سرریزهای تحقیق و توسعه ، فن آوری اطلاعات و ارتباطات از راه دور، و بهره وری در ASIA و OECD

This paper examines the role research and development (R&D) plays in technology progress for a sample of OECD and Asian economies from 1980 to 1995. An empirical model is estimated which relates total factor productivity to domestic and foreign R&D activity, trade, and information technology and telecommunications (ITT). Model estimates confirm a positive relationship between national productivity and R&D activity exists in the long run. Further, the benefits of R&D can spillover countries through trade, in particular, trade in ITT equipment.

Endogenous growth models emphasise innovation and trade as vehicles for technological spillovers that permit developing countries to catch up to industrialised countries. The creation and accumulation of knowledge can improve sectoral and national productivity through the invention of intermediate goods (or by improving the quality of existing goods), which bring about the more effective use of existing resources (Grossman and Helpman, 1991). The role knowledge plays in technological progress has been the subject of much recent attention in the economic growth literature. Several studies find that the returns from investment in knowledge are positive, and they are greater than returns from investment in equipment, infrastructure and machinery (Griliches, 1988 and Griliches, 1994; Nadiri, 1993 and Coe and Helpman, 1995). Further, Coe and Helpman (1995) argue that own knowledge enhances a country’s ability to take advantage of innovation and technological advance elsewhere.

This paper examines the role R&D plays in technology progress for a sample of 15 OECD and five Asian economies from 1980 to 1995. An empirical model is estimated which relates TFP to domestic and foreign R&D activity, trade, and ITT. Panel unit root tests of TFP equation residuals indicate the existence of a long-run cointegrating relationship between national productivity and R&D activity. Further, TFP equation estimation shows that domestic R&D is an important source of TFP growth and that TFP is positively related to the foreign R&D activity of their trading partners in both OECD and Asian economies. Model estimates confirm the qualitative conclusion of Coe et al. (1997) that developing Asian economies (in the South), which have relatively low levels of investment in R&D, benefit from foreign R&D spillovers from industrialised OECD economies (in the North). On average, a 1% increase in foreign R&D capital stock raises Asian national output by 0.03%. Model estimates also show that the more open an economy the greater is the impact of foreign R&D on productivity. Not surprisingly, in the emerging global information economy, openness to trade in ITT equipment and services are an important channel for the international transfer of R&D. Further, this study demonstrates that Coe and Helpman’s (1995) TFP estimating equation specification may provide a misleading view of the impact of R&D spillovers on TFP growth. Finally, the collection of own R&D data for developing economies, other than Asian, would permit the examination of a richer set of potential relationship between TFP and domestic R&D.