Modeling the building blocks of country-level absorptive capacity : comparing developed and emergent economies.

Abstract

Several studies analyzed the importance of absorptive

capacity (AC) to achieve economic development. How- ever, to the best of our knowledge, no study compares

the building blocks (BBs) of AC between developed and emergent economies. This paper aims to identify

and analyze the impact of the BBs on AC under dis- tinct levels of development (i.e., developed vs. emerging

economies) using systematic literature review (SLR) and econometrics. Specifically, both linear and nonlinear analyses were employed. Our findings show that BBs in developed and emergent regions are different. For both

groups, R&D, FDI (foreign direct investment), infras- tructure, and HDI (human development index) variables

are BBs of AC. For developed economies, BBs also con- template secondary education enrollments, the higher

education index, and the percentage of GDP spent on higher education. Moreover, the thresholds of BBs also differ between developed and emergent economies. This

identification of BBs and possible AC thresholds is valuable, as it provides information to set goals and strate- gies before a foreign investment attraction policy. Thus,

the results facilitate the development of more suitable strategies to enhance positive productivity spillovers and avoid negative spillovers whenever possible. These results show that policymakers cannot employ the same policies for the development of developed and emerging countries.