Technology Diffusion across Regions

Until recently, the geographical coverage of empirical studies on regional technology diffusion was usually rather limited or biased towards the industrialized world. This paper extends the sample of analysis and investigates regional TFP growth and the factors determining productivity spillovers for an extensive amount of regions. Nonlinearities in the effects of the explanatory variables as well as spatial spillovers are considered in the estimation model. The findings confirm a robust direct impact of technological catch-up on regional TFP growth. Catch-up speeds increase with higher levels of human capital and in countries with larger inflows of FDI. Furthermore, positive spatial spillovers of technology levels are observed.