The impacts of export competition on international technology flows

ABSTRACT

Knowledge flow is a key to building technological capabilities. This article investigates how competition in international trade affects knowledge flow between countries using patent data and trade data for analysis. The main finding is that export competition in the third market (in our study, the US market) seems to have a positive impact on the flow of knowledge. The findings from this study contribute to the debate on ‘learning-by-exporting’.

KEYWORDS:

• International trade
• knowledge flow
• learning-by-export
• East Asia

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• F10
• F40
• O47

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article is available as an Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) discussion paper No. 654 (http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Dp/654.html). All remaining errors are our own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ One may raise concern that patent citations cannot measure knowledge flow because citations are added by lawyers and examiners. However, that concern is not applicable because we use patents filed to USPTO where applicants and inventors must add citations (duty of candour).

² Alternatively, distance between most populous cities can be used and the results are qualitatively similar in that case.

³ In terms of language, China and Hong Kong use Chinese whilst the Philippines and Singapore use English. In terms of borders, most of the South East Asian countries share borders with other countries.