Firm-Level Upgrading in Developing Countries

Eric Verhoogen

No 14858, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In principle, firms in developing countries benefit from the fact that advanced technologies and products have already been developed in industrialized countries and can simply be adopted, a process often referred to as industrial upgrading. But for many firms this advantage remains elusive. What is getting in the way? This paper reviews recent firm-level empirical research on the determinants of upgrading in developing countries. The first part focuses on how to define and measure various dimensions of upgrading - learning, quality upgrading, technology adoption, and product innovation. The second part takes stock of recent micro-empirical evidence on the drivers of upgrading, classifying them as output-side drivers, input-side drivers, or drivers of know-how. The review concludes with some thoughts about promising directions for research in the area.

Keywords: developing countries; upgrading; firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F1 L2 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2021-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tid
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Literature, 2023, 61 (4), 1410–1464

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp14858.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Firm-Level Upgrading in Developing Countries (2023)
Working Paper: Firm-Level Upgrading in Developing Countries (2021)
Working Paper: Firm-Level Upgrading in Developing Countries (2021)
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:iza:izadps:dp14858

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().