Catching up to the Technology Frontier: The Dichotomy Between Innovation and Imitation

This research examines whether technology transfer, research intensity, educational attainment and the ability to absorb foreign technology help explain cross-country differences in productivity growth. Our data comprise a panel of 55 countries including 23 OECD and 32 developing economies over the period 1970-2004. The results show that TFP growth in both OECD and developing countries is positively affected by research intensity, distance to the frontier, research intensity-based absorptive capacity and educational attainment-based absorptive capacity. However, they reveal large differences between developed and developing countries.