Wake up and smell the ginseng: International trade and the rise of incremental innovation in low-wage countries

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Puga, Diego; Trefler, Daniel
• 署名单位: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid; University of Toronto; University of Toronto; National Bureau of Economic Research; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2009.01.011
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 64-76
• 关键词: International trade; Low-wage country innovation

摘要

Increasingly, a small number of low-wage countries such as China and India are involved in incremental innovation. That is, they are responsible for resolving production-line bugs and suggesting product improvements. We provide evidence of this new phenomenon and develop a model in which there is a transition from old-style product-cycle trade to trade involving incremental innovation in low-wage countries. The model explains why levels of involvement in incremental innovation vary across low-wage countries and across firms within each low-wage country. We draw out implications for sectoral earnings, living standards, the capital account and, foremost, international trade in goods. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.