TY  - JOUR
AU  - Brezis,Elise
AU  - Krugman,Paul
AU  - Tsiddon,Daniel
TI  - Leapfrogging: A Theory of Cycles in National Technological Leadership
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3886
PY  - 1991
Y2  - October 1991
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3886
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3886.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Elise Brezis
Dept. of Economics
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat Gan
ISRAEL
E-Mail: brezie@mail.biu.ac.il

Paul R. Krugman
Department of Economics
Princeton University
Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton, NJ  08544
Tel: 609/258-4570
Fax: 609/258-2809
E-Mail: pkrugman@princeton.edu

Daniel Tsiddon
Department of Economics
Tel-Aviv University
Ramat-Aviv
Tel-Aviv  69978  ISRAEL
Tel: NA
E-Mail: tsiddon@post.tau.ac.il
AB  - Much recent work has suggested that endogenous technological change tends to reinforce the position of the leading nations. Yet from time to time this leadership role shifts. We suggest a mechanism that explains this pattern of -leapfrogging- as a response to occasional major changes in technology. When such a change occurs, leading nations may have no incentive to adopt the new ideas; given their extensive experience with older technologies, the new ideas do not initially seem to be an improvement. Lagging nations, however, have less experience; the new techniques offer them an opportunity to use their lower wages, to break into the market. If the new techniques eventually prove to be more productive than the old, there is a reversal of leadership.
ER  -