Developing Countries," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4039-4214, Elsevier.
    15. Argentino Pessoa, 2007. "FDI and Host Country Productivity: A Review," FEP Working Papers 251, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    16. Sourafel Girma & Holger Görg, 2007. "The Role of the Efficiency Gap for Spillovers from FDI: Evidence from the UK Electronics and Engineering Sectors," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 215-232, April.
    17. Rosanna Pittiglio & Filippo Reganati & Edgardo Sica, 2015. "Do Multinational Enterprises Push up the Wages of Domestic Firms in the Italian Manufacturing Sector?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 83(3), pages 346-378, June.
    18. Jitao Tang & Rosanne Altshuler, 2015. "The Spillover Effects Of Outward Foreign Direct Investment On Home Countries: Evidence From The United States," Departmental Working Papers 201501, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    19. Le Thanh THUY, 2007. "Does Foreign Direct Investment Have an Impact on the Growth in Labor Productivity of Vietnamese Domestic Firms?," Discussion papers 07021, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    20. Hübler, Michael, 2009. "Avoiding the trap: the dynamic interaction of North-South capital mobility and technology diffusion," Kiel Working Papers 1477, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:20:y:2009:i:3:p:414-424. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.