Global Integration And Technology Transfer

The importance of international technology diffusion (ITD) for economic development can hardly be overstated. Both the acquisition of technology and its diffusion foster productivity growth. Developing countries have long sought to use both national policies and international agreements to stimulate ITD. The 'correct' policy intervention, if any, depends critically upon the channels through which technology diffuses internationally and the quantitative effects of the various diffusion processes on efficiency and productivity growth. Neither is well understood. New technologies may be embodied in goods and transferred through imports of new varieties of differentiated products or capital goods and equipment, they may be obtained through exposure to foreign buyers or foreign investors or they may be acquired through arms-length trade in intellectual property, e.g., licensing contracts. 'Global Integration and Technology Transfer' uses cross-country and firm level panel data sets to analyze how specific activities exporting, importing, FDI, joint ventures impact on productivity performance.

This is a book on the means by which technological knowledge is transferred from countries that develop it to those that need it, but have not yet been able to develop it on their own. The focus is on the transfer of technology from Western countries to Asian countries.

For many years it was assumed that technology transfer would prove an unqualified answer for the problems of the developing nations, vastly simplifying and accelerating their rate of economic development. The papers in this volume question these assumptions demonstrating how technology transfer can be very costly and that success is contingent upon a variety of factors including, the direction of indigienous technology and the political setting of the recipient country.

Abstract: May 2000 - How much a developing country can take advantage of technology transfer from foreign direct investment depends partly on how well educated and well trained its workforce is, how much it is willing to invest in research and development, and how much protection it offers for intellectual property rights. Saggi surveys the literature on trade and foreign direct investment - especially wholly owned subsidiaries of multinational firms and international joint ventures - as channels for technology transfer. He also discusses licensing and other arm's-length channels of technology transfer. He concludes: How trade encourages growth depends on whether knowledge spillover is national or international. Spillover is more likely to be national for developing countries than for industrial countries; Local policy often makes pure foreign direct investment infeasible, so foreign firms choose licensing or joint ventures. The jury is still out on whether licensing or joint ventures lead to more learning by local firms; Policies designed to attract foreign direct investment are proliferating. Several plant-level studies have failed to find positive spillover from foreign direct investment to firms competing directly with subsidiaries of multinationals. (However, these studies treat foreign direct investment as exogenous and assume spillover to be horizontal - when it may be vertical.) All such studies do find the subsidiaries of multinationals to be more productive than domestic firms, so foreign direct investment does result in host countries using resources more effectively; Absorptive capacity in the host country is essential for getting significant benefits from foreign direct investment. Without adequate human capital or investments in research and development, spillover fails to materialize; A country's policy on protection of intellectual property rights affects the type of industry it attracts. Firms for which such rights are crucial (such as pharmaceutical firms) are unlikely to invest directly in countries where such protections are weak, or will not invest in manufacturing and research and development activities. Policy on intellectual property rights also influences whether technology transfer comes through licensing, joint ventures, or the establishment of wholly owned subsidiaries. This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study microfoundations of international technology diffusion. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Microfoundations of International Technology Diffusion. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

Technology transfer—the process of sharing and disseminating knowledge, skills, scientific discoveries, production methods, and other innovations among universities, government agencies, private firms, and other institutions—is one of the major challenges of societies operating in the global economy. This volume offers state-of-the-art insights on the dynamics of technology transfer, emerging from the annual meeting of the Technology Transfer Society in 2011 in Augsburg, Germany. It showcases theoretical and empirical analyses from participants across the technology transfer spectrum, representing academic, educational, policymaking, and commercial perspectives. The volume features case studies of industries and institutions in Europe, the United States, and Australasia, explored through a variety of methodological approaches, and providing unique contributions to our understanding of how and why technology transfer is shaped and affected by different institutional settings, with implications for policy and business decision making.

The underlying issues; Policy perspectives and implications.

Transnational Corporations, Technology Transfer and Development: A Bibliographic Sourcebook compiles references one can use in studying transnational corporations and related topics. The compilation divides various source materials into eight major themes. The sourcebook presents publications on the development of science and technology; the International Technology Gap and the NIEO; and transnational corporations and technology. The other groups of publications compiled mainly focus on the anatomy of corporate technology transfer; technology transfer and host countries; and sectoral analysis, wherein several case studies are included. The last two sets of reference materials are concerned with technology transfer and the home country and its regulation. This sourcebook will be invaluable to those in need of lists of reference materials on transnational corporations.

Bridging the technology gap is an issue faced by most countries, but in developing countries the issue is doubly critical. Not only do they lag further behind relative to other countries but they also face more stringent resource constraints. This title provides a through overview of the economics of ITT relevant to developing countries and will be invaluable as a reference tool for policy makers, trade officials and trade negotiators.Part One identifies the role played by existing policy in trade, foreign direct investment and intellectual property rights in facilitating International Technology Transfer (ITT). Pertinent analysis of the major implications of the report is given.The WTO Working Group on Trade and Technology Transfer was established with the aim of encouraging technology transfer to developing countries. Part Two outlines the Group's findings for increasing flows of technology.