Does the Technology Gap Influence Spillovers? A Post-liberalization Analysis of Indian Manufacturing Industries

Abstract

The purpose of this article is twofold: first to examine spillovers from existing foreign firms in India to local firms and whether the technology gap between foreign and domestic firms has any role to play in influencing spillovers; and second, to investigate whether the liberalization of the 1990s resulting in increased inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) has had any influence in increasing the productivity of Indian firms. Using panel data for 1840 firms from 1995 to 2005, this study finds that in a large number of industries domestic firms are more productive than foreign firms, thereby precluding the possibility of spillovers to all the sectors. Even in the sectors where foreign firms are more productive and the technology gap is accounted for, there is no evidence of spillovers resulting from the presence of foreign firms. Similarly, FDI inflow seems to have no impact on productivity once industries are divided according to the size of the technology gap.