This text investigates to what extent the degree of knowledge diffusion affects economic growth. The central question posed is whether countries that are good at acquiring and diffusing new knowledge, achieve, as a consequence, faster economic growth. Mark Rogers uses both neclassical and endogenous growth models to construct testable hypotheses. His empirical analuysis uses new data on study abroad, communications and international business links in order to proxy absorbptive capability and to test these hypotheses.