| This study explores a broad range of issues concerning the relationship between technological innovation (indigenous and transferred) and productivity growth, using Korea as an example of a newly industrializing economy. There are three main lines of inquiry. The first investigates the effects of various measures of technology transfer (licensing, engineering consultancy, foreign direct investment, and foreign patents), as well as of indigenous R&D (R&D expenditure, R&D personnel, and domestic patents), on productivity growth. The second analyzes the relationship between R&D and technology transfer in terms of their relative importance in improving productivity and the nexus pattern between them. The third line of inquiry focuses on the empirical testing of the dependency proposition from a technological perspective. This study also sheds some light on the productivity effects of three important non-technological variables: human capital, labor separation, and energy dependence.;Despite considerable emphasis on theoretical arguments, this study is essentially an empirical analysis conducted at the industry level for the manufacturing sector (divided into heavy and light industries) during 1976-82. The basic analytical framework employed is a marginal product model derived from an aggregate production function, which provides an economic rationale for estimating the rate of return from investment in R&D and disembodied technology import (DTI). The method of analysis is the ordinary least square regression in linear form. On the basis of empirical findings, we discuss some basic guidelines for framing public policy orientation in the areas of R&D investment, technical manpower, patent utilization, and technology transfer.;As background information, we briefly introduce Korea's techno-economic surroundings and comprehensively review the econometric studies of the productivity effects of non-agricultural R&D from various analytical dimensions. We propose, as a frame of reference of this study, a process model of technological advance that clarifies the dynamic process of technological innovation leading to productivity gains at the national level. In addition, we propose a diagnostic model of technological dependence that provides a useful guide to the evaluation of a country's technology situations in the development process. |
