Technology Catching-up and the Role of Institutions

Fabio Manca

No 200912, IREA Working Papers from University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics

Abstract: The aim of the paper is to investigate the role played by differences in Institutional Quality on the process of technology catch-up across countries. Empirical evidence shows how countries endowed with better institutions are those experiencing higher TFP growth rates, faster rates of technology adoption and hence being those more rapidly closing the gap with the frontier. Conversely, countries lacking some minimum institutional level are shown to diverge in the long run and not to catch-up. Some institutions, however, play an ambiguous role in the creation and adoption of technology. We find that the tightening of Intellectual Property Rights reduces the ability of followers to freely imitate technology slowing down their catch-up rate. This negative effect is stronger the farther the countries are found from the frontier. Other institutional categories such as openness to trade, instead, benefit both leaders and followers.

Keywords: TFP; Growth; Institutions; IPRs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2009-06, Revised 2009-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-ipr and nep-pr~
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ira:wpaper:200912

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