Technology and industrialization at the take-off of the Spanish economy: New evidence based on patents

The aim of the paper is to contribute to a better knowledge of the existing relationship between the incorporation of technology and the industrial take-off, based on the case study of the sectoral dynamism of the Spanish industry during its period of highest development. The main hypothesis is that only an appropriate combination of the introduction of foreign technology and the creation of domestic technology guarantees the acquisition of the technological knowledge required for developing and less developed countries to reach a level closer to that of more developed countries. An evolutionary perspective has been applied considering that industrial growth depends on three types of variables: innovation or technology creation, dissemination potential and absorption capacity potential. The results confirm that the introduction of imported technology has been significant, both for unincorporated knowledge, shown in the growth of patents in the period 1960-1966, and that introduced through the importation of production technology by companies in the process of modernization. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.