TRADE-INDUCED TECHNOLOGY SPILLOVER AND ADOPTION: A QUANTITATIVE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM APPLICATION

This paper investigates the impact of a 4% Hicks-neutral technical progress in heavy manufacturing in the United States and its trans-border spillover via intermediates. A three-region, six-traded-commodity computable general equilibrium model is numerically simulated to show that differentials in regional productivity improvements depend on their absorptive capacity and structural similarity. This determines the extent of technology capture. The model results show that the productivity improvement and transmission result in productivity growth in sectors intensively using heavy manufacturing. Returns to skilled labour depend on technology spillover and capture parameter. The results have implications for the role of human capital in assimilating advanced technology.Absorptive Capacity, Structural Similarity, Capture Parameter, Trade, Technology

Ability-Biased Technical Change and Productivity Bonus in a Nested Production Structure: A Theoretical Model with Endogenous Hicks-Neutral Technology Spillover

This paper develops a model of endogenous trade-mediated productivity spillover in which jointly trade-intensity, capital-intensity of production, and skill-intensity for adoption of technology from an exogenously available stock of world knowledge determine firm’s productivity. The representative firm, in the process of maximising profit (or minimising costs), takes into account the benefits of technological improvements embodied in imported intermediates. Sectors with higher skilled labour intensity will have an advantage in extracting the ‘bonuses’ from spillovers. The framework is useful for exploring technology adoption, considering wage premium, investigating innovative changes in sectors, and analysing productivity differences.JEL Codes - D58; O47; O3

Information age to genetic revolution: Embodied technology transfer and assimilation — A tale of two technologies

In this paper, a fifteen regions–fifteen sectors global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is calibrated. It offers quantitative enumeration of 5% exogenous biotechnological invention in USA in genetically modified crops namely, maize grains and soybean. Consequently, it results in endogenously transmitted productivity gains via traded intermediates in user sectors in donor and recipient regions. Sustained absorption and domestic usability of transgenic varieties depend on constellation of: human capital-induced absorptive capacity, governance, and structural congruence between source and recipients contingent on technology infrastructure and socio-institutional parameters. Such innovations result in higher production, welfare and global trade. Also, concomitant 4% exogenous productivity shock in information technology along with 5% productivity growth in the agro-biotech sectors further enhances such simulated impacts on global production and welfare. Regions with larger extent of technology capture aided by higher human capital, better governance, conducive institutional-structural features, and superior technological expertise perform better. JEL classification C68; D58; F13; O3; Q17; Q1

Trade-mediated biotechnology transfer and its effective absorption: an application to the U.S. forestry sector

n this paper, we analyze the consequences of biotechnology innovations in the United States forest sector (logging) by modeling technology transfer embodied in trade flows and its absorption. A seven-region, seven-traded-commodity version of a dynamic computable general equilibrium model is used to achieve this task. A 0.63% Hicks-neutral biotechnological progress in the source region (U.S.) has differential impacts on the productivity of the log-using sectors in the domestic as well as in the recipient regions. Since recipient regions' ability to utilize biotechnology innovations depends on their absorptive capacity (AC) and structural similarity (SS), we construct the AC and SS indices based on multiplicity of factors such as human capital endowments, skill content and social appropriateness of the new innovations. The model results show that biotechnological innovations in the U.S. forest sector result in a significant increase in timber production. Following the productivity improvements and its embodied spillover, wood products and pulp and paper sectors in the U.S. register higher productivity growth. The role of AC and SS in capturing technical change is shown to be evident. In the face of growing regulations on timber production from public forests, increasing productivity through biotechnology may be the most effective way to meet the consumer demand for forest products

Trade-mediated biotechnology transfer and its effective absorption: an application to the U.S. forestry sector

n this paper, we analyze the consequences of biotechnology innovations in the United States forest sector (logging) by modeling technology transfer embodied in trade flows and its absorption. A seven-region, seven-traded-commodity version of a dynamic computable general equilibrium model is used to achieve this task. A 0.63% Hicks-neutral biotechnological progress in the source region (U.S.) has differential impacts on the productivity of the log-using sectors in the domestic as well as in the recipient regions. Since recipient regions' ability to utilize biotechnology innovations depends on their absorptive capacity (AC) and structural similarity (SS), we construct the AC and SS indices based on multiplicity of factors such as human capital endowments, skill content and social appropriateness of the new innovations. The model results show that biotechnological innovations in the U.S. forest sector result in a significant increase in timber production. Following the productivity improvements and its embodied spillover, wood products and pulp and paper sectors in the U.S. register higher productivity growth. The role of AC and SS in capturing technical change is shown to be evident. In the face of growing regulations on timber production from public forests, increasing productivity through biotechnology may be the most effective way to meet the consumer demand for forest products

Absorptive capacity and structural congruence: the binding constraints on the acquisition of technologyan analytical survey of the underlying issues

Inextricable links between international trade, growth and role of knowledge-creation are well-established in the economics literature. The issues of creation of technology, its diffusion and actual adoption have been discussed on both theoretical and empirical planes. Effective assimilation of advanced technologies hinges on the 'Absorptive Capacity' and the 'Structural Congruence' between source vis-à-vis the destinations; role of public policies for actual implementation of these new ideas is extremely crucial. This paper offers a synoptic overview of curent research and sketch a possible extension of the analytical framework on an operationally feasible plane within the Computable General Equilibriurm framework. The survey highlights that analysis of the issue of technology-induced growth in a knowledge-based society must further the analysis by highlighting the role of factors for capturing the benefits. It has been identified that the factors propelling the acquisition depend, inter alia, on human capital, infrastructures, learning effects, and indigenous inventive activit

What is Assumed in the GTAP Database's Disaggregation of Labor by Skill Level?

The 45 region by 50 commodity by 5 primary factor version of the GTAP database provides us with the splits of total labor payments into two categories, viz. skilled and unskilled labor in each sector. The decomposition of total labor payments in all sectors and all regions according to differentials in the skill content of the labor force presupposes substitution possibilities between these two categories of labor. Our interest is to explore the elasticity of substitution implicit in this disaggregation of occupation types. Given the skilled labor payment shares (as calculated from the GTAP database), we offer an ex post rationalization of them within a production-theoretic framework, thereby deriving estimates of the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled labor. The adoption of a suitable nesting of skilled and unskilled labor in GTAP's production function enables us to find a 'reasonable' value for the substitution elasticity that is implicit between the two categories of labor in the GTAP database. This relies on the inter-regional covariation in the GTAP shares and in measures of educational attainment.Elasticity of substitution Educational attainment Skilled

Elasticity of Substitution and Disaggregation of Labor by Skill Level: Empirical Measurement Using a Global Database

The 45 region ´ 50 commodity ´ 5 primary factor version of the Global Trade Analysis Project's [GTAP] database provides us with the splits of total labor payments into skilled and unskilled labor-presupposing substitution possibilities between them. Given the skilled labor payment shares of the GTAP database, we offer an ex post rationalization within a production-theoretic framework. This relies on inter-regional covariation in the GTAP shares and in measures of educational attainment. Adoption of a suitable nesting of skilled-unskilled labor in GTAP's production function enables us to derive a 'reasonable' value for the (implicit) substitution elasticity between skilled-unskilled labors.

Hub-and-Spokes Free-Trade-Agreements in the Presence of Technology Spillovers: An Application to the Western Hemisphere

Using a comparative-static general equilibrium model and in the context of the western hemisphere, this paper compares the economic effects of a "hub-and-spokes (HAS)" type of bilateral trade configuration (with Chile being the hub) with those of a more comprehensive regional FTA (namely, the FTAA). The model is augmented to account for the possibility of technology spillovers and its effective assimilation among participating economies. In particular, absorptive capacity, governance factor, proximity and socio-institutional congruence conjointly determine an economy's capacity to capture the technology that is transmitted from developed spoke US to other regions