The impact of imported and domestic technologies on the productivity of firms: panel data evidence from Indian manufacturing firms

This paper estimates production functions using panel data on Indian manufacturing firms. The results indicate a statistically significant impact of imported technologies on productivity, especially on account of imports of disembodied technology. New domestic capital goods also impact productivity positively and, in fact, tend to do so in a wider range of industries. However, the productivity enhancing effects of domestic capital goods appear to owe more to the disembodied technologies imported by producers of domestic capital goods than the R&D they conduct. JEL classification: O14; O33; D24; F14 Keywords: Firm level productivity; Technology; India