IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ude/wpaper/0396.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The effects of trade liberalization on R&D investments: the case of the Uruguayan manufacturing industry

Author

Listed:
  • Walter García Fontes

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)

  • Ruben Tansini

    (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República, Uruguay.)

Abstract

In this paper we study the effects of increasing imports and foreign firm supply, as a consequence of trade liberalization policies, on the innovative activities of firms in a small developing economy. This is an interesting case as very little research exists on the R&D investments of firms in developing countries. The results show that foreign presence has a positive but not always significant effect, while import competition has a negative and significant effect on R&D investments. Firms that are able to export are also more innovative. The process of reallocation of resources from import substituting industries towards export-oriented industries, caused by the opening of the economy, seems to have reduced the incentives for R&D investments for firms in traditional industries, while increasing those for export-oriented firms. Taking into account the defensive and imitative nature of innovative activities of firms in developing countries, these results go in contrast with the evidence from developed countries, where foreign direct investments and imports seem to show positive effects on innovative activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Walter García Fontes & Ruben Tansini, 1996. "The effects of trade liberalization on R&D investments: the case of the Uruguayan manufacturing industry," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0396, Department of Economics - dECON.
    • Handle: RePEc:ude:wpaper:0396
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/2293
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Federico Echenique & Alvaro Forteza, 2000. "Are stabilization programs expansionary?," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 15(1), pages 65-89.
    2. Gustavo Bittencourt & Rosario Domingo, 1996. "Inversión Extranjera Directa en Uruguay: tendencias y determinantes," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0696, Department of Economics - dECON.
    3. Adriana Cassoni, 1996. "A bargaining model with uncertainty and varying outside opportunities," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 1096, Department of Economics - dECON.
    4. Klaus F. Zimmermann, 1987. "Trade and Dynamic Efficiency," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 73-87, February.
    5. Elvio Accinelli & Martín Puchet, 1996. "An application of the catastrophe theory in general equilibrium theory," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0296, Department of Economics - dECON.
    6. Veugelers, Reinhilde & Houte, Peter Vanden, 1990. "Domestic R&D in the presence of multinational enterprises," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15.
    7. Vaillant, Marcel, 1995. "El GATT 94 y la Organización Mundial del Comercio: una nueva agenda para Uruguay," Oficina de la CEPAL en Montevideo (Estudios e Investigaciones) 28754, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    8. Alejandro Nin & María Inés Terra, 1996. "Mercosur: un camino a la apertura o la consolidación de un bloque cerrado?," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0996, Department of Economics - dECON.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Federico Echenique & Alvaro Forteza, 2000. "Are stabilization programs expansionary?," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 15(1), pages 65-89.
    2. Alvaro Forteza, 1995. "Welfare state dynamics," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0896, Department of Economics - dECON.
    3. Sajid Anwar & Sizhong Sun, 2014. "Entry of foreign firms and the R&D behaviour: a panel data study of domestic and foreign firms in China's manufacturing sector," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(8), pages 739-757, November.
    4. Veugelers, Reinhilde, 1997. "Internal R & D expenditures and external technology sourcing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 303-315, October.
    5. Kumar, Nagesh, 1996. "Intellectual property protection, market orientation and location of overseas R&D activities by multinational enterprises," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 673-688, April.
    6. Sasidharan, Subash & Kathuria, Vinish, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment and R&D: Substitutes or Complements--A Case of Indian Manufacturing after 1991 Reforms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1226-1239, July.
    7. Elvio Accinelli, 2004. "Inversión Bajo Incertidumbre," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 3(1), pages 21-44, Marzo 200.
    8. Stefanie A. Haller, 2005. "The Impact of Multinational Entry on Domestic Market Structure and R&D," Economics Working Papers ECO2005/16, European University Institute.
    9. Haller, Stefanie A., 2009. "The impact of multinational entry on domestic market structure and investment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 52-62, January.
    10. Douglas Cumming & Jeffrey MacIntosh, 2000. "The Determinants of R & D Expenditures: A Study of the Canadian Biotechnology Industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 17(4), pages 357-370, December.
    11. Mr. Ari Aisen, 2004. "Money-Based Versus Exchange-Rate-Based Stabilization: Is There Space for Political Opportunism?," IMF Working Papers 2004/094, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Stanley Fischer & Ratna Sahay & Carlos A. Végh, 2002. "Modern Hyper- and High Inflations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(3), pages 837-880, September.
    13. Maria Luisa Petit & Francesca Sanna-Randaccio, "undated". "R&D Competitions and Firms'International Expansions," Working Papers 40, Sapienza University of Rome, CIDEI.
    14. Huang, Can & Qu, Zhe & Zhang, Mingqian & Zhao, Yanyun, 2007. "R&D offshoring and technology learning in emerging economies: Firm-level evidence from the ICT industry," MERIT Working Papers 2007-023, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    15. Sabbatini, Rodrigo & López, Andrés & Chudnovsky, Daniel & Hiratuka, Celio & Laplane, Mariano Francisco, 2002. "Integración regional e inversión extranjera directa: El caso del MERCOSUR," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 222, December.
    16. Sergio De Nardis & Marco Ventura, 2012. "Effect Of Firm Innovation On Labour Force Composition: The Case Of Italian Manufacturing," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(1), pages 338-353.
    17. Judy Hsu, 2011. "How do innovation and exchange rate changes affect firms' mode of foreign expansion?," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 429-447.
    18. Bettina Becker & Nigel Pain, 2008. "What Determines Industrial R&D Expenditure In The Uk?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 76(1), pages 66-87, January.
    19. Eliasson, Gunnar & Lundberg, Lars, 1989. "The Creation of the EC Internal Market and Its Effects on the Competitiveness of Producers in Other Industrial Economies," Working Paper Series 229, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    20. Alvaro Forteza & Martin Rama, 2006. "Labor Market 'Rigidity' and the Success of Economic Reforms Across More Than 100 Countries," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 75-105.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ude:wpaper:0396. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Andrea Doneschi or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/derauuy.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.