Technology gaps, trade and income

Thomas Sampson

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper quantifies the contribution of technology gaps to international income inequality. I develop an endogenous growth model where cross-country differences in R&D efficiency and cross-industry differences in innovation and adoption opportunities together determine equilibrium technology gaps, trade patterns and income inequality. Countries with higher R&D efficiency are richer and have comparative advantage in more innovation-dependent industries. I calibrate R&D efficiency by country and innovation-dependence by industry using R&D, patent and bilateral trade data. Counterfactual analysis implies technology gaps account for one-quarter to one-third of nominal wage variation within the OECD.

Keywords: technology gaps; development accounting; comparative advantage; innovation; technology diffusion; endogenous growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D21 D24 D31 F14 O31 O33 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2023-02-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-des, nep-eff, nep-gro, nep-ino, nep-int, nep-mac and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in American Economic Review, 1, February, 2023, 113(2), pp. 472 - 513. ISSN: 0002-8282

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/117370/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Technology Gaps, Trade, and Income (2023)
Working Paper: Technology gaps, trade and income (2019)
Working Paper: Technology Gaps, Trade and Income (2019)
Working Paper: Technology Gaps, Trade and Income (2019)
Working Paper: Technology gaps, trade and income (2019)
Working Paper: Technology gaps, trade and income (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:117370

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().