Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2012, 20(3):36-54 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.368

Is China Catching Up? Technological Sophistication of Chinese Exports to European Union

Jana Vlčková
University of Economics, Prague, Faculty of International Relations (xnovj75@vse.cz).

Increases in the technological sophistication of some emerging economies, linked, in part, to shifts in the distribution of innovation activities from developed to emerging economies has attracted a lot of attention. Whether emerging economies will catch up with developed regions in terms of innovation and technology remains an open question. Various methods can be used to measure the technological capacity of an economy, though most suffer from a number of significant problems. In this paper, I present a relatively new measure of a country's technological sophistication based upon the goods that it exports. The empirical analysis focuses on exports to the European Union over the period 1990-2009. Special attention is paid to China, which has made a huge progress in technology and innovations in the past years. Based on this analysis, China's technological capabilities correspond with its income level and thus China does not seem to threaten the technological position of the EU yet.

Keywords: technological upgrading, R&D, Chinese exports, China
JEL classification: F00

Published: June 1, 2012  Show citation

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Vlčková, J. (2012). Is China Catching Up? Technological Sophistication of Chinese Exports to European Union. Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 20(3), 36-54. doi: 10.18267/j.aop.368
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