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Technological content of exports

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  • Diego Aboal
  • Valeria Arza
  • Flavia Rovira

Abstract

A large body of literature argues that the characteristics of exports matter for economic growth and development because some goods trigger positive externalities or are subject to increasing returns. Thus, for policy purposes, it is important to know whether a country’s export basket enjoys these productive opportunities. They have been associated with technological content of exports. However, measuring them is not easy. Previous methodologies to account for exports’ technological content used either R&D data or trade data. The former is used to account for knowledge-intensive activities during the production phase and the latter to identify levels of ‘sophistication’ of exports based on exporting countries’ characteristics. Building on these contributions, this paper combines industry-based and product-based indicators to circumvent some of the shortcomings of the received literature, including the product-industry controversy (i.e. are the actual activities during the production process or the product characteristics what better accounts exports’ technological content?). We use data from Uruguay on direct and indirect R&D spending from public and private sources and also trade data to build the sophistication index corrected by quality. We contrast our findings with existing methodologies to highlight our contribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego Aboal & Valeria Arza & Flavia Rovira, 2017. "Technological content of exports," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(7), pages 661-682, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:26:y:2017:i:7:p:661-682
    DOI: 10.1080/10438599.2016.1266075
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dominique Guellec & Bruno Van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, 2004. "From R&D to Productivity Growth: Do the Institutional Settings and the Source of Funds of R&D Matter?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 66(3), pages 353-378, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cristiano Antonelli & Christophe Feder, 2021. "Knowledge appropriability and directed technological change: the Schumpeterian creative response in global markets," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 686-700, June.
    2. Irene Brambilla & Guido Porto, 2018. "Diagnóstico y Visión de la Inserción Comercial Argentina en el Mundo," Department of Economics, Working Papers 115, Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    3. Darío Vázquez, 2020. "Variety patterns in defense and health technological systems: evidence from international trade data," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 949-988, September.
    4. Aboal, Diego & Rovira, Flavia & Veneri, Federico, 2018. "Knowledge networks for innovation in the forestry sector: Multinational companies in Uruguay," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 9-20.
    5. Jiancai Pi & Daqiang Song, 2020. "The Threshold Effect of Factor Price Distortion on Technological Content of Exports: Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 28(6), pages 51-77, November.
    6. Blessing Chipanda & Matthew Clance & Steven F. Koch, 2020. "Technological Trade Composition and Performance in African Countries," Working Papers 202057, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.

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