Why doesn’t technology flow from rich to poor countries?

What determines the technology that a country adopts? While there could be many factors, the efficiency of the country’s financial system may play a significant role. To address this question, a dynamic contract model is embedded into a general equilibrium setting with competitive interme- diation. The ability of an intermediary to monitor and control the cash flows of a firm plays an important role in a firm’s decision to adopt a technology. Can such a theory help to explain the differences in total factor productivity and establishment-size distributions across India, Mexico, and the U.S.? Applied analysis suggests that answer is yes.