Semiconductor manufacturing is characterized by very complex process flows made up of individual process steps, many of which are built to very close tolerances. Furthermore, there are complex interactions in these process flows, whereby each process step can affect many other steps, and each final device parameter might be determined by the results from many inputs. This level of complexity is...

This paper proposes a simple model of the trade-offs perceived by innovating firms when investing in countries with limited intellectual property rights (IPR). The model allows for a continuous treatment of technology transfer and production cost gains occurring through FDI. While it does not consider possible changes in rates of innovation caused by changes in intellectual property rights in d...

intra-industry trade (iit) comprises of instantaneous imports and exports of goods and services which are handled in a same industry. the importance of iit between trading partners refers to those tradable products that provide them with diversity and high technology. to expand its foreign trade relations, iran indeed requires such trade patterns that include diversification of goods and servic...

This paper considers the links between trade liberalisation and technology choice in the nonliberalising country. Trade-liberalisation-induced changes in relative product prices have direct effects on equilibrium relative factor returns. The consequent changes in relative input costs may also lead producers to switch to alternative technologies, which will in turn induce a further indirect chan...

Recent widening of the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers has been attributed mainly to skill-biased-technical-change and to trade liberalization. This paper examines the effects of the two in a unified model, in which trade and technology adoption are endogenous. The paper has two main results. First, technical progress increases the wage gap in developed and in less developed coun...

We examine in a dyanmic model how a firm determines the optimal level of innovation, and how a firm chooses between innovation and imitation. This paper considers a local firm, which is competing with a foreign, more productive, firm in terms of quantity, and at the same time, the local firm is able to spend the optimal amount of resources on innovation, with the purpose of closing the technolo...