Imitation, Innovation In Technological Catch-up

Beginning with the theory of neoclassical economics, the effect of technological progress on economic growthis widely concerned. The new growth theory holds that technological progress is the main force to promote the economic growth, which can offset the negative impact of diminishing capital marginal returns on economic growth. As for the world economy, the advanced technology countries are all the economically developed countries. In order to realize the economic growth underdeveloped countries will continue to promote domestictechnological progress, improve their technological level, and try to narrow the technological gap between the developed countries and the underdeveloped countries. The process of narrowing the gap of technology is just theprocess of technological catch-up. Theoretically speaking, when the speed of technological progress in underdeveloped countries faster than the developed countries, it is likely to realize the technological catch-up.The problem of technology development in underdeveloped countries will be mainly studied in this paper. In the course of the research on the technological catching-up, scholars have put forward the theory of technological catch-up. The theory holds that there are two stages of imitation and innovation in the course of technology catch-up. Due to far behind the world technology frontier, the technological progress in underdeveloped countries mainly relies on imitation at the early stage of technological catch-up. with the continuous improvement of the technological level in the underdeveloped countries, the distance with the world technology frontier will continue to be reduced, the imitation space of technology will become smaller and smaller. At this moment the active effect of imitation will be limited, and innovation will become more important to catch up with and surpass the technology frontier.In the first chapter, the practical significance and theoretical significance of the researchis first elaborated. From the practical perspective, it is the internal requirement for the underdeveloped countries to transit from imitation to innovation in the course of the technological catch-up. Therefore, our research can provide support for our national innovation strategy at present. From the theoretical perspective, the problems of transition from imitation to innovation can enrich the theory of technology catch-up, which provides the theoretical support and methodological advicefor the underdeveloped countries. In the last section of this chapter, the descriptions of research methods and ideas of this paper are demonstrated, the feasibility of this study is proved, and the innovation points and specific technique research routes are put forward.In the second chapter, it reviews the related theories and literature achievements on technology catch-up of the underdeveloped countries. Firstly, it analyzes the feasibility of the technology catch-up theories, followed by the analysis of periodical theories of technology catch-up, and finally it analyzes related theories of transition form imitation-driven to the innovation-driven during the technology catch-up. The author believes that it is feasible for the underdeveloped countriesto make the technology catch-up. There are different effects on promoting technological progress between imitation and innovation at the different stages of technology catch-up. Catch-up path is not continuous and it shows periodical characteristics.There are troubles transiting from imitation to innovation, which is difficult to complete. Many underdeveloped countries did not complete to catch up with the world technology frontier. The most important reason is that there is no complete technology transition from imitation to innovation.In the third chapter, it makes a theoretical analysis of technology catch-up for underdeveloped countries through expanding the Model of Three-Sector Economic Growth by Romer. The results show that the path of technology catch-up will undergo the two equilibrium points of imitation and innovation. There is a convergence between the technological level of developed countries and innovation equilibrium point which corresponds to higher value of intermediate goods and higherlevel of technology. Whereas, there is a convergence between the technological level of underdeveloped countries and imitation equilibrium point which corresponds to lower value of intermediate goods and lower level of technology. The goal for the underdeveloped countries to make technology catch-up is to reach the innovation equilibrium pointover imitation equilibrium point.Only in this way can the underdeveloped countries realize the technology catch-up. The process from imitation equilibrium point to innovation equilibrium point is just the process of transition from imitation to innovation.There are different technological requirements on factor endowment in terms of different technological progress. The same factor will have different effects on technological progress at different catch-up stage. If the abundance degree and development level of factor itself change, its effect on technological progress will change correspondingly. For all these reasons, we believe that it is difficult to achieve the transition from imitation to innovation in the course of technology catch-up. Amicro decision model of firms is established in this chapter. The model is applied to analyze the mechanism of imitation and innovation, which is used to prove the microscopic mechanism of the transition from imitation toinnovation.In the fourth chapter, the convergence of international technology is tested through international data. When testing, the sample countries are divided into underdeveloped countries and OECD countries. Firstly, the absolute convergence test is made to the international technological level. The test results show that the technology of OECD countries is absolutely convergent, while that of the overall sample countries do not. Then the conditional convergence test is made to the international technological level. According to the testing method of conditional convergence, those factors that affect technological progress are tested in the conditional convergence model. The test results show that conditional convergence exists in overall sample countries. The factors that can affect the technological convergence will inevitably affect the technological catch-upand the process of technological transition from imitation to innovation. Therefore, in order to understand the effects of these factors on the technology catch-up and know the different performances of the effects between imitation-driven countries and innovation-driven countries, a more detailed analysis of these factors is launched in this chapter.In the fifth chapter, an empirical analysis is launched through the establishment of dynamic panel model. It is about that the factors which influence convergence have an effect on the technological catch-up for the technological catch-up countries and the advanced technological countries. During the empirical analysis, we make an grouping research on the sample countries and a comparison of the different effects of these factors on technology progress in OECD countries and underdeveloped countries. These differences show that there are different requirements of factors for promoting technology progress in imitation-driven countries and innovation-driven countries. In order to make a further analysis of the difference, the structural characteristics which influence the technological level are studied through the panel threshold regression in this chapter. The research results show that there is a threshold value when these factors affect technology. If the level of development and the degree of abundance of their own are changed, then there will be significantly different impact on technology. In the sixth chapter, it analyzes the important influence of the transition from imitation to innovation onunderdeveloped countries’ catch-up. Through comparing the countries which succeeded in realizing technology catch-up with the countries which failed to realize technology catch-up, we find that the countries which succeeded in realizing technology catch-up successfully achieved the transition from imitation to innovation, and the innovation becomes the main drive of technology progress. On the contrary, the countries which failed to realize technology catch-up didn’t achieve this transition and the imitation is still the main drive of technology progress. There are great differences in human capital and innovation ability between these two types of countries. After comparative analysis on these two types of countries, the problems of failure on technological transition and those of middle-income trap arediscussed. We believe that the middle-income trap is not only the statistical results, and the failure of technological transition is its important cause.In the seventh chapter, it summarizes the findings as well as the shortcomings of our research. Meanwhile, an outlook to the further research is launched. The conclusions of theoretical analysis and empirical analysis are included in this paper. Two propositions proposed in the theoretical analysis part are confirmed through empirical research.