Productive Capabilities Through South-South Technology Transfer: The Case of Local Pharmaceutical Production in East Africa

• In Event: 3447 - New Directions in the Political Economy of Development

Abstract

Technological capabilities are essential for industrial production, but these do not have to be indigenously developed. Rather, they can be learned from others. This paper identifies three market channels through which learning from others could occur: community-based interpersonal networks, (knowledge-related) commercial transactions of goods and services, and foreign direct investment. The paper argues that today the transfer of technology to industrializing countries through these channels is likely to come from the Global South rather than the Global North. The case of technology transfer to local pharmaceutical companies in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda is used to illustrate these arguments.

Author

• Nitsan Chorev, Brown University