Innovation Systems, Technology Diffusion and Industrial Linkages

This book consists of three essays that explore different aspects of innovation and new technology, namely creation, diffusion and exchange. Each study is developed as an individual paper that asks a related, yet different, research question and answers it by analyzing empirically three distinct datasets. The goal is to explore various aspects of technology in an international context, both at the country and ?rm level, and with a particular focus on developing nations. These countries rely heavily on technology imports and spillovers from industrialized nations, hoping however, to develop in parallel own national capabilities that will ensure good growth perspectives for the future. Geographically, the ?rst two essays are centered on transition countries from Eastern Europe and Central Asia that provide a nice natural experiment of countries moving from centralized and autarkic economic systems to free market economies, and also increasingly open to the world’s economy. The last essay is a true global analysis of diffusion via technological agreements between firms in the tire industry, a truly global segment represented in more than 90 countries worldwide.