Endogenous growth, Fixed costs, Technological change, Innovation, Population growth, E10, L16, O31, O40,

Imports of goods that embody foreign technology raise a country's output directly as inputs into production and indirectly through reverse-engineering of these goods, which contributes to domestic imitation and innovation. This paper first quantifies spillovers from high technology imports from developed countries to domestic imitation and innovation in both developed and developing countries. It then considers the contribution of foreign and domestic innovation to real per capita GDP growth. International patent data for 40 countries from 1970 to 1985 are used to create proxies for imitation and innovation. High technology imports, as well as quality-adjusted research and the size of the economy, positively affect both domestic imitation and innovation. Transportation and communication infrastructure positively affects imitation, but does not appear to play a role in innovation. Interestingly, foreign direct investment, often considered an important mechanism for technological diffusion to developing nations, does not significantly affect either domestic innovation or imitation. Finally, while both foreign and domestic innovation contribute positively to real per capita GDP growth, foreign technology from developed countries appears to play a far greater role in growth than domestic technology.

This study investigates the fate of Cryptosporidium parvum and C. hominis oocysts and Giardia duodenalis cysts at four Irish municipal wastewater treatment plants (i.e., Plant A, B, C, and D) that utilize sludge activation or biofilm-coated percolating filter systems for secondary wastewater treatment. The fate of these pathogens through the sewage treatment processes was determined based on their viable transmissive stages, i.e., oocysts for Cryptosporidium and cysts for Giardia. Analysis of final effluent indicated that over 97% of viable oocysts and cysts were eliminated, except at Plant C, which achieved only 64% of oocyst removal. A significant correlation between the removal of oocysts and cysts was found at Plants A, B, and D (R = 0.98, P < 0.05). All sewage sludge samples were positive for C. parvum and C. hominis, and G. duodenalis, with maximum concentrations of 20 oocysts and eight cysts per gram in primary sludge indicating the need for further sludge sanitization treatments. This study provides evidence that C. parvum and C. hominis oocysts and G. duodenalis cysts are present throughout the wastewater processes and in end-products, and can enter the aquatic environment with consequent negative implications for public health.

South Korea's growth miracle has been well documented. A large set of institutional and policy reforms in the early 1960s is thought to have contributed to the country's extraordinary performance. In this paper, we assess the importance of one key set of policies, the trade policy reforms in Korea, as well as the concurrent GATT tariff reductions. We develop a model of neoclassical growth and trade that highlights two forces by which lower trade barriers can lead to increased per worker GDP: comparative advantage and specialization, and capital accumulation. We calibrate the model and simulate the effects of three sets of tariff reductions that occurred between the early 1962 and 1995. Our main finding is that the model can explain up to 32 percent of South Korea's catch-up to the G7 countries in output per worker in the manufacturing sector. We find that the effects of the tariff reductions taken together are about twice as large as the sum of each reduction applied individually.

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