What really makes an economy competitive? This paper reviews and discusses how the capacity to generate, exploit and diffuse new knowledge is key in enabling countries to capitalise on challenges brought about by rapid technology-driven transformations rather than succumb to their adverse...

This paper argues that actual technological spillovers are not substantial in developing countries because of the absence of an absorptive capacity. We carry out a panel data analysis in an attempt to gain insight into the specific aspects that enable economies to benefit from the backlog of...