What obstacles prevent the most productive technologies from spreading to less developed economies from the world’s technological frontier? In this paper, we seek to shed light on this question by quantifying the geographic and human barriers to the transmission of technologies. We argue that...

When Professor Morishima's book Why has Japan 'Succeeded'? (1982) was published, Japan was still a country of 'capitalism from above'. For the past ten years the country's economy has faltered and declined. It is turning towards 'capitalism from below' despite Japan's weak democracy. This...