IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp3417.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

International Business Visits and the Technology Frontier

Author

Listed:
  • Dowrick, Steve

    (Australian National University)

  • Tani, Massimiliano

    (University of New South Wales)

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of international business trips on the stock of knowledge available to an economy. It develops a theoretical model to analyse the possible effects, and presents an empirical application using productivity data for a panel of twelve Australian industries during 1991/2-2005/6. Business trips emerge as a significant source of productivity growth. As the knowledge transferred through business visits is non-rival, both countries of origin and destination can gain from the human capital of travellers. As a result, even countries traditionally disadvantaged by geography, size, or level of economic development have the opportunity to access the latest technology and information to stimulate growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Dowrick, Steve & Tani, Massimiliano, 2008. "International Business Visits and the Technology Frontier," IZA Discussion Papers 3417, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3417
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp3417.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    2. John C. Driscoll & Aart C. Kraay, 1998. "Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation With Spatially Dependent Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(4), pages 549-560, November.
    3. Sid Shanks & Simon Zheng, 2006. "Econometric Modelling of R&D and Australia's Productivity," Staff Working Papers 0604, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia.
    4. 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.
    5. Giovanni Dosi & Christopher Freeman & Richard Nelson & Gerarld Silverberg & Luc Soete (ed.), 1988. "Technical Change and Economic Theory," LEM Book Series, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy, number dosietal-1988, November.
    6. Thomas Barnebeck Andersen & Carl-Johan Dalgaard, 2006. "Cross-Border Flows of People, Technology Diffusion and Aggregate Productivity," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_006, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    7. Edward Anderson, 2007. "Travel and communication and international differences in GDP per capita," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 315-332.
    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. Nune Hovhannisyan & Wolfgang Keller, 2015. "International business travel: an engine of innovation?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 75-104, March.
    2. Mariacristina Piva & Massimiliano Tani & Marco Vivarelli, 2023. "The productivity impact of short-term labor mobility across industries," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 691-705, February.
    3. Tomohiro MACHIKITA & Yasushi UEKI, 2013. "Who Disseminates Technology to Whom, How, and Why: Evidence from Buyer-Seller Business Networks," Working Papers DP-2013-26, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    4. Jacques Poot, 2015. "Cross-border migration and travel: A virtuous relationship," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 209-209, November.
    5. Mariacristina Piva & Massimiliano Tani & Marco Vivarelli, 2018. "Business visits, knowledge diffusion and productivity," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1321-1338, October.
    6. Piva, Mariacristina & Tani, Massimiliano & Vivarelli, Marco, 2017. "Labour mobility through business visits as a way to foster productivity," MERIT Working Papers 2017-004, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Christiane Hellmanzik, 2013. "Does travel inspire? Evidence from the superstars of modern art," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 281-303, August.
    8. Piva, Mariacristina & Tani, Massimiliano & Vivarelli, Marco, 2017. "The Productivity Impact of Business Mobility: International Evidence," GLO Discussion Paper Series 14, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Norasingh, Xaysomphet & Machikita, Tomohiro & Ueki, Yasushi, 2015. "South-South technology transfer to Laos through face-to-face contacts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1420-1425.
    10. Arif, Imran, 2019. "How Tall Are the Paper Walls? Barriers to International Mobility and Technology Diusion," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 49(2), October.
    11. Mbaye, Linguère Mously & Tani, Massimiliano, 2019. "Migration, Innovation, and Growth: An African Story?," IZA Discussion Papers 12533, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Mbaye, Linguère Mously & Okara, Assi & Tani, Massimiliano, 2022. "Labor Mobility and Innovation in Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 15004, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Tani, Massimiliano & Joyeux, Roselyne, 2013. "Do Business Visits Cause Productivity Growth?," IZA Discussion Papers 7827, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Thomas Andersen & Carl-Johan Dalgaard, 2011. "Flows of people, flows of ideas, and the inequality of nations," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-32, March.
    15. Linguère Mously Mbaye & Assi Okara & Massimiliano Tani, 2022. "Working Paper 361 - Labour mobility and innovation in Africa," Working Paper Series 2487, African Development Bank.

    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. Tsekeris, Theodore, 2016. "Interregional trade network analysis for road freight transport in Greece," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 132-148.
    2. Thomas, Ashok & Spataro, Luca & Mathew, Nanditha, 2014. "Pension funds and stock market volatility: An empirical analysis of OECD countries," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 11(C), pages 92-103.
    3. Wen, Jun & Zhang, Sen & Chang, Chun-Ping & Anugrah, Donni Fajar & Affandi, Yoga, 2023. "Does climate vulnerability promote green investment under energy supply restriction?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    4. Shu Yang & Elyas Abdulahi & Muhammad Afaq Haider & Mohammed Asif Khan, 2019. "Revisiting the Curse: Resource Rent and Economic Growth of Sub-Sahara African Countries," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 9(1), pages 121-130.
    5. Joana Mendonça & Christoph Grimpe, 2016. "Skills and regional entrepreneurship capital formation: a comparison between Germany and Portugal," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(6), pages 1440-1456, December.
    6. Afonso, António & Jalles, João Tovar, 2019. "The Fiscal consequences of deflation: Evidence from the Golden Age of Globalization," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 129-147.
    7. Daniel Hoechle, 2007. "Robust standard errors for panel regressions with cross-sectional dependence," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 7(3), pages 281-312, September.
    8. Michael Peneder & Karl Aiginger & Gernot Hutschenreiter & Markus Marterbauer, 2001. "Structural Change and Economic Growth," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 20668, April.
    9. Bergmann, Stephan & Tiwari, Rajnish, 2017. "Innovationspfade in der deutschen Automobilzulieferindustrie: Eine Untersuchung aus der Frugalitätsperspektive," Working Papers 97, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    10. Tsani, Stella, 2013. "Natural resources, governance and institutional quality: The role of resource funds," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 181-195.
    11. Savin, Ivan & Egbetokun, Abiodun, 2016. "Emergence of innovation networks from R&D cooperation with endogenous absorptive capacity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 82-103.
    12. Guitart, Ivan A. & Gonzalez, Jorge & Stremersch, Stefan, 2018. "Advertising non-premium products as if they were premium: The impact of advertising up on advertising elasticity and brand equity," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 471-489.
    13. Rodríguez-García, Rafael & Budría, Santiago, 2019. "The impact of supply-side factors on corporate leverage," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 262-272.
    14. Ouoba, Youmanli, 2016. "Natural resources: Funds and economic performance of resource-rich countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 108-116.
    15. Rémi Generoso & Cécile Couharde & Olivier Damette & Kamiar Mohaddes, 2020. "The Growth Effects of El Niño and La Niña: Local Weather Conditions Matter," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 140, pages 83-126.
    16. Chen Qian & Ghulam Rasool Madni, 2022. "Encirclement of Natural Resources, Green Investment, and Economic Complexity for Mitigation of Ecological Footprints in BRI Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-15, November.
    17. Christian A. Vossler, 2013. "Analyzing repeated-game economics experiments: robust standard errors for panel data with serial correlation," Chapters, in: John A. List & Michael K. Price (ed.), Handbook on Experimental Economics and the Environment, chapter 3, pages 89-112, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Grafström, Jonas, 2017. "An Econometric Analysis of Divergence of Renewable Energy Invention Efforts in Europe," Ratio Working Papers 295, The Ratio Institute.
    19. Dieter Schumacher & Florian Straßberger, 1994. "Broadening the Scope for Reporting on the Technological Competitiveness of the Federal Republic of Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 100, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Zhang, Chuanguo & Zhao, Wei, 2014. "Panel estimation for income inequality and CO2 emissions: A regional analysis in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 382-392.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    business trips; face-to-face meetings; international labour movements; growth; productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F2 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp3417. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.