The Market for Know-How and the Efficient International Transfer of Technology

Abstract

This article explores the nature of international technology transfer and the operation of the market for know-how. It begins by examining the relationship between codification and transfer costs and then analyzes various imperfections in the market for know-how. The special properties of know-how are shown to confound various aspects of the exchange process when arms-length contracting is involved. The internalization of the exchange process within multinational firms serves to bypass many of these difficulties, and explains why the multinational firm is of such importance. Several forms of regulation of technology imports and exports are examined. It is discovered that the process is insufficiently well understood to permit the design of effective regulation that, moreover, appears unlikely to eliminate inefficiency. An efficiency focus is maintained throughout since I feel no qualification to pontificate on complex and confused distributional issues.