Abstract
The current paper analyses the structural economic consequences derived from modifying the composition of the labour force within a given country as the acquisition and assimilation of technological knowledge among workers stagnates through time. This is done by designing an endogenous growth model driven by the technological development level of countries, which conditions both their factor productivity and their probability of generating innovations. Heterogeneity in the levels of technological development and assimilation among countries provides laggards with innovation incentives that may however lead to divergences in total factor productivity for identical available technologies. Numerical simulations are introduced to illustrate the main results obtained.