The literature on technological change and growth has mainly used econometric models to establish that factors such as the degree of openness, skills, research and development expenditures, number of patents etc. are critical determinants of innovation and its effect on growth. However, this approach fails to explain the role of institutions and policies that created the environment for innovation. Using 10 case studies from developing countries, this book examines how governments fostered technological adaptation through public-private partnerships to develop world-class exporters in high-growth, non-traditional industries.

January 1995 A developing country's economic growth rate increases as foreign technology imports increase. In developing countries, increases in productivity depend not on innovation but on importing foreign plants and equipment and on borrowing foreign technology. Zhang and Zou investigate the relationship between foreign technology imports and economic growth in developing countries. They develop an intertemporal endogenous growth model that explicitly accepts foreign technology imports as a factor of production. The model establishes a link between the growth rate of productivity in a developing country and the country's intensity of learning to use foreign technologies. They hypothesize that a developing country's economic growth rate increases as foreign technology imports increase. They run regressions with data for about 50 developing countries, using different econometric methods and time spans. These empirical tests confirm the hypothesis that foreign technology transfers boost income growth rates. Moreover, economic developing in developing countries differs from that in industrial countries. In developing countries, increases in productivity depend not on innovation but on importing foreign plants and equipment and on borrowing foreign technology. This paper -- a product of the Public Economics Division, Policy Research Department -- is part of a larger effort in the department to understand economic growth and foreign trade. Heng-fu Zou may be contacted at [email protected].

World Bank Technical Paper No. 300. Provides an overview of past experiences with the introduction of agricultural technologies in World Bank-funded projects in Mediterranean climates, with an emphasis on the Middle East and North African region. The authors review the adequacy of present crop and livestock technologies, identify technical and socio-economic constraints on their adoption, and describe prospective technologies for pilot testing and full-scale introduction in future Bank-funded projects.