The convergence of technology-based competitive capabilities among the world's economies has drastically altered the required economic growth strategies in industrialized nations. Based on a variety of corporate and government investment trend data and comparisons among national growth strategies, Gregory Tassey examines how this convergence has created an imperative for new growth models and strategies. In particular, he analyzes the major policy mechanisms for stimulating R&D investment and improving R&D efficiency over technology life cycles, detailing the needed changes. In the 65 years since Joseph Schumpeter's classic characterization of the 'creative destruction' process of industrial technological change, the role of technology in economic growth has grown relentlessly. The author provides the first detailed assessment of underinvestment in R&D and the two major R&D policy response mechanisms - tax policy and direct funding. The policy models and analyses presented are based largely on US economic experience, but the resulting prescriptions are relevant for all existing and emerging technology-based economies. The author's ultimate message is that the industry-centric Schumpeterian model must be expanded to one in which competition among governments is as important as it is within the private sector. This cutting-edge study will be of interest to science and technology policy researchers and analysts, economists focusing on the impacts of technological change, government managers of science and technology programs, and industry managers from high-tech firms.

Global interest in technology-based growth politics is growing as technology becomes an increasingly important factor in economic competitiveness. In spite of increased efforts in many nations to develop more effective industry strategies, most of these endeavors have been ad hoc exercises rather than derived from a consistent framework. Technology Infrastructure and Competitive Position provides that missing framework. It begins by providing an overview of technology-based competition and the relevant issues. A conceptual model is developed that emphasizes the roles and impacts of the supporting infrastructure. Finally, the book addresses the interaction of corporate and governmental roles for providing technology infrastructure, some funding issues and mechanisms for cooperative planning and implementation.

The convergence of technology-based competitive capabilities among the world's economies has drastically altered the required economic growth strategies in industrialized nations. Based on a variety of corporate and government investment trend data and comparisons among national growth strategies, Gregory Tassey examines how this convergence has created an imperative for new growth models and strategies. In particular, he analyzes the major policy mechanisms for stimulating R&D investment and improving R&D efficiency over technology life cycles, detailing the needed changes. In the 65 years since Joseph Schumpeter's classic characterization of the 'creative destruction' process of industrial technological change, the role of technology in economic growth has grown relentlessly. The author provides the first detailed assessment of underinvestment in R&D and the two major R&D policy response mechanisms - tax policy and direct funding. The policy models and analyses presented are based largely on US economic experience, but the resulting prescriptions are relevant for all existing and emerging technology-based economies. The author's ultimate message is that the industry-centric Schumpeterian model must be expanded to one in which competition among governments is as important as it is within the private sector. This cutting-edge study will be of interest to science and technology policy researchers and analysts, economists focusing on the impacts of technological change, government managers of science and technology programs, and industry managers from high-tech firms.

We must all hang together or surely we will all hang separately. Benjamin Franklin The significant apathy that characterized relationships between indus try and universities and the adversarial nature of relationships between industry and government have both faded rapidly in the 1980s as the realities of global competition have surfaced in the United States. Both industry and government leaders articulate a number of constructs for regaining our competitiveness in world markets. One of the more fre quent strategies prescribed in this new competitiveness era is cooperation. Different individuals or groups may espouse different definitions, inter pretations, or areas of emphasis, but the overall importance of this concept is substantial. Although examples of cooperative research have existed for several decades, the number and variety of relationships have expanded rapidly in the 1980s as corporations, universities, and governments have embraced this strategy. Joint ventures involving two or three firms increased from under 200 per year in the 1970s to over 400 per year by the mid-1980s. Multiple-firm cooperative arrangements are a more recent phenomenon, made possible by the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984. By mid- 1988,81 of these industry-level consortia had formed under the provisions of the 1984 Act. The rapid growth in cooperative research and development (R&D) is primarily a response to the pressures of international competition. As a corporate strategy, cooperative R&D meets short-term needs for assets to implement new approaches for coping with intensifying competition."

Global interest in technology-based growth politics is growing as technology becomes an increasingly important factor in economic competitiveness. In spite of increased efforts in many nations to develop more effective industry strategies, most of these endeavors have been ad hoc exercises rather than derived from a consistent framework. Technology Infrastructure and Competitive Position provides that missing framework. It begins by providing an overview of technology-based competition and the relevant issues. A conceptual model is developed that emphasizes the roles and impacts of the supporting infrastructure. Finally, the book addresses the interaction of corporate and governmental roles for providing technology infrastructure, some funding issues and mechanisms for cooperative planning and implementation.

We must all hang together or surely we will all hang separately. Benjamin Franklin The significant apathy that characterized relationships between indus try and universities and the adversarial nature of relationships between industry and government have both faded rapidly in the 1980s as the realities of global competition have surfaced in the United States. Both industry and government leaders articulate a number of constructs for regaining our competitiveness in world markets. One of the more fre quent strategies prescribed in this new competitiveness era is cooperation. Different individuals or groups may espouse different definitions, inter pretations, or areas of emphasis, but the overall importance of this concept is substantial. Although examples of cooperative research have existed for several decades, the number and variety of relationships have expanded rapidly in the 1980s as corporations, universities, and governments have embraced this strategy. Joint ventures involving two or three firms increased from under 200 per year in the 1970s to over 400 per year by the mid-1980s. Multiple-firm cooperative arrangements are a more recent phenomenon, made possible by the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984. By mid- 1988,81 of these industry-level consortia had formed under the provisions of the 1984 Act. The rapid growth in cooperative research and development (R&D) is primarily a response to the pressures of international competition. As a corporate strategy, cooperative R&D meets short-term needs for assets to implement new approaches for coping with intensifying competition."

Globalization and the High-Tech Policy Response makes the case that U.S. economic growth policy has not responded to the growing competitive pressures from globalization. Specifically, the federal government has placed excessive reliance on business-cycle management and recently on trade barriers in the form of tariffs to allegedly force access to foreign markets for U.S. firms and repress unfair trade practices by foreign governments. The correct policy response requires an investment-oriented approach that targets the four major categories of assets that drive productivity growth and hence incomes: (1) technology, (2) physical and intellectual capital (hardware and software), (3) skilled labor, and (4) a high-tech infrastructure to support the first three asset categories. The focus of this monograph is the characterization of these four asset categories and the economic rationales for emphasizing investment in them. It systematically documents and analyzes the set of policies and investment trends and resulting impacts on rates of growth over the post World War II era. These trends highlight a very inadequate growth policy, which is the result of failing to admit that America's dominant post-war position in the global economy has been steadily eroded by superior growth strategies in other economies.

Regional Technology-Based Economic Development: Policies and Impacts in the U.S. and Other Economies describes the economic rationales, policy elements, implementation mechanisms, and expected economic impacts of "technology-based economic development" (TBED) strategies that are being pursued in almost all 50 states within the U.S. economy. Once the dominant leader in the development and commercialization of technology, the United States has failed to respond to this globalization trend with comprehensive TBED strategies. At the national level, a comprehensive "innovation policy" structure does not exist. This situation has left state governments with the daunting task of constructing and implementing their own TBED strategies. Such efforts are rapidly expanding, but with uneven results due to the difficulty in developing and managing the set of instruments comprising the required policy ecosystem. Section 1 assesses the economic trends that provide the rationales for the range of policy initiatives occurring at the state level. In section 2, individual policy mechanisms and options for their integration into a holistic TBED ecosystem are described and critiqued. Section 3 describes similar TBED investment efforts in European and Asian economies. Distinct differences in the structure of and relative emphasis on individual policy tools are analyzed relative to U.S. trends.

Industry officials and government policymakers have for some time decried the lack of a framework for establishing and defending Research and Development (R&D) policies. Effective policy requires an understanding of the underlying economics. This book offers models and analysis of the economic elements that drive technology-based growth with emphasis on their implications for policy analysis. It also compares existing U.S. policies with those used in Europe and Japan. The results of these models and analysis is a framework for matching various forms of underinvestment with efficient strategic and policy responses. This market-failure based approach enables industry and government R&D initiatives to be developed, analyzed, and implemented with greater success than previously attained.

The first part of the book analyzes economic trends to show how they are affected by technological change and the evolving nature of foreign competition. R&D spending patterns are studied to identify and characterize market failures that prevent adequate private-sector investments in technology. A model is presented for a typical technology-based industry. The second part looks at specific technologies and policies that impact R&D investment and that have been the subject of intense policy debate.