Using Taiwanese firm-level data, we confirm that foreign direct investment and R&D have a positive impact, or spillover effect, on productivity. Furthermore, labour quality, firm size, market structure, and export orientation all affect a firm's productivity. Applying Heckman's [1976] two-stage estimation method, we find that firms self-select into R&D or non-R&D groups. After correcting for this selection bias, we find that foreign direct investment, local technology purchase, and outward foreign investment are substitutes to R&D activity. These results are mainly due to the significant effect of industry-wide technology spillovers. The major policy implications derived from this study are that governments in developing countries may first wish to adopt policies encouraging foreign direct investment to foster technology transfer and industry-wide knowledge spillovers in the short run. However, once the country's technological capability is established it appears critical to switch towards policies that provide a preferred environment to stimulate R&D investment (for example, infrastructure improvement and protection of intellectual property rights) to allow for sustainable economic growth.
Using firm data from the 1995 Third Industrial Census of China, this paper finds that the presence of foreign ownership has a positive and significant effect on domestic firms' productivity. Moreover, trading with more advanced countries helps China gain access to new technology and information, which improves its productivity and enables it to compete in international markets. It is found that China's imports from OECD and the four Asian Tigers, and exports to OECD have positive effects on domestic firms' productivity. By dividing industries into high-technology-gap and low-technology-gap groups, it is found that the spillover effects of FDI are larger for the low-technology-gap group than for the high-technology-gap group. However, the estimation results of the trade-induced technology spillover effect support the technology-gap learning theory and the significance of importing appropriate technology.
By using cointegration and error-correction representation methodology, this paper tested the causal relationship among human capital accumulation, exports, and economic growth using data pertaining to Taiwan's real GDP, real exports, and higher education attainment over the period 1952-95. The main findings of the paper are that human capital accumulation fosters growth and stimulates exports, while exports promote long-run growth by accelerating the process of human capital accumulation. Taiwan's case study thus supports the human capital-based endogenous growth theory and the export-led growth hypothesis.
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