Econometrica

Journal Of The Econometric Society

An International Society for the Advancement of Economic
Theory in its Relation to Statistics and Mathematics

Edited by: Guido W. Imbens • Print ISSN: 0012-9682 • Online ISSN: 1468-0262

Econometrica: Jul, 2016, Volume 84, Issue 4

Why Doesn't Technology Flow from Rich to Poor Countries?

https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA11150
p. 1477-1521

Harold L. Cole, Jeremy Greenwood, Juan M. Sanchez

What is the role of a country's financial system in determining technology adoption? To examine this, a dynamic contract model is embedded into a general equilibrium setting with competitive intermediation. The terms of finance are dictated by an intermediary's ability to monitor and control a firm's cash flow, in conjunction with the structure of the technology that the firm adopts. It is not always profitable to finance promising technologies. A quantitative illustration is presented where financial frictions induce entrepreneurs in India and Mexico to adopt less‐promising ventures than in the United States, despite lower input prices.


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Supplement to "Why Doesn't Technology Flow from Rich to Poor Countries?"

This zip file contains the replication files for the manuscript.

Supplement to "Why Doesn't Technology Flow from Rich to Poor Countries?"

The online appendix contains two sections, namely Sections 14 and 15.  Section 14 deals with theoretical aspects of the analysis.  In particular, it provides the proofs for all of the lemmas in paper.  Section 15 pertains to the empirical work and discusses the data used.