Why Has China Grown So Fast? The Role of International Technology Transfer

John van Reenen and Linda Yueh

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Chinese economic growth has been spectacular in the last 30 years. We investigate the role of International Joint Ventures with Technology Transfer agreements, an understudied area. Technology transfer is the traditional mechanism for developing countries to "catch up" and has been a key component of Chinese economic policy. We collect original survey data on Chinese firms and their joint ventures and match this to administrative data on firm performance. To identify the causal effect of joint ventures we use time-varying and province-specific policies at the time when a firm was born. International joint ventures have large effects on productivity especially when combined with a technology transfer component. We estimate that without International joint ventures China's growth would have been about one percentage point lower per annum over the last three decades.

Keywords: China; technology transfer; joint ventures; productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O32 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cse, nep-eff and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Why has China grown so fast? The role of International Technology Transfer (2012)
Working Paper: Why has China grown so fast? The role of international technology transfer (2012)
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