Evaluation, technology transfer, agricultural mechanization, development aid, developing countries - choice of technology, historical role of UK in economic development; political power, technological change, tractors, Sri Lanka, cultivation techniques. Bibliography, statistical tables.

The paper examines foreign aid in the context of a dynamic Ricardian model of trade and development that highlights the role of learning in both the initial adoption of new technologies and products and their eventual transfer from developed to developing countries. When aid is paid as a pure unilateral transfer, the conventional short-run terms-of-trade improvement that results from a home bias in consumption causes harmful delays in the transfer of technology that can lead to mutual immiserization. Conversely, aid that directly or indirectly expedites technology transfer and learning in developing countries can be mutually beneficial.

Evaluation, technology transfer, agricultural mechanization, development aid, developing countries - choice of technology, historical role of UK in economic development; political power, technological change, tractors, Sri Lanka, cultivation techniques. Bibliography, statistical tables.

For many years it was assumed that technology transfer would prove an unqualified answer for the problems of the developing nations, vastly simplifying and accelerating their rate of economic development. The papers in this volume question these assumptions demonstrating how technology transfer can be very costly and that success is contingent upon a variety of factors including, the direction of indigienous technology and the political setting of the recipient country.