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1031. On the Uneven Evolution of Human Know-How

Author:
Richard R. Nelson
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
Economists long have understood that the advance of technology, knowhow is a more inclusive term, has been the central driving force behind the improvements in standards of living that have been achieved over the last two centuries. It has been less well recognized that the advance of knowhow has been extremely uneven, dramatic in areas like communication and computation technologies and some areas of medicine, very limited in fields like housing construction and education. This essay is a preliminary investigation of the factors that might lie behind these differences. The search very quickly leads into exploration of why different fields of science have progressed so unevenly.
Topic:
Civil Society, Education, and Science and Technology

1032. Distributing Intelligence and Organizing Diversity in New Media Projects

Author:
Monique Girard and David Starkj
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
This paper examines how web design firms in the emergent new media industry probe and experiment with possible forms and sources of value giving shape to the new economy. Focusing on the collaborative engineering of cross-disciplinary web-design project teams, we examine how websites emerge as provisional settlements among the heterogeneous disciplines as they negotiate working compromises across competing performance criteria.
Topic:
Economics, Industrial Policy, Intelligence, and Science and Technology

1033. Agricultural Biotechnology's Complementary Intellectual Assets

Author:
Gregory D. Graff, Gordon C. Rausser, and Arthur A. Small
Publication Date:
08-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
We formulate and test a hypothesis for the dramatic restructuring that the plant breeding and seed industry has recently undergone: the reorganization can be explained in part by the desire to exploit complementarities between intellectual assets needed to create genetically modified organisms. This hypothesis is tested using data on agricultural biotechnology patents, notices for field tests of genetically modified organisms, and firm characteristics. The presence of complementarities is identified with a positive covariance in the unexplained variation of asset holdings. Results indicate that coordination of complementary assets have increased under the consolidation of the industry.
Topic:
Agriculture, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology

1034. Governance and Politics of the Internet Economy–Historical Transformation or Ordinary Politics with a New Vocabulary?

Author:
Steven Weber and John Zysman
Publication Date:
08-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
Abstract:
Driven by two fundamental processes, rapid technological change as well as social innovation and reorganization, a new digital economy, the E-conomy, is emerging. Rather than merely adding an Internet sector to the economy, the E-conomy has brought about tools for thought, tools that transform every sector of the economy by amplifying brainpower the way steam engines amplified muscle power during the Industrial Revolution. For analytic purposes, the rise of the E-conomy can be told as a story composed of 1) networks and tools, 2) e-business and e-society, 3) the productivity dilemma resolved, and 4) governance and politics. In the short run, the transformative processes unleashed by the E-conomy are likely to lead to new bargains among existing coalitions and interest groups. In the long run, the changes underway promise to fundamentally alter the political sociology of vast communities, give rise to new interests and coalitions, and transform the institutional foundation of social, economic and political life.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Political Economy, Politics, and Science and Technology

1035. The Growth and Development of the Internet in the United States

Author:
Martin Kenney
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
Abstract:
Rarely does a new technology emerge that galvanizes a dramatic rethinking of the nature of commerce. The Internet is such a technology. At this early stage, it is difficult to appreciate fully the importance of the Internet, but some speculate it might be as momentous as the arrival of the telegraph (Cohen et al. 2000; Standage 1999). Radically new communication technologies such as the Internet have multiple applications and often become ubiquitous. As such, the adoption, diffusion, and development of this new technology provide an especially penetrating view of how different national innovation systems have responded to and shaped the commercial possibilities inherent in the Internet. Of course, such an assessment for an economy as large as that of the U. S. is difficult. It is further complicated by the peculiar way in which communications technologies permeate and facilitate connections and relationships. Often the action of such technologies is imperceptible to most of the actors involved and even to aggregate statistics; e. g., better information transfer between customers and suppliers is not manifested in the finished good, though it is embodied in the good in terms of lower cost and/ or higher quality. Given the diffuse nature and the speed of the Internet's evolution, any analysis can only be tentative.
Topic:
International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

1036. The Internet and E-commerce Development in Mexico

Author:
Martin Kenney, James Curry, and Oscar Contreras
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
Abstract:
The Internet is by all accounts one of the most important innovations of the late twentieth century. As yet the Internet's impact on the economies of developed countries is not obvious, and the economic implications for developing countries are even more unclear. Already much has been written about a supposed "digital divide" within nations and between nations, but no one has a clear understanding of the exact dimensions or implications of this divide. This paper does not take any position on whether Mexico is suffering from a digital divide or is likely to do so in the future; rather, it focuses on the recent rise of Internet sites and e-commerce in Mexico.
Topic:
International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Mexico

1037. Creating an Environment: Developing Venture Capital in India

Author:
Rafiq Dossani and Martin Kenney
Publication Date:
04-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
Abstract:
In the last decade, one of the most admired institutions among industrialists and economic policy makers around the world has been the U. S. venture capital industry. A recent OECD (2000) report identified venture capital as a critical component for the success of entrepreneurial high-technology firms and recommended that all nations consider strategies for encouraging the availability of venture capital. With such admiration and encouragement from prestigious international organizations has come various attempts to create an indigenous venture capital industry. This article examines the efforts to create a venture capital industry in India.
Topic:
International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and India

1038. On Incentives in Technology Policymaking: What the EU can learn from the U.S. developments

Author:
Wolfgang Gick
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the incentives political and bureaucratic actors face in the institutional setting of EU technology policy. In examining the implications and assumptions of neoclassical and evolutionary theories of technological change, it tries to answer why some approaches are difficult to translate into policy designs. By focusing on positive policymaking the paper examines why policy learning does not occur in certain institutional settings. A special focus is on the informational constraints that limit policy design. Since evaluation and oversight mechanisms have not been sufficiently developed and accepted within EU settings, there is much room for inefficiency, as a basic agency model with hidden information shows. If political planners have incomplete information about the state of the world, programs cannot be designed efficiently. Hence, a better link between evaluation and program design could reduce inefficiencies. Regarding this point, current discussions in U.S. policymaking seem to focus increasingly on program design effects and policy implementation.
Topic:
Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

1039. Technology Parks - Concept and Organization

Author:
Rado Petkov, Rick Petree, and Eugene Spiro
Publication Date:
08-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
This study presents a conceptual and organizational framework for establishing a pilot technology park and incubator in Bulgaria. Such a park might initially focus on the telecommunication and information technology (IT) sector (including software development), where the country displays strong, albeit under-utilized, technical talent. The park might encompass an export-oriented IT service firm and an incubator that will nurture hi-tech companies and help them commercialize innovative ideas and technologies. The study presents the experience of leading technology parks and incubators in the U.S., Israel, India and elsewhere and draws upon an on-going project of the Institute for EastWest Studies to establish a technology incubator in Budapest. The purpose of the paper is to identify the existing models of technology parks and to suggest organizational, legal and management solutions that can be applied in Bulgaria.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, and Bulgaria

1040. Ratifying The Kyoto Protocol: The Case For Japanese­Russian Joint Implementation

Author:
Benito Müller
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
In direct reaction to President Bush's speedy reneging on a campaign pledge to set 'mandatory reduction targets' for carbon dioxide emissions from power generation (a mere 53 days into his presidency), Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes, Director General of the German Environment Ministry, admitted that 'maybe it will be necessary to ratify the Protocol without the US and to instead pave the way for them to join later'. Since then, this sentiment has been rapidly gaining ground internationally, in particular after President Bush unilaterally declared the failure of the Kyoto Protocol. Indeed, at a meeting in Kiruna (Sweden) on 31 March 2001, EU environment ministers pledged to pursue ratification of the treaty with or without the United States. Environment minister Kjell Larsson, for the Swedish Presidency, stated that 'the Kyoto Protocol is alive, contrary to what has been said from the other side of the Atlantic. No individual country has the right to declare a multilateral agreement dead.'
Topic:
Environment, International Law, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Russia, Japan, and Israel