that is how easy is it in an age of gvcs and highskilled migration to keep research insights and knowhow within innovating countries knowledge externalities that extend beyond borders would facilitate potential technological leapfrogging of developing countries and blur out differences in technology if digital knowledge externalities are however confined within borders the existing advantages of highincome economies in innovation are likely to persist and provide these economies with a lasting comparative advantage in digitalintensive sectors the server farms that are necessary to support digital technologies depend on storage devices power supplies and cooling systems that consume vast amounts of energies van heddeghem et al