Technological spillovers and patterns of growth with sector-specific R&D

This paper studies a two-sector model of endogenous technical change in which expansion of each production sector is associated with sector-specific R&D investment. It is shown that the pattern of growth is sensitive to the specification of intersectoral technological spillover as well as to the preference structure. If technological spillovers and preferences of consumers are represented by CES functional forms, the balanced-growth equilibrium may not exhibit a well-behaved saddle-point property: it is possible that the balanced-growth path is locally indeterminate or unstable. In addition, a slight modification of technological spillover effects easily yields multiple balanced-growth paths. In contrast, Cobb-Douglas specifications present a unique and determinate balanced-growth path.