Transfer of technology to developing countries: unilateral and multilateral policy options

The authors analyze national and international policy options to encourage the international transfer of technology, distinguishing between four major channels of such transfer: trade in products, trade in knowledge, foreign direct investment, and intra-national and international movement of people. They develop a typology of country types and appropriate policy rules of thumb as a guide to both national policymakers and rule making in the World Trade Organization, as policies should differentiate between countries. The authors also develop some rules of thumb for policy intervention. These include: 1) Liberal trade policies for all types of countries; 2) Temporary encouragement of foreign direct investment inflows for low-income countries; 3) Licensing for technical transformation and adaptive investments by local firms to apply technologies; 4) Policy options for source economies to encourage international transfer of technology to poor countries, including fiscal incentives, improvement of flows of public-domain technologies with appropriate subsidies, and price differentiation for exports of intellectual property products.