Most neo-Ricardian studies on the "choice of technique" are based on a comparison of alternative technologies applicable to the same industrial branch. Some authors even recommend restrict analyses of the long-run technological changes to a single industry. In reality, innovations often require...

In a continuous time model with stochastic demand, two firms compete in R&D, with the lead patent affecting the probability of success of a second innovation competing in the same product market; the size and direction of this effect characterize the level of appropriability. From this...

Developing countries rely on technology created by developed countries. This paper demonstrates that such reliance increases wage inequality but leads to greater production in developing countries. I study a Brazilian innovation program that taxed the leasing of international technology to...

Developing countries rely on technology created by developed countries. This paper demonstrates that such reliance increases wage inequality but leads to greater production in developing countries. I study a Brazilian innovation program that taxed the leasing of international technology to...

We present a model of growth and technology transfer based on the idea that technologies are specific to particular combinations of inputs. We argue that this model is more realistic than the usual specification, in which an improvement in any technique for producing a given good improves all...

We consider the differential incentives of the North and the South to provide patent protection to innovating firms in the North. The two regions are assumed to have a different distribution of preferences over the range of exploitable technologies. Due to the scarcity of R&D resources, the two...

The availability of inappropriate technologies in Asian countries has been a largely-ignored factor preventing the expansion of renewable energy in Asia. The promotion of certain expensive types of renewable energy with inbuilt deficiencies, which detract from their benefits, has served as a...

The microeconomic empirical literature devoted to the link between innovation and employment tends to suggest that technological change has a positive effect on jobs, at least at the level of the firm. The main purpose of this paper is to see whether this result still holds in a situation where...

This paper explores a one-agent Bayesian model of learning by doing and technological choice. To produce output, the agent can choose among various technologies. The beneficial effects of learning by doing are bounded on each technology, and so long-run growth in output can take place only if...

Does the adoption of technological change depend on labor market institutions? The disparities in technology adoption across countries are enormous and are a major factor in explaining poverty. The returns to introducing new technology differ across countries since they depend not only on...

Technology adoption is crucial for the development of low income countries. This paper investigates how parametric insurance can contribute to improving access to finance, and hence to technology, for smallholder farmers. In a model with moral hazard, we show that bundling parametric insurance...

Based on a newly compiled set of Chinese data, this paper puts established assump-tions on the role of technological variety in perspective. It does so from two main an-gles. First, by documenting whether, in China, technological variety has played a simi-lar role for regional development as in...

Purpose: Most research and development (R&D) activities in Brazil are performed by science and technology institutions (STIs). The purpose of this research was to determine whether environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) developed by these organizations were transferred to companies, either...

"This timely Handbook provides a conceptual discussion and a wide empirical presentation of new disruptive forms of innovation producing appropriate technologies, addressing the needs of low-income populations, and providing alternative solutions for sustainable development. The Handbook of...

The phenomenon of frugal innovation, as characterized by "affordable excellence", is experiencing increasing acceptance by business leaders, policy makers and scholars around the world. Frugal products, services and technologies strive to radically increase affordability while significantly...

Innovation is one of the most important drivers of economic development. Even in developing countries, households have access to a wide array of new technologies. However, factors affecting households' technology adoption decisions remain poorly understood. Using data on solar microgrid adoption...

Developing countries rely on technology created by developed countries. This paper demonstrates that such reliance increases wage inequality but leads to greater production in developing countries. I study a Brazilian innovation program that taxed the leasing of international technology to...

Technology and policy play a twofold role in international environmental laws. Stronger environmental policies encourage new green technologies and likewise, better technologies make it easier to regulate. “Technology transfer” refers to the transfer from one party, an association or...

This paper provides field experiment?based evidence on the potential additional forest carbon sequestration that cleaner and more fuel-efficient cookstoves might generate. The paper focuses on the Mirt (meaning ?best?) cookstove, which is used to bake injera, the staple food in Ethiopia. The...

Improving access to affordable and reliable energy services for cooking is essential for developing countries in reducing adverse human health and environmental impacts hitherto caused by burning of traditional biomass. This paper reviews empirical studies that analyze choices of fuel and...

In Africa, farmers have been reluctant to take up new varieties of staple crops developed to boost smallholder yields and rural incomes. Low fertilizer use is often mentioned as a proximate cause, but some believe the problem originates with incomplete input markets. As a remedy, African...

In recent years a phenomenon called "frugal innovation" has increasingly gained traction in the scholarly discourse; and as research reveals, it is often brought in connection with India. Apparently, India has quietly acquired the role of a pioneer for innovations that aim at combining...

We provide a general theoretical characterization of how firms' technology choice on a technology frontier determines the long-run elasticity of substitution between capital and labor. We show that the shape of the frontier determines factor shares and the elasticity of substitution between...

The authors develop an endogenous growth model that combines structural change with repeated product improvement. That is, the technologies in one sector of the model become not only increasingly capital-intensive, but also progressively productive over time. Application of the basic model to...