Mitigating technology gaps’ contribution to international income inequality

Sampson’s article, ‘Technology Gaps, Trade, and Income,’ examines the impact of innovation efficiency gaps on income, wages, and trade dynamics. Our replication, which involves utilizing additional patent metrics, broadening the country selection, extending the time frame, widening the range of the trade elasticity, and excluding outliers, reinforces the significant role of technology gaps in shaping economic inequality. However, our findings indicate that the strength of this effect varies depending on country heterogeneity and the measures of innovation used.