Title: On the evolution of technological knowledge and the structural economic consequences derived from its assimilation

Authors: Debora Di Caprio; Francisco J. Santos Arteaga

Addresses: Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Campus de Somosaguas, 28223 Madrid, Spain ' Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Campus de Somosaguas, 28223 Madrid, Spain

Abstract: The current paper analyses the structural economic consequences derived from modifying the composition of the labour force within a given country as the acquisition and assimilation of technological knowledge among workers stagnates through time. This is done by designing an endogenous growth model driven by the technological development level of countries, which conditions both their factor productivity and their probability of generating innovations. Heterogeneity in the levels of technological development and assimilation among countries provides laggards with innovation incentives that may however lead to divergences in total factor productivity for identical available technologies. Numerical simulations are introduced to illustrate the main results obtained.

Keywords: technological development; knowledge assimilation; innovation; human capital evolution; economic stagnation; European economic area; labour force; endogenous growth models; total factor productivity; numerical simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2016.073292

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2016 Vol.19 No.1, pp.85 - 108

Received: 26 Mar 2014
Accepted: 11 Aug 2014
Published online: 30 Nov 2015 *

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