Specialization patterns in trade and technology (original) (raw)

Technological specialization in industrial countries: Patterns and dynamics

Review of World Economics, 2001

On the other hand, the literature on innovation (Nelson and Winter 1982; Dosi 1988; Malerba 1992) has emphasized how knowledge may be specific to the agent who has produced it or/and to the environ-Remark: I am grateful to Franco Malerba for his encouragement and insightful remarks, to Danny Quah and John Sutton for very helpful comments, to Henry Overman for very fruitful discussions, to Rodolfo Helg, Alan Manning, Steve Redding and Raffaele Paci for their useful suggestions. Finally, I also wish to thank seminar participants at the LSE, Cespri (Bocconi University), University of Siena, and participants at the conference on the "Evolution of Specialization Patterns" at LIUC and the European Economic Association Conference in Bolzan. Support by the Marie Curie Research Training Programme is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.

Technology and trade: an analysis of technology specialization and export flows

CESIS-Electronic Working Paper Series, 2006

This paper examines how technology specialization, measured by citations-weighted patents, affects trade flows. The paper analyzes (i) the relationship between technology specialization and export specialization across regions and (ii) how the technology specialization of origin and destination affect the size and structure of link-specific export flows. We find that the export specialization of a region typically corresponds to the region's technology specialization, which supports the view that comparative advantages can be created by investments in technology and knowledge. Export flows from regions to destination countries with similar technology specialization as the origin regions consist of commodities of higher quality in the specific technology, as indicated by higher prices. Highly specialized regions export more and charge higher prices. The results of the paper suggest that an understanding of trade ultimately requires an understanding of the spatial pattern of investments in (and creation of) technology and knowledge, as such investments shape export specialization patterns and the corresponding composition of export flows between locations across space.

w o r k i n g p a p e r 2 3 / 2 0 0 9 Industrial development and the dynamics of international specialization patterns UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION Printed in Austria V.10-51450—March 2010—200

Abstract In this paper we investigate the complex relationship between industrial development and economic structure, by focusing on one of its trade implications, the effect of international specialisation patterns on export performances of countries. Constant-Market-Share (CMS) analysis is applied to disentangle the effect of countries’ specialisation structure from competitiveness factors. This work contributes to the methodological debate on CMS putting forward a new specification of the disaggregation formula by which countries’ share of world exports is explained as the result of seven different effects. This new specification is applied to the study of world merchandise exports between 1995 and 2007 for 208 countries in BACI database. Results are here presented for a sample of 37 countries selected among the main exporters in all regions. Our analysis proves that besides macroeconomic factors, specialisation patterns in the international distribution of economic activities ar...

DP2287 The Dynamics of International Specialization

1999

The theoretical literature on trade and growth suggests that comparative advantage is endogenous and evolves over time. However, most of the empirical analysis of international trade flows is essentially static in nature. This paper proposes an empirical model of the dynamics of international specialisation. Employing disaggregated data on twenty industries in seven OECD countries, we examine the evolution of patterns of international specialisation over time and evaluate the role of changes in factor endowments in ...

Specialization dynamics

2002

This paper proposes a new empirical framework for analyzing specialization dynamics. A country's pattern of specialization is viewed as a distribution across sectors, and statistical techniques for analyzing the evolution of this entire distribution are employed. The empirical framework is implemented using data on 20 industries in seven OECD countries since 1970. We find substantial mobility in patterns of specialization.

Technology and Specialization: Dilemmas, Options and Risks

CONTENTS 1. Introductory remarks 2. Specialization and specialization policies: basic concepts and data 3. Why does specialization matters? 4. Measures of specialization 5. R&D Structure and specialization patterns: the landscape in the EU 5.1. A general view of R&D specialization in the technological advanced E.U. countries 5.2. Technology intensity of trade specialization of 8 E.U. member countries 5.3. The EU R&D regional landscape 5.3.1. R&D intensities on NUTS 1 level and specification patterns 5.3.2. Regional typologies of RIT system 5.3.3. Summary 6. Technological-led specialization as a wider E.U. policy issue 6.1. The issue of appropriate policy mixes 6.2. The risks from neutral policies 6.3. The risks of targeting specialization 6.4. An horizontal issue: Concentration of resources versus decentralization approaches 6.5. Three different strategies 6.5.1. Strategies aiming at the frontier 6.5.2. Preventive strategies to face global risks 6.5.3. The catching-up and the convergence issue 7. A lesson from the financial crisis: The importance of regulating risky innovationbased specializations 8. What choices and how to deal with risks?

International technological dynamics in production sectors: An empirical analysis

2015

A new methodology is proposed for evaluating the economic development opportunities associated with the different industries making up a country’s economic structure. To this end, neo-Schumpeterian concepts are used to reinterpret the tools afforded by the “product space” literature in an attempt to assess the technological pervasiveness and sophistication of different production sectors. The ultimate objective is to develop a description of today’s techno-productive paradigm and the differential role that the various sectors play in it. An analysis of export data from 113 countries and territories for 2005-2009 indicates that the key sectors in the world economy are: industrial machinery, scientific and medical instruments, and pharmaceuticals. The strong performance of sectors based on mature technologies suggests that key sectors originating in different stages in history can survive and overlap one another, much like geological strata, owing to the persistence of older technolog...

Do Export and Technological Specialisation Patterns Co-Evolve In Terms of Convergence or Divergence? Evidence From 19 OECD Countries, 1971-1991

Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 1998

Several researchers looking at the development of international export specialisation patterns have shown that there is a general tendency for OECD countries to de-specialise. This finding is in contrast to findings made by other authors, working on technological specialisation. These authors found increasing technological specialisation. The first aim of this paper is to investigate whether these contradictory findings are due to a 'real world' phenomenon, or whether the explanation is purely technical, by comparing the development of export specialisation to specialisation in terms of US patents, using the same methodology, and level of aggregation. The second aim is to analyse the extent to which countries and sectors display stable specialisation patterns over time, also both in terms of exports and in terms of technology.