eprintid: 1283 rev_number: 9 eprint_status: archive userid: 6 dir: disk0/00/00/12/83 datestamp: 2012-06-07 10:17:05 lastmod: 2012-06-07 10:17:05 status_changed: 2012-06-07 10:17:05 type: monograph metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Montinari, Letizia creators_name: Rochlitz, Michael creators_id: letizia.montinari@imtlucca.it creators_id: michael.rochlitz@imtlucca.it title: Absorptive Capacity and Efficiency: A Comparative Stochastic Frontier Approach Using Sectoral Data ispublished: pub subjects: HA subjects: HB divisions: EIC full_text_status: public monograph_type: imt_eic_working_paper keywords: JEL classification: C33, O14, O33 abstract: In this paper, we investigate differences in and determinants of technical efficiency across three groups of OECD, Asian and Latin American countries. As technical efficiency determines the capacity with which countries absorb technology produced abroad, these differences are important to understand differences in growth and productivity across countries, especially for developing countries which depend to a large extend on foreign technology. Using a stochastic frontier framework and data for 22 manufacturing sectors for 1996-2005, we find notable differences in technical efficiency between the three country groups we examine. We then investigate the effect of human capital and domestic R&D, proxied by the stock of patents, on technical efficiency. We find that while human capital has always a strongly positive effect on efficiency, an increase in the stock of patents has positive effects on efficiency in high-tech sectors, but negative effects in low-tech sectors. date: 2012-06 date_type: published number: 4 publisher: IMT Institute for Advanced Studies place_of_pub: Lucca pages: 27 institution: IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca issn: 2279-6894 citation: Montinari, Letizia and Rochlitz, Michael Absorptive Capacity and Efficiency: A Comparative Stochastic Frontier Approach Using Sectoral Data. EIC working paper series #4/2012 IMT Institute for Advanced Studies , Lucca. ISSN 2279-6894. document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1283/1/EIC_WP_4.pdf