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Product variety and technical change

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  • Frensch, Richard
  • Gaucaite Wittich, Vitalija

Abstract

Motivated by growth models based on the variety of capital goods, recent empirical studies have established links between productivity and several trade-based measures of product variety, carrying the implication that these measures may represent technology. We study this implication by explicitly proposing the variety of capital goods available for production as a direct measure of the state of technology. Within a simple growth and development framework, we derive a 'conditional technological convergence' hypothesis on how this variety should behave if it were indeed to represent the state of technology. The hypothesis is tested with highly disaggregated trade data, using tools from the income convergence literature. The results suggest that a trade-based count measure of the variety of available capital goods, allowing for product differentiation by country of origin, indeed behaves 'as if' it represented technology when change of technology is understood as a learning process, and that there is conditional technological convergence among our panel of mainly OECD and transition economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Frensch, Richard & Gaucaite Wittich, Vitalija, 2009. "Product variety and technical change," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 242-257, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:88:y:2009:i:2:p:242-257
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    8. Madsen, Jakob B. & Saxena, Shishir & Ang, James B., 2010. "The Indian growth miracle and endogenous growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 37-48, September.
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    11. Venturini, Francesco, 2012. "Looking into the black box of Schumpeterian growth theories: An empirical assessment of R&D races," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1530-1545.
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    14. Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kočenda, 2015. "Determinanty evropského zahraničního obchodu: instituce, kultura, infrastruktura a geografie [Determinants of the European Trade: Institutions, Culture, Infrastructure and Geography]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2015(5), pages 624-640.
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    20. Katharina Eck, 2010. "(Wie) Führt Außenhandel zu Wirtschaftswachstum?," Working Papers 284, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Product variety Diffusion Adoption Technical change;

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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