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Assessing the relative importance of multiple channels for embodied and disembodied technological spillovers

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  • Krammer, Sorin M.S.

Abstract

With ever increasing global integration, productivity improvements depend not only on in-house innovative efforts, but on those of international partners as well. This paper explores the impact of foreign R&D on productivity and technical efficiency of countries by considering three channels of embodied and disembodied spillovers, namely trade, foreign direct investment and patenting, and controlling for the direct licensing of foreign technologies. Furthermore, it contrasts these effects across 47 developed and transition countries between 1990 and 2009. Overall, I find that trade remains the dominant factor behind productivity and technical progress, while the effects of FDI- and patent-related spillovers are significantly smaller. The effect of foreign patenting is larger in developed nations while imports, inward FDI and foreign technology licensing are important sources of know-how for transition economies. The aggregate gains from spillovers appear larger for latter, confirming their significance in the process of development and catching-up.

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  • Krammer, Sorin M.S., 2014. "Assessing the relative importance of multiple channels for embodied and disembodied technological spillovers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 272-286.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:81:y:2014:i:c:p:272-286
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2013.02.006
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    R&D spillovers; Trade; FDI; Patents; Licensing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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