Technological distance between Indonesia and Brazil: A comparative study of technical input structure

We measured the technological distance between Brazil and Indonesia based o n a new definition, and compared it with the economic distance. Indonesia l ags behind Brazil by thirty-three years in per capita income, which is the economic distance a la Patel. Similarly we defined technological distance a s the years of difference separating a technology when it is at its most si milar in the two countries. We compared a series of input coefficient matri ces for twenty-eight sectors in Brazil and Indonesia, and calculated the to tal similarity indices for different pairs of dates, and found that the sim ilarity index became highest when the difference was fifteen years. Accordi ng to the convergence hypothesis, technological distance is smaller than ec onomic distance because current technology is an international public good. Our conclusion that technological distance is smaller than economic distan ce empirically supports the view of the convergence hypothesis.