Barriers to the international diffusion of technological innovations

Kumar, Sanjesh and Singh, Baljeet (2019) Barriers to the international diffusion of technological innovations. Economic Modelling, 82 . 74 - 86. ISSN 0264-9993

PDF - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

This paper examines the role of diffusion barriers in explaining differences in technological innovation across countries through an index of economic complexity. The barriers are captured by genealogical distance from the world's technology frontier. We hypothesize that greater the genetic distance between a country's population and the technology innovator the lower will be levels of technological innovations. Utilizing data for 100 countries, our empirical estimates offer solid support for the negative influence of genetic distance from the global frontier on innovation. A number of sensitivity checks also confirm that our findings are robust. Overall, the evidence lends strong support to the barriers effect of genetic distance from the frontier whereby it prevents the diffusion of productivity enhancing innovations across countries by affecting the country’s capability to imitate and adopt frontier innovations and technologies.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Genetic distance, Innovation, Economic complexity
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Divisions:	Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) > School of Economics
Depositing User:	Fulori Nainoca - Waqairagata
Date Deposited:	13 May 2020 00:25
Last Modified:	10 Feb 2021 23:34
URI:	https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/12122

Actions (login required)

View Item