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Technological catch-up to the national and regional frontier: Firm-level evidence for India

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  • Shubin Yang
  • Sandra Lancheros
  • Chris Milner

Abstract

This paper studies productivity convergence to the regional and national frontiers among manufacturing firms in India, using panel data over the period 1999 to 2010. We find evidence of convergence by lagging firms to both their national and regional frontiers, with faster convergence to the national frontier than to their regional frontier. We examine the effects of export behaviour on this process of convergence, and the results demonstrate that exporting promotes productivity growth but slows down the convergence process since export firms tend to be nearer to frontiers. We also investigate the effect of outward FDI (OFDI) on firms� productivity growth and convergence. Likewise, the results show that OFDI facilitates firms� productivity growth but decelerates the speed of convergence.

Suggested Citation

  • Shubin Yang & Sandra Lancheros & Chris Milner, 2019. "Technological catch-up to the national and regional frontier: Firm-level evidence for India," Discussion Papers 2019-06, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    • Handle: RePEc:not:notgep:2019-06
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    Cited by:

    1. Lu Xu & Jie Xiong & Jie Yan & Richard Soparnot & Zhe Yuan, 2023. "Technological Uncertainty and Catch-Up Patterns: Insights of Four Chinese Manufacturing Sectors," Post-Print hal-04011634, HAL.
    2. Ndubuisi, Gideon & Denis, Yuni & Urom, Christian & Abid, Ilyes, 2023. "Too big to be ignored: How energy poverty undermines productive efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    3. Gideon Ndubuisi & Solomon Owusu, 2023. "Trade for catch-up: examining how global value chains participation affects productive efficiency," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 195-215, April.
    4. Majidpour, Mehdi & Saber, Ali & Elahi, Shaban & Shayan, Ali & Sahebkar Khorasani, Seyed Mohammad, 2021. "Technological catch-up in the biopharmaceutical sector: Evidence from Iran," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    5. Amrita Saha & Vikrant Shirodkar & Thomas C. Lawton, 2023. "Bimodal lobbying and trade policy outcomes: Evidence from corporate political activity under uncertainty in India," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 24-46, March.
    6. Lu Xu & Jie Xiong & Jie Yan & Richard Soparnot & Zhe Yuan, 2023. "Technological Uncertainty and Catch-Up Patterns: Insights of Four Chinese Manufacturing Sectors," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-04011634, HAL.

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    Keywords

    Productivity convergence; technology frontiers; globalisation;
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