Technology Change: Sources and Impediments

There is little doubt that technology change, both in terms of its process and quality dimensions, represents the principal driving force to explain comparative economic performance at both micro and macro levels. This paper examines the sources of technology change and the impediments to the full realization of its opportunities, both abstractly and in the context of a comparison among six typologically diverse developing countries. Among the external sources, we examine the roles of trade, foreign patents and FDI; among the internal sources we examine the roles of investment, domestic R&D, domestic patents, S&T personnel and secondary education alternatives. Among impediments, we analyze certain public and private policy frameworks which tend to impede the realization of technological opportunities. We detect some reasons for the better TFP performance of the East Asian in comparison with the Latin American countries.