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The Nobel Prize--winning economist Robert E. Lucas Jr. wrote that once one starts thinking about long-run growth and economic development, 'it is hard to think about anything else.' Although I [...]

In this study, we focus on road construction and analyze technology development projects. Based on the business strategy literature and literature on technology policy, we test the relative importance of a firm's strategies and government as a buyer and champion. Our empirical findings stress the value of government championing behavior. Our results show that in road construction, championing behavior is more important than public technology procurement for project performance. The results even suggest that government championship is more important than a firm's strategic orientation. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000089 CE Database subject headings: Highway and road construction; Technology; Government; Corporations.

Science and technology policy initiatives in the early 1980s have focused in both the United States and Western Europe on improving capacity to apply a good science base in practice, expecting increases in technological advancement, improved market presence and enhanced economic growth. Results varied broadly in the United States and Europe. Even more puzzling, Japan charged ahead in technological advancement without that strong of a science base of its own. Some industrialized economies do not conform to the expected science-technology relationship, whereby strong performance in science shall lead to strong technological performance. The puzzling science-technology relationship in advanced countries has plausible explanations. (1) Science-technology relationship is much interdependent or symbiotic. Its strength and primary direction at a given time varies largely by field of science or technological innovation and across long periods of time. (2) Science-technology link in a country may depend on the overall scientific and technological level of development in that country. The strength and interdependent nature of this link evolves historically and varies across fields of science and technology. The strength of the link is affected by scientific and technological specialization in a country. Different technological fields have different scientific intensities, or degrees of building upon the science base. (3) Specialization of countries across scientific and technological fields varies. Hence, the strength of science-technology link differs between countries. High technological specialization of a country may impact its technological performance more than its immediately current scientific performance does. History, tradition and knowledge transfers may affect more returns on R&D expenditures than the actual value of R&D funds spent in science or technology. Explanations of puzzling behavior of science-technology link may become policy recommendations. KEY WORDS: science, scientific, technology, technological, performance, inventions, innovation, patents, economic growth, developed economies, science and technology, S&T, business, expenditures, R&D, research and development, national, transnational, innovation strategies, United States, EU, Japan, knowledge, transfer, spillover, science and technology policy, policy evaluation, Introduction In Simon Kuznets's (2) words, a distinctive feature of modern industrial societies is their ability to apply to the economic sphere systematized knowledge derived from scientific research (Rosenberg, 1982, [...]

The effects of actions of government agencies formulating the technology and environmental policy of the United States of America, on the business of a private monopolist are described.

Byline: Gregory Tassey (1) Abstract: The 'Internet Revolution' induced an unbalanced perspective on future economic growth strategies. Because information technology (IT) largely constitutes an infrastructure upon which other economic activity is based, its economic role is to facilitate the productivity of investment in a wide range of products and services that meet final demand. Other economies around the world can and are investing in the same infrastructure, so the efficiency advantages now being realized by the U.S. economy will be fleeting unless U.S. R&amp D efforts produce a new and broad range of innovative products and services that take advantage of this infrastructure. A deep and diverse technology-based manufacturing sector must be a core objective of a national R&amp D strategy. United States' manufacturing contributes $1.5 trillion to GDP, employs 20 million workers, accounts for more than 70% of industrial R&amp D, and constitutes the main source of technology for the larger service sector. While knowledge-based services are the largest source of economic growth for the U.S. economy, their long-term performance is highly dependent on synergies with a domestic manufacturing sector. These synergies will be even more important in the future because services are increasingly exposed to foreign competition. Knowledge-based services can be supplied from anywhere in the world--as long as these foreign sources can rapidly access and assimilate the necessary technology components. This caveat is the critical point for economic growth policy. Considerable research supports the argument that hardware and software components are most efficiently supplied to services by a manufacturing sector that is geographically close and institutionally integrated with the service applications. Policy debates have raged for decades over the nature and magnitude of underinvestment in manufacturing R&amp D. The need to resolve the relevant policy issues has increased, as industry is funding less of the long-term, high-risk research that creates the technology platforms supporting new industries and future economic growth. Unfortunately, only about a third of U.S. manufacturing is high-tech by conventional definitions. Some of the remaining industries develop technologies internally, but most purchase a large proportion of their technology from the high-tech sector. Because a technology acquisition strategy can be more easily imitated by foreign competitors, traditional industries are much more susceptible to exchange rate variations, global economic cycles, and secular shifts in foreign competition. Thus, with global technological capabilities relentlessly increasing, the long-term prospects for the moderate and low R&amp D-intensive portions of U.S. manufacturing are not good. This paper presents a conceptual framework and available data as inputs for the analysis of Federal R&amp D investment strategies. Such strategies must recognize the full range of public and private technology assets constituting a national innovation system. A developed and efficient innovation system has characteristics making imitation by foreign competitors difficult and thereby enables sustained competitive advantage. Author Affiliation: (1) National Institute of Standards and Technology, Stop 1060, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899 Article History: Registration Date: 03/10/2004

An analysis is presented of metropolitan technical inefficiency in public sector processes, using property value comparisons. Findings include the correlation between technical inefficiency and low market value of aggregate property, as dictated by poor fiscal decision making.

Because of the nation's rapid economic growth, Congress was able to spend more on discretionary activities, including R&D, this year. R&D agencies enjoyed increases in their FY98 budgets well above […]

The continuous evolution of the patterns of global competition compels governments to implement fundamental changes in the way they fund science and technology. It is argued that efforts to achieve a competitive advantage through innovation recognize that nationally funded research and development must generate sufficient returns in the forms of improved competitiveness, a solid wealth-creating potential and enhanced quality of life.

An evaluation of industrial policies linked to the manufacturing of intermediate goods underscores the need for subsidy policies to be adopted based on other considerations rather than purely technological reasons. Policy design should incorporate both technological associations and market impact in the target industries. The interaction of external effects and market structure may result in an optimal policy incorporating lump-sum subsidies, output subsidies and taxes on the target industries.

This paper presents a dynamic, learning perspective to research and development activity and to policies promoting these activities and technological development more generally. The basic idea is that successful penetration of research and development (R&D) in a newly industrialized country (NIC) context is a process involving extensive learning including collective learning ('learning by others'); multidisciplinary learning (both technoeconomic and managerial/organizational); and learning which is cumulative through time. This is especially so at an early ('infant') phase of diffusion of this process through the economy. A dynamic view of externalities and market failures is presented, one that provides the basis for a catalytic perspective of technological policy. This perspective is based on the distinction between an infant and a mature phase of policy, where massive-flexible-search oriented support in the early phase sets the base for endogenization/routinization of R&D in the economy and for the possibility of drastic reductions in government support for traditional forms of R&D in the later phase.

The government should include support for long-term university-based research and development programs in its science policy. To maintain economic activity, which is currently being driven by science and new technology, members of the American Physical Society should communicate their work and its benefits to their legislators.

A joint technology venture between the private and public sectors will be successful only if it meets the economic needs of all parties. The government is most satisfied with a joint research venture when the subsidy rate is low, innovation is enhanced and excluded firms do not complain. Government policy affects the market and is in turn affected by changes in the market.

The US government should evaluate the feasibility of embarking on a technological collaboration with Japan to lessen the impact of the prevailing recession on the country's engineering professionals. It should recognize the gains achieved by Japan in the field of science and technology over the past several decades and formulate a plan on how these innovations could benefit the US economy and the international community. Furthermore, the US needs to reassess its military and economic policies and rechannel a big part of the government budget on scientific research and development programs if it wants to play a significant role in the globalization of science and technology.

Government authorities want to turn Xian, the largest city in northwest China, into a major educational and scientific research base. The city has a solid track record in scientific research performance and is the site where major technological breakthroughs have been attained. It boasts of 510 scientific research and technological development institutions, 42 institutes of higher learning, 328,000 scientists and technicians and a large volume of sophisticated scientific experimental and testing facilities.

This paper examines the historical development of the Automobile Assembly Industry in Nigeria and Brazil, two important Third World Countries whose size, population and economic circumstances are rather similar. A comparative analysis of policy performance in both countries is offered primarily to assess how the Brazilian effort has enhanced the nation's technological capability and led to a successful development of the automobile sector while the Nigerian approach has not.

Over the past century in six major economies, economic growth has been strongly associated with machinery investment, as is the case for a larger group of nations since 1950. Both macroeconomic patterns and narratives of the history of technology suggest that this association is causal--that a high rate of machinery investment appears to be a necessary prerequisite for rapid long-run growth--and points away from possibilities that rapid growth is the cause of high machinery investment or that a high rate of machinery investment is a good proxy for other factors that are important causes of growth.

Transport activities raise a certain number of important issues which can be identified through the major preoccupations of transport researchers in the field of social sciences. Thus traditional research themes such as the relationship between transport and spatial development occur again and again at the rate of technological and economic progress, as much in the developing countries as they do in industrial nations. Some of these themes are developed in the article that follows.

President Bill Clinton emphasized the importance of the Department of Energy (DOE)'s research and development (R&D) division in preparing the country for the challenges of the 21st century. DOE was appointed to develop alternative energy resources that will curb the country's increasing dependence to imported oil and other foreign energy resources. The development of new energy-generating technology by DOE's R&D is also important in maintaining the long-term economic competitiveness of the country.

Multinational firms (MNCs) contribute to the development of their host countries as regards to the expansion of skills and technology, and increase in productivity and international trade. The effect is more visible in the industrial sector particularly in manufacturing and petroleum although it contributes little to the world output. The extent of technology transfer is governed by the country's science and technology policy. Technology imports by the foreign subsidiaries of MNCs are proportional to the amount of fixed investment and educational achievement of the workforce of a host country., Over the past decade we have been engaged in a series of studies of the operations of multinational firms (MNCs). These have included examinations of the causes of their existence [...]

Turkey is emerging from a period of economic difficulty and is facing the prospect of a closer relationship with Europe. But rapid population growth and industrialisation are presenting problems of [...]