IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedfwp/2010-16.html

Technology diffusion and postwar growth

Author

Listed:
  • Diego Comin
  • Bart Hobijn

Abstract

In the aftermath of WorldWar II, the world's economies exhibited very different rates of economic recovery. We provide evidence that those countries that caught up the most with the U.S. in the postwar period are those that also saw an acceleration in the speed of adoption of new technologies. This acceleration is correlated with the incidence of U.S. economic aid and technical assistance in the same period. We interpret this as supportive of the interpretation that technology transfers from the U.S. to Western European countries and Japan were an important factor in driving growth in these recipient countries during the postwar decades.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego Comin & Bart Hobijn, 2010. "Technology diffusion and postwar growth," Working Paper Series 2010-16, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2010-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/2010/wp10-16bk.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Zara Contractor & Germ'an Reyes, 2025. "Generative AI in Higher Education: Evidence from an Elite College," Papers 2508.00717, arXiv.org.
    2. Bianchi, Francesco & Kung, Howard & Morales, Gonzalo, 2019. "Growth, slowdowns, and recoveries," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 47-63.
    3. Antonio Cubel & Vicente Esteve & Maria Teresa Sanchis & Juan A. Sanchis-Llopis, 2014. "The effect of foreign and domestic patents on total factor productivity during the second half of the 20th century," Working Papers 06/14, Instituto Universitario de Análisis Económico y Social.
    4. Shahid Yusuf, 2015. "East Asian Development: Foundations and Strategies by Dwight H. Perkins , Cambridge, MA , Harvard University Press , 2013 , 213 pp," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 53(1), pages 63-66, March.
    5. Dutz, Mark A. & Kessides, Ioannis & O'Connell, Stephen & Willig, Robert D., 2011. "Competition and innovation-driven inclusive growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5852, The World Bank.
    6. Antonin Bergeaud & Gilbert Cette & Rémy Lecat, 2018. "The role of production factor quality and technology diffusion in twentieth-century productivity growth," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 12(1), pages 61-97, January.
    7. Guido Buenstorf & Michael Fritsch & Luis Medrano, 2010. "Regional Knowledge and the Emergence of an Industry: Laser Systems Production in West Germany, 1975Ð2005," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1016, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2010.
    8. Federico Barbiellini Amidei & John Cantwell & Anna Spadavecchia, 2011. "Innovation and Foreign Technology in Italy, 1861-2011," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 07, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Dawid, H. & Harting, P. & Neugart, M., 2014. "Economic convergence: Policy implications from a heterogeneous agent model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 54-80.
    10. Boeing, Philipp & Hünermund, Paul, 2020. "A global decline in research productivity? Evidence from China and Germany," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    11. Skare, Marinko & Soriano, Domingo Riberio, 2021. "Technological and knowledge diffusion link: An international perspective 1870–2019," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. R. Rijesh, 2015. "Technology Import and Manufacturing Productivity in India: Firm Level Analysis," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 411-434, December.
    13. Ikeda, Daisuke & Morita, Yasuko, 2020. "The effects of barriers to technology adoption on japanese prewar and postwar economic growth," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    14. Zeira, Joseph & Zoabi, Hosny, 2015. "Economic growth and sector dynamics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-15.
    15. Correa-López, Mónica & Mingorance-Arnáiz, Ana Cristina, 2012. "Demografía, mercado de trabajo y tecnología: El patrón de crecimiento de Cataluña, 1970-2020/Demography, Labour Market and Technical Progress: The Pattern of Growth in Cataluña, 1970-2020," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 365(34)-365, Abril.
    16. repec:bdi:workqs:qse_7 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Frank L. Bartels & Bianca Cravenna, 2015. "Low Carbon Development: The Challenges of Green Energy Innovation," Globelics Working Paper Series 2015-03, Globelics - Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems, Aalborg University, Department of Business and Management.
    18. Zara Contractor & Germán Reyes, 2025. "Generative AI in Higher Education: Evidence from an Elite College," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0359, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    19. Broadberry, Stephen & Giordano, Claire & Zollino, Francesco, 2011. "A Sectoral Analysis of Italy's Development: 1861 -2010," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 62, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    20. Dutz, Mark A. & O'Connell, Stephen D., 2013. "Productivity, innovation and growth in Sri Lanka : an empirical investigation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6354, The World Bank.
    21. Rod Tyers & Jenny Corbett, 2012. "Japan's economic slowdown and its global implications: a review of the economic modelling," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 26(2), pages 1-28, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:fip:fedfwp:2010-16. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Research Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbsfus.html .

    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.