A Rising Tide Raises All Ships: Trade and Diffusion as Conduits of Growth

Jonathan Eaton and Samuel Kortum

No 315950, Institute for Economic Development from Boston University

Abstract: Measures of innovative activity show it to be concentrated in a small number of countries. Yet the benefits of innovation are experienced broadly. International trade is one conduit through which the benefits of innovation in one country can flow abroad. Technological diffusion is another. In this paper we develop a model of technology and trade to explore these alternatives. An implication of the model is that increased trade will itself affect observed productivity as well 85 real wages. We analyse data on trade, research, and productivity from five major industrial economies in light of the model. Trade alone can explain observed cross-sectional patterns of innovation and productivity quite well. Nonetheless trade fails to explain why productivity growth is 85 high in countries where less inventive activity occurs. An implication is that diffusion rather than trade is responsible for the similarity in growth rates across major industrial countries.

Keywords: International; Relations/Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23
Date: 1996
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Related works:
Chapter: A Rising Tide Raises All Ships: Trade and Diffusion as Conduits of Growth (2003)
Working Paper: A Rising Tide Raises All Ships: Trade and Diffusion as Conduits of Growth (1996)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:bouied:315950

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.315950

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