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International technology adoption, R&D, and productivity growth

  • Seung Mo Choi EMAIL logo , Daniel Toro González and Peter Gray
Published/Copyright: June 20, 2013
The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics
From the journal The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics Volume 13 Issue 1

Abstract

International knowledge diffusion is considered an important source of productivity growth. However, direct observations on such diffusion have not been available at the macro level. We analyze novel data on international technology trade. Our empirical analyses indicate a positive association between payments for international technology adoption and the growth of labor productivity. Those payments appear to be a stronger contributor than research and development (R&D) investments for a large group of economies. For economies with high productivity, technology adoption payments tend to be complementary to R&D investments.

Keywords: R&D; technology adoption; technology trade; JEL codes: O14; O33
Corresponding author: Seung Mo Choi, International Monetary Fund, 700 19th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20431, USA, e-mail:
  1. 1

    While we do not provide a further statistical analysis, it is also possible that subsidies to education (and other forms of human capital production such as on-the-job training and in-home training) can multiply the effects of R&D and TA, accelerating productivity growth. See Choi (2011) and James and Choi (2013) for a related discussion.

The comments of Tiago Cavalcanti (editor), Bob Lucas, Nancy Stokey, Chin Hee Hahn, Chad Syverson, Thomas Chaney, Robby Rosenman, Jill McCluskey, and two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the International Monetary Fund, its Executive Board, or its management.

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Published Online: 2013-06-20
Published in Print: 2013-01-01

©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/bejm-2012-0035
Keywords for this article
R&D; technology adoption; technology trade; JEL codes: O14; O33

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Masthead
  3. Advances
  4. How have global shocks impacted the real effective exchange rates of individual euro area countries since the euro’s creation?
  5. Employment by age, education, and economic growth: effects of fiscal policy composition in general equilibrium
  6. Overeducation and skill-biased technical change
  7. Strategic wage bargaining, labor market volatility, and persistence
  8. Households’ uncertainty about Medicare policy
  9. Contributions
  10. Deconstructing shocks and persistence in OECD real exchange rates1)
  11. A contribution to the empirics of welfare growth
  12. Development accounting with wedges: the experience of six European countries
  13. Implementation cycles, growth and the labor market
  14. International technology adoption, R&D, and productivity growth
  15. Bequest taxes, donations, and house prices
  16. Business cycle accounting of the BRIC economies
  17. Privately optimal severance pay
  18. Small business loan guarantees as insurance against aggregate risks
  19. Output growth and unexpected government expenditures
  20. International business cycles and remittance flows
  21. Effects of productivity shocks on hours worked: UK evidence
  22. A prior predictive analysis of the effects of Loss Aversion/Narrow Framing in a macroeconomic model for asset pricing
  23. Exchange rate pass-through and fiscal multipliers
  24. Credit demand, credit supply, and economic activity
  25. Distortions, structural transformation and the Europe-US income gap
  26. Monetary policy shocks and real commodity prices
  27. Topics
  28. News-driven international business cycles
  29. Business cycle dynamics across the US states
  30. Required reserves as a credit policy tool
  31. The macroeconomic effects of the 35-h workweek regulation in France
  32. Productivity and resource misallocation in Latin America1)
  33. Information and communication technologies over the business cycle
  34. In search of lost time: the neoclassical synthesis
  35. Divorce laws and divorce rate in the US
  36. Is the “Great Recession” really so different from the past?
  37. Monetary business cycle accounting for Sweden
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