Nuove tecnologie e commercio internazionale: un'analisi empirica

The essay regards issues related to international trade by focusing on factors related to technological innovation and the diffusion of net technologies. On the basis or an «extended» gravity model, which includes additional variables alongside GNP and population, the author examines international trade among 39 countries from 1973-1998 according to the technological content of goods, Among the variables in the model, the author introduces a nes index related to the ease of communication through the net, measured by the number of internet hyperlinks that exist on websites on a server in one country that point to web pages hosted by servers in another country. The empirical findings show that for homogeneous goods, the most outstanding variable explaining bilateral commercial flows is the GNP of the import country for differentiated goods, and the GNP of the export country for highly technological goods. For highly technological sectors, the effect of communication via internet, measured by internet hyperlinks, is very relevant, above al! in trade between OECD countries.