Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns

William R. Kerr

Article | World Bank Economic Review | February 2018

Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns

Abstract

This study tests the importance of Ricardian technology differences for international trade. The empirical analysis has three comparative advantages: including emerging and advanced economies, isolating panel variation regarding the link between productivity and exports, and exploiting heterogeneous technology diffusion from immigrant communities in the United States for identification. The latter instruments are developed by combining panel variation on the development of new technologies across U.S. cities with historical settlement patterns for migrants from countries. The instrumented elasticity of export growth on the intensive margin with respect to the exporter's productivity growth is between 1.6 and 2.4 depending upon weighting.

Keywords: Exports; Comparative Advantage; Technological Transfer; innovation; Networks; Patents; Residency; Technology Adoption; Trade; Research and Development; Immigration; United States;

Format: Print

Find at Harvard Read Now

Citation:

Kerr, William R. "Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns." World Bank Economic Review 32, no. 1 (February 2018): 163–182.

This primer is meant to be a field guide to the late 2010s' surge in business use of "Artificial Intelligence" (AI), or enterprise software based in machine learning. First, it provides an overview of the key trends - digitization, connectivity, the continuation of Moore's law, and advancements in machine learning algorithms - which led to the inflection point in adoption of AI. Then, the primer describes the range of use cases of state-of-the-art enterprise AI organized in a taxonomy designed to build generalized understanding of the types of work to which AI can be applied. This knowledge is useful not only to managers looking to best leverage the technology but to those working to manage resulting organizational change and prepare the workforce for transitions into complementary tasks. Finally, key issues and implications of AI adoption are also discussed.

Tech clusters like Silicon Valley play a central role for modern innovation, business competitiveness, and economic performance. This paper reviews what constitutes a tech cluster, how they function internally, and the degree to which policy makers can purposefully foster them. We describe the growing influence of advanced technologies for businesses outside of traditional tech fields, the strains and backlash that tech clusters are experiencing, and emerging research questions for theory and empirical work.

Faculty & Research

Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author