Intra-Industry Gaps in Technology and Investments in Technological Capabilities: Firm-level evidence from Chile

Giuliana Battisti and Carlo Pietrobelli

International Review of Applied Economics, 2000, vol. 14, issue 2, 253-269

Abstract: This paper develops a theoretical framework to analyse intra-industry gaps in technology, and tests it with enterprise-level data from a developing country. Following neoclassical theory, the existence of inter-firm technological gaps is explained by factor market segmentation that determines different factor prices and therefore different firms' technological choices. However, intra-industry gaps in technology may also result from the nature of the process of technological development, and from the different level of investments in technological capabilities.The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 338 industrial enterprises from Chile, and shows that it is possible to define technological thresholds, characterised by significant shifts in technology, independently of factor market segmentation. The analysis focuses on five major sectors: food processing, textile and garments, woodworking, metalworking and paper. Firms with different levels of technological complexity coexist within the same industry, and differences in technology are discrete, with different clusters sharing similar characteristics within the same industry. These results also have important policy implications for industrial development, which are drawn in a final section.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02692170050024778 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
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:taf:irapec:v:14:y:2000:i:2:p:253-269

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CIRA20

DOI: 10.1080/02692170050024778

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Applied Economics is currently edited by Professor Malcolm Sawyer

More articles in International Review of Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().