Lagged R&D Spillovers and International Competitiveness: A Sectoral Approach in the Case of Tunisia

In the developing countries, foreign technology was largely compared to the one of the principal engines of the economic growth. However, according to the economic literature, the assimilation of this technology is far from being an automatic process. If the developing countries (or firms located in such countries) are not able to satisfy the conditions which their make it possible to learn this technology, so that they are deprived of sufficient absorptive capacity, they will face difficulties to transform these spillovers into profits of competitiveness. Initially, we will analyze within this paper the interaction between absorptive capacity of R&D spillovers and technological lag. In the second time, we will analyze the effects of the current and lagged R&D spillovers on the international competitiveness measured by exports and this, in the specific context of Tunisia.