How Knowledge Spreads

• Author: Johannes Eugster, Giang Ho, Florence Jaumotte, and Rober to Piazza
• Pages: 52-55

52 FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | September 2018

A

Chinese company built a 10-house villa ge

with a 3-D printer in less tha n one day in

2014. A stretch of solar-power highway that

converts sunlight into electr icity and trans -

fers it directly to the power grid opened in Jinan,

eastern China, just l ast year. And a few years back,

Korea switched on a road that wireles sly recharges

online electric vehicles as t hey drive over it. ese

are just a few examples of the impres sive technolog-

ical advances t hat countries like Korea and—more

recently—Chi na have made in recent decades.

Until recently, production of the global stock of

knowledge and technology wa s concentrated in a

few large industria lized economies. From 1995

to 2014, three-quarters of the world’s patented

innovations originated in the Group of 5 (G5)

technology leaders—namely the United States,

Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

With globalization and adva nces in information

technology, however, the potential for knowledge to

travel faster and fu rther has increased dra matically,

opening up greater opportunities for emergi ng

How

Knowledge

Spreads

More rapid dif‌fusion of know-how is an

important benef‌it of globalization

Johannes Eugster, Giang Ho, Florence Jaumotte,

and Roberto Piazza

PHOTO: ISTOCK/WANGANQI