A Model of Technology Transfer in Japan's Rapid Economic Growth Period

Shuhei Aoki and 周平 青木

No 11-05, IIR Working Paper from Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: Why did the Japanese economy stagnate beforeWorldWar II, how did it achieve rapid economic growth after the war, and why did it stagnate again after the 1970s? To answer these questions, I developed a two-country trade model with technology transfer, where firms in a developed country (the U.S.) transfer technology to the competitors in a developing country (Japan) if it is profitable to do so and where the technology transfer is the engine of economic growth. In this model, among multiple equilibria, the equilibrium with low labor cost in Japan was chosen during the rapid growth period. Then, the firms in the developed country transferred technology to the firms in the developing country, resulting in rapid growth. However, during the other periods, the equilibrium with high labor cost in Japan was chosen, which caused stagnation. The model is quantitatively consistent with the per capita GDP relative to the U.S., the purchasing power parity-exchange rate ratio, and to some degree, the swings in labor share of postwar Japan.

Keywords: Japan's rapid economic growth; Licensing; Technology transfer; Undervaluation of yen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F43 O11 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2011-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg and nep-opm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/19003/070iirWP11_05.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: A Model of Technology Transfer in Japan's Rapid Economic Growth Period (2011)
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:hit:iirwps:11-05

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IIR Working Paper from Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Digital Resources Section, Hitotsubashi University Library ().