Mexico

Abstract

Exports of technology from developing countries may be seen as the result of a gradual accumulation of human and physical capital that underlies the process of economic development. This suggests that a developing country's exports of technology may be a convenient starting point for a study of the development of local technological capability. This paper examines technology exports from Mexico from this perspective. It starts with a brief discussion of technological capability and a short background of Mexican policy bearing on the import and export of technology. It then gives an overview of Mexico's technology exports. Because one of the unique aspects of Mexican technology exports is a relatively high number of case based on what could be considered local innovation, and because such exports are the least expected from a developing country, the next section presents short summaries of some of those cases. The following section summarizes what has been learned about local technological capability from this initial exploration of technology exports from Mexico. The final one summarizes the conclusions and outlines plans for future research.