Bruno, Randolph;
Matusiak, Monika;
Osaulenko, Kirill;
Radosevic, slavo;
(2023)
“Digitalisation” and “Greening” as Components of Technology Upgrading and Sustainable Economic Performance.
Sustainability
, 15
(3)
, Article 1838. 10.3390/su15031838.
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Abstract
This paper explores the pace and direction of technological development by using a technology upgrade conceptual and measurement framework. This approach is applied to a sample of 164 economies worldwide between 2002 and 2019. Within the framework of technology upgrading, the paper focuses on digitalisation and “greening” as its two significant structural features. We explore their relationship with different components of technology upgrading and the relationship be-tween technology upgrading components and different indicators of macroeconomic productivity. We have adopted a longitudinal fixed effects regression method with control for unobserved heterogeneity, clustered standard errors, and time dummies. Our results show that the growth of research and development (R&D) capabilities does not translate into aggregate productivity growth. There is a lack of unconditional relationship between aggregate productivity growth, digitalisation and greening. However, there are “latecomer advantages” to basic digitalisation for lower middle- and low-income economies and “latecomer liabilities” in the greening of the economy for upper-middle-income economies. In addition, levels of digitalisation and greening do not correlate, suggesting these two transformation processes are not yet integrated into ‘ICT-assisted greening’. When we control for income levels, the impact of components of tech-nology upgrading on productivity is isolated to specific components and significant only for some income groups. The absence of a significant simultaneous effects of several components of tech-nology upgrading on productivity points to large transformation failures. We conclude that the role of science and technology systems in spurring sustainable development would require a broad scope for science and technology (S&T) policies, their coordination, and integration with non-innovation policies.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | “Digitalisation” and “Greening” as Components of Technology Upgrading and Sustainable Economic Performance |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3390/su15031838 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/su15031838 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 by the authors. Submitted for possible open access publication under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Digitalization; “greening”; technology upgrading; technology transfer; catching-up economies; labour productivity; total factor productivity |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > SSEES |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10163424 |
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