Trade monitoring

As a reaction to import competition from low-wage economies, firms in developed economies would respond by upgrading their innovative activities, leading to so-called defensive skill-biased innovation. In this chapter, we examine this “defensive innovation” hypothesis, which was first discussed in Wood (1994) and subsequently formalized in Thoenig and Verdier (2003). In a broader context, the effect of competition on the rate of innovation has been one of the most studied areas in the literature (e.g., Aghion et al. 2005). In the study most relevant to our work, Bloom, Draca, and Van Reenen (2016) found that a large sample of European firms increased a wide range of their innovative activities (patenting, research and development [R&D] expenditures, computer use, and total factor productivity growth), driven by intensified competition from the People’s Republic of China. This innovation was conducted within-firm.

Las corrientes de ayuda para el comercio a los países en desarrollo volvieron a incrementarse en 2012, último año para el que se dispone de cifras, y los compromisos aumentaron un 21%, tras haber disminuido un 14% el año anterior. África fue la región que más se benefició, aunque las corrientes globales a los países menos adelantados (PMA) disminuyeron. Los Miembros de la OMC debatieron sobre los preparativos del Quinto Examen Global de la Ayuda para el Comercio, “Reducir los costos del comercio con miras a un crecimiento inclusivo y sostenible”, que tendrá lugar del 30 de junio al 2 de julio de 2015.