Does International Trade Transfer Technology to Emerging Countries?
) (Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University) Abstract The purpose of this paper is to assess empirically whether trade flows carry disembodied knowledge to emerging countries. Endogenous growth theory predicts that productivity growth rates of countries are related through international trade linkages and associated embodied and disembodied knowledge spillovers. Patent statistics are an output indicator of innovation. This allow patent citations to reflect the process of knowledge diffusion. Combining an endogenous growth framework with a patent citation analysis, we evaluate whether more exporting or importing countries tend to cite more foreign patents, i.e. learn more from foreign technology. The empirical estimation concerns the relative number of backward citations and bilateral trade flows between 18 emerging and 10 technology source countries, at a sectoral level, for the period of 1980-1998. We contribute to the previous literature by taking into
