Technology diversity and development: Evidence from China's industrial enterprises

Karen Fisher-Vanden and Gary Jefferson

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2008, vol. 36, issue 4, 658-672

Abstract: This paper investigates the phenomenon of individual firms simultaneously developing and adopting technical change with varying factor biases. Firms in a large panel of Chinese industrial enterprise data exhibit three channels of technical change, each associated with different patterns of firm-level factor bias and strategic purpose. The neo-classical growth process, associated with Harrod-neutral technical change, drives capital deepening. In-house R&D is found to be robustly labor- and material-using and capital- and energy-saving thereby capitalizing on China's comparative advantage. Finally, the purchase of imported technologies, which are comparatively capital-using, focuses on new product development. These diversified channels of technical change reveal a pattern of developing country technical change that is far more diversified than that suggested by the conventional growth literature. Journal of Comparative Economics 36 (4) (2008) 658-672.

Keywords: R&; D; Technological; change; Factor; bias; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:36:y:2008:i:4:p:658-672

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