Re-examining international technological-knowledge diffusion

• Tipo: Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional
• Data: 2007

Autores

Óscar Afonso (Autor) FEP; Paulo José Abreu Beleza de Vasconcelos (Autor) FEP

Revista

Título: International Economic Journal

Vol. 21 Nº 2

Páginas: 279-296

ISSN: 1016-8737

Editora: Taylor & Francis

Indexação

Scopus - 6 Citações

Econlit

Classificação Científica

FOS: Ciências sociais > Economia e gestão

Outras Informações

ID Authenticus: P-00T-QPS

DOI: 10.1080/10168730701345307

Resumo (PT): In the standard models of North-South technological-knowledge diffusion, the larger the initial technological-knowledge gap between countries, the greater the Southern catching up. However, this result does not adjust well to Southern reality as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the disparity between the theoretical outcome and the empirical findings can be reduced by considering that: (i) the South can only imitate Northern technological knowledge when it is sufficiently close to the Northern frontier; (ii) the advantage of the South's moderate backwardness, together with its imitation capacity, is a mechanism of catching up with the North; and (iii) the Southern catching-up specification can be country specific. In particular, we show that the behavior of the South's relative level of employed human capital affects Southern imitation capacity and depends on the catching-up specifications.

Abstract (EN): In the standard models of North-South technological-knowledge diffusion, the larger the initial technological-knowledge gap between countries, the greater the Southern catching up. However, this result does not adjust well to Southern reality as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the disparity between the theoretical outcome and the empirical findings can be reduced by considering that: (i) the South can only imitate Northern technological knowledge when it is sufficiently close to the Northern frontier; (ii) the advantage of the South's moderate backwardness, together with its imitation capacity, is a mechanism of catching up with the North; and (iii) the Southern catching-up specification can be country specific. In particular, we show that the behavior of the South's relative level of employed human capital affects Southern imitation capacity and depends on the catching-up specifications.

Idioma: Inglês

Tipo (Avaliação Docente): Científica