Abstract

Over the recent past interest in regionalism has mushroomed, looking not only at trade but also at foreign investment, macroeconomic, political economy aspects and implications. However, technological regionalism, i.e. whether the process of technology accumulation and diffusion has a regional dimension, has been considered only marginally and indirectly. This paper offers an exploratory analysis of the regional dimension of technology accumulation and diffusion by looking at aggregate (country) aspects. Empirical results suggest that regional trade agreements do not necessarily lead to regional knowledge spillover patterns. Regional patterns, however, may be present through vehicles of knowledge diffusion other than trade. National patterns of technological accumulation seem to prevail over the regional dimension. In particular, economies showing a high degree of internationalization seem capable of commanding a substantial amount of knowledge diffusion which may sometimes follow regional patterns.