Does Input-Trade Liberalization Affect Firms' Foreign Technology Choice?

Bas, Maria ; Berthou, Antoine

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: input trade;    trade liberalization;    capital goods imports;    technology diffusion;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7883
RP-ID  :  WPS7883

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper studies the impact ofinput-trade liberalization on firms' decision toupgrade foreign technology embodied in imported capitalgoods. The empirical analysis is motivated by a simpletheoretical framework of endogenous technology adoption,heterogeneous firms and imported inputs. The model predictsa positive effect of input tariff reductions on firms'technology choice to source capital goods from abroad. Thiseffect is heterogeneous across firms depending on theirinitial productivity level. Relying on India's tradeliberalization episode in the early 1990s, this paperdemonstrates that the probability of importing capital goodsis higher for firms producing in industries that haveexperienced greater cuts on tariffs on intermediate goods.Only those firms in the middle range of the initialproductivity distribution have benefited from input-tradeliberalization to upgrade their technology.