Application of the Yale Technology Concordance to the Construction of International Spillover Variables for India

Abstract

Although there is increased interest in the role of international technology spillovers, empirical studies have been hampered by a host of measurement problems. This paper reviews recent attempts to address two of these problems. First, there are differing degrees of transferability of technology from one region to another. Second, both embodied and disembodied technology are transferred, and these different modes of transfer have distinct implications for both behavior and policy. To deal with the first measurement problem, the Yale Technology Concordance (YTC)—a matrix that maps patents into industries of manufacture and sectors of use—was used to construct indices of relevance of foreign technology to India. To deal with the second measurement problem, the YTC was again used to construct pools of embodied and disembodied international technology. After describing the variable construction, the paper highlights the performance of these variables in equations that predict Indian firms' R&D, technology purchases and output.