The Definition of ‘Technology Exports’

Abstract

There is no commonly accepted definition of ‘technology exports’. In a very broad sense the term could be taken to comprise the export of all goods and services that embody some element of local productive knowledge, but this is too general a definition for our purposes. The literature on international transfer of technology utilizes a definition which comes close to our requirement. It is based on the viewpoint of the buyer rather than that of the seller, and includes in its compass the provision of such skills, designs, services and patents which contribute directly to the productive capacity of the former. Thus, intermediate and consumer goods imports are not counted as technology purchases (though in some contexts we may conceive of these also adding to the buyer’s productive capacity). The import of capital goods, while a form of ‘embodied’ technology, is also generally excluded under this convention. The line drawn is clearly somewhat arbitrary, but it seems to be based on the distinction between transactions in skills and productive knowledge as such, on the one hand, and in commodities and equipment, on the other.