中外合资企业是一种独特的外国投资模式，它有多种技术转让渠道(如图1所示)使得本土企业可能从中受益。除了任何履行合同和管理义务外，外国投资者有直接的动机将专有技术转让给其合资企业，以便新的业务取得成功，这有助于合资公司在与其他公司竞争中表现优异。第一个渠道是我们所说的外国母公司和合资公司分支机构之间的内部技术转让（Internal）。

Figure 1： Joint Venture Formation andTechnology Transfer

图1：合资企业的形成与技术转让

The second effect that we consider is one in which the Chinese IJV partner benefits indirectly from the transfer of technology to the joint venture. Foreign investors have little incentive to transfer technology directly to their joint venture partner, but knowledge could still be diffused to the partner through indirect observation or outright appropriation. We denote this effect as the intergenerational technology transfer effect, as IJVs generate spillovers on their domestic partner firms.

我们考虑的第二个渠道是，中外合资伙伴从（国外母公司）向其转让技术的过程中间接受益。（在这种情形下）外国投资者几乎没有动力将技术直接转让给他们的合资公司，但知识仍然可以通过间接观察或直接挪用的方式向合作伙伴扩散。我们将这种效应称为代际技术转让效应，因为中外合资公司会对其本土母公司产生溢出效应（编者注：比如，上汽大众对荣威的扩散）。

Finally, domestic firms outside of the joint venture might themselves be impacted by the proliferation of foreign investment and could benefit indirectly from the spread of foreign technology. The knowledge spillovers that arise from FDI represent the external effects of IJV formation.