Technological Specialization as a Driving Force of Production Specialization

Abstract

The paper analyses the impact of the technological specializations of the EU-15 countries on their production specializations. A neoclassically inspired empirical model is specified and estimated to explain for the considered countries the value added shares of the manufacturing industries in the area of R&D-intensive technology as well as in the area of the remaining technology by technological differences and relative factor endowments. Technological specialization is approximated by the patent stocks in the areas of leading-edge, high-level and the remaining technology, while further technological differences are captured by indices of transferable knowledge and fixed country effects. The empirical results show that the technological specializations of the EU countries are an important driving force of their production specializations.Factor Supply, Panel Data Analysis, Production Specialization, Technological Specialization,