The event on April 22 concluded a journey that brought together around 400 participants from 56 countries

Six months after the first edition on the beginning of November 2020, the workshop series on “Technology Upgrading and Economic Catch-Up” has come to an end, leaving behind many interesting discussions that reached almost 400 participants from 56 countries. During its run, the series went from micro to macroeconomics, and vice-versa, dealing with issues such as innovation policy, green growth, capability building, global value chains and so on.

The theme of the first edition of the workshop series was “Technology capabilities and their impact on growth and catching up”. The workshop explored the role of technological capabilities and their impact on growth and economic catching up, with a focus on emerging economies. Jan Fagerberg (University of Oslo), Randolph Bruno (University College London), Vitaliy Roud (Higher School of Economics, National Research University), JD Lee, and Keun Lee (Seoul National University) were some of the speakers. Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira (Tsinghua University) offered some special remarks. You can watch the event in full below:

For the second edition, we discussed “Technology Capability Upgrade and Sectoral Catch-Up”. The workshop explored the reasons for the uncertainty behind technology upgrading processes, where outcomes are dependent on a variety of mutually interrelated factors whose consequences are so unpredictable. Paulo Zawislak (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), Paulo Figueiredo (Getulio Vargas Foundation), Jae Yong Choung (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) were some of the speakers. Anwar Aridi (World Bank) provided special remarks. You can watch the event in full below:

The third edition of the workshop series went green by discussing “Emerging paradigm on technology capability upgrading: embracing green, inclusive and social sustainability concerns”. The workshop explored new developments in technology through the increasing application of artificial intelligence, the demise of the fossil-fuel-based growth regime, plus increasing concerns with equity and inclusiveness of technology.  It also evaluated new measures of economic growth that go beyond GDP measures to include sustainable development and green growth. Tilman Altenburg (German Development Institute), Maria Savona (Sussex University), and Gabriela Dutrénit (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana) were some of the speakers. Otaviano Canuto (Policy Center for the New South) provided some comments on the presentations. You can watch the event in full below:

Innovation Policy for Technology Upgrading was the theme of the fourth edition of the workshop series. It explored different facets of innovation policies for technology upgrading in the context of changing policy philosophies evolving from import substitution earlier on and the Washington consensus policies more recently to the pandemic/post-pandemic context of today. The speakers were Xudong Gao (Tsinghua University), Carlo Pietrobelli (University Roma Trè), and Yevgeny Kuznetsov (Migration Policy Institute), while Fuad Hasanov and Reda Cherif (International Monetary Fund) acted as external discussants. You can watch the event in full below:

Finally, the final edition brought together the editors of the upcoming Oxford University Press volume that inspired the organization of the series: “The Challenges of Technology Upgrading and Economic Catch-Up in Emerging Economies” to wrap up the discussions and provide some comments on future research agenda. They are Jeong-Dong Lee (Seoul National University), Keun Lee (Seoul National University), Dirk Meissner (Higher School of Economics – NRU), Slavo Radosevic (University College London), and Nicholas Vonortas (George Washington University/University of Campinas). Sergio Salles-Filho (University of Campinas), Yongsuk Jang (Science and Technology Policy Institute, Korea), and Alfred Watkins (Global Solutions Summit) provided special remarks. You can watch the event in full below:

The volume is soon to be released by Oxford University Press (June 2021). You can find more information here. Please check out our International Events section for more details on past and forthcoming events. You can also subscribe to our Newsletter to receive up-to-date information about our and our partners’ research.