Understanding Cross-national Trends in High-tech Renewable Power Equipment Exports to the United States

Part of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper Series:

Sawhney and Kahn track US imports of advanced technology wind and
solar power-generation equipment from a panel of countries during 1989-2010,
and examine the determining factors including sector-specific US foreign direct
investment (FDI) outflow, country size, and domestic wind and solar power
generation. Differentiating between the core high-tech and the balance of
system equipment, Sawhmey and Kahn find US imports of the both categories have
grown at significantly higher rate from the relatively poorer countries, particularly
China and India.  US FDI is found to play a significant positive role in the exports of high-tech equipment from both rich and poor countries, especially for the balance of system equipment. For the core wind and solar equipment, we find domestic renewable power generation played a significant positive role, and the effect is more pronounced for the rich countries as well as China compared to other poor countries.