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732. Challenges to Technology Transfer: A Literature Review of the Constraints on Environmental Technology Dissemination
- Author:
- Daniel K. N. Johnson and Kristina M. Lybecker
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Department of Economics and Business, Colorado College
- Abstract:
- This paper considers the challenges to the dissemination of environmental innovation. Following a brief exploration of the legal and regulatory regimes surrounding environmental technologies, the paper examines diffusion mechanisms, market factors, social characteristics and political elements that facilitate and complicate dissemination. Given the importance of innovation to economic development and growth, the diffusion of innovation is of great interest to economists and policymakers alike.
- Topic:
- Development, Environment, Markets, and Science and Technology
733. Thought for Food: A New Dataset on Innovation for Agricultural Use
- Author:
- Daniel K. N. Johnson and Christopher Ryan Hughes
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Department of Economics and Business, Colorado College
- Abstract:
- Agriculture, like many primary and service sectors, is a frequent recipient of innovation intended for its use, even if those innovations originate in industrial sectors. The challenge has been identifying them from patent data, which are recorded for administrative purposes using the International Patent Classification (IPC) system. We reprogram a well-tested tool, the OECD Technology Concordance (OTC), to identify 16 million patents granted between 1975 and 2006 worldwide which have potential application in agriculture. This paper presents the methodology of that dataset's construction, introduces the data via summaries by nation and industrial sector over time, and suggests some potential avenues for future exploration of empirical issues using these data.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Science and Technology, Food, and Famine
734. Determinants of Recent Online Purchasing and the Percentage of Income Spent Online
- Author:
- Kristina M. Lybecker and Brendan Hannah
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Department of Economics and Business, Colorado College
- Abstract:
- The recent stagnation of electronic commerce highlights the need to understand contemporary online consumer behavior. This study incorporates current user demographics and emerging Internet activities to dynamically model the determinants of two key measurements of recent online shopping, a purchase within the last year and the novel dependent variable, percentage of income spent online in the last three months. Logistic regression is applied to a nationally representative 2007 survey of the U.S. online population. Determinants of a recent online purchase include, ownership of a credit card, an online payment account (PayPalTM), listening to podcasts, participating in online auctions, and for the first time, female gender. In a second regression, positive determinants for the percentage of income spent online include male gender, educational attainment, online auctions, instant messenging and online dating. Online spending increases with time online and appears to compete with other forms of online entertainment and social networking.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Markets, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States
735. Media as Global Diplomat
- Author:
- Sheldon Himelfarb, Tamara Gould, Eric Martin, and Tara Sonenshine
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Over the last decade, America's image abroad has declined, and public diplomacy is often cited as the reason for that decline. According to the BBC World Service Poll in 2008 and the University of Maryland's Program for International Policy Attitudes, publics in twenty-three countries view America's influence in the world more negatively than the influence of North Korea. Citizens in a NATO ally, Turkey, view the United States (64 percent) as the greatest threat to their country in the future.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Globalization, Science and Technology, Mass Media, and Public Opinion
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Turkey
736. Global Value Chains, Technology Transfer and Local Firm Upgrading in Non-OECD Countries
- Author:
- Robert Kappel and Juliane Brach
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- The productivity and competitiveness of local firms in non-OECD countries depends as much on technological capacities and successful upgrading as in industrialized countries. However, developing countries undertake very little to no original R and primarily depend on foreign technology. Long-term contracts and subcontracting arrangements within global value chains are here very important forms of transnational cooperation and therefore also important channels for technology transfer, especially as the majority of these countries attract only limited foreign direct investment. Drawing on innovation and growth models as much as on value-chain literature, we outline an analytical model for empirical research on local firm upgrading in non-OECD countries and technology transfer within global value chains.
- Topic:
- Development, Globalization, Science and Technology, and Foreign Direct Investment
737. Digital Media in Conflict-Prone Societies
- Author:
- Ivan Sigal
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- The complex relationship between media and conflict is longstanding. Traditional mass media have been used to amplify and extend viewpoints and ideologies, to persuade audiences at home, and to influence opposing sides in conflict. However, both media and conflict have changed markedly in recent years. Many 21st-century wars are not only about holding territory, but about gaining public support and achieving legal status in the international arena. Governments seek to hold onto power through persuasion as much as through force. Media are increasingly essential elements of conflict, rather than just functional tools for those fighting. At the same time, newer media technologies have increased communication and information dissemination in the context of conflict. In particular, the growth of citizen media has changed the information space around conflict, providing more people with the tools to record and share their experiences with the rest of the world.
- Topic:
- Peace Studies, Science and Technology, War, International Affairs, and Mass Media
738. Risky business? The EU, China and dual-use technology
- Author:
- May-Britt U. Stumbaum
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper argues that it is high time for the European Union to adopt a proactive policy of managing the risks of sensitive technology transfer to the People's Republic of China (PRC). On the basis of a common understanding of the challenges of transferring dual-use technology, economically, politically and security-wise, the European Union can optimise benefits from opportunities available in the promising and technologically rapidly advancing Chinese market.
- Topic:
- Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- China and Europe
739. Technology Transfer in the Economic Relations Between the People's Republic of China and the European Union
- Author:
- Artur Gradziuk
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Polish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Economic relations between the European Union and the People's Republic of China, manifesting themselves, inter alia, in the transfer of technologies, are beneficial for both parties. From the point of view of China, import of technologically advanced goods from Europe and a subsequent opening to investment by European enterprises, involving technology transfers, have been one of the major factors in the development and modernisation of the economy. For the European Union access to the huge Chinese market has offered new, attractive opportunities in terms of business interests and exploitation of its competitive advantages in the high technologies sector.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- China and Europe
740. Toward a Global Science and Technology Policy Agenda for Sustainable Development
- Author:
- Paul A. David, Can Huang, Luc Soete, and Adriaan van Zon
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- The current economic crisis has tended to sap the policy momentum that had developed during 2006 and 2007 behind public R programmes and institutional initiatives to expand the portfolio of affordable technological means of controlling global warming. This is unfortunate, since the international negotiations about concerted actions among the leading industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have so far proceeded very slowly – too slowly, considering both the global nature of the problem and the size of the stakes involved. The initial “bargaining” stance taken by some important players, notably Japan and the United States, was in some respects disappointing in that it appears to fall far short of the EU member countries' endorsement in December 2008 of the package of EC directives designed to activate its “20-20-20” renewable energy strategy – a 20 per cent reduction of GHG emissions, and 20 per cent of energy consumption from renewable sources, by the year 2020. While there have been more promising developments recently, in the convergence towards that target in some of the legislation introduced in the US Congress, and the Obama administration's issuance of US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory directives requiring the use of the latest emissions control technologies on new and retrofitted electricity power plants, the outcome of the Copenhagen conference in December 2009 remains uncomfortably uncertain.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, International Cooperation, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States