"We propose a Solovian growth model with a convex–concave production function and international technological spillovers. We test the empirical implications of the model, analysing the effects of the productivity slowdown that followed the oil shocks of the 1970s. We argue that this slowdown, altering the world income distribution, affected the pattern of international technological spillovers, taking the poorest countries further away from the technological leaders, and therefore unable to exploit their technologies. The result is the emergence of a poverty trap for low-income countries. "

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