Does Globalization of the Scientific/Engineering Workforce Threaten U.S. Economic Leadership?

This paper develops four propositions that show that changes in the global job market for science and engineering (S&E) workers are eroding US dominance in S&E, which diminishes comparative advantage in high tech production and creates problems for American industry and workers: (1) The U.S. share of the world's science and engineering graduates is declining rapidly as European and Asian universities, particularly from China, have increased S&E degrees while US degree production has stagnated. 2) The job market has worsened for young workers in S&E fields relative to many other high-level occupations, which discourages US students from going on in S&E, but which still has sufficient rewards to attract large immigrant flows, particularly from developing countries. 3) Populous low income countries such as China and India can compete with the US in high tech by having many S&E specialists although those workers are a small proportion of their work forces. This threatens to undo the "North-South" pattern of trade in which advanced countries dominate high tech while developing countries specialize in less skilled manufacturing. 4) Diminished comparative advantage in high-tech will create a long period of adjustment for US workers, of which the off-shoring of IT jobs to India, growth of high-tech production in China, and multinational R&D facilities in developing countries, are harbingers. To ease the adjustment to a less dominant position in science and engineering, the US will have to develop new labor market and R&D policies that build on existing strengths and develop new ways of benefitting from scientific and technological advances in other countries.

Science, technology and innovation composite indicators for developing countries

This thesis aims to propose a policy-relevant science, technology and innovation indicator for developing countries. I firstly develop a model to examine the determination of innovativeness for a sample of 38 developing countries, based on endogenous growth theory and innovation systems literature. From econometric estimation, I find that R&D inputs, technology imports, and international connectedness are influential determinants of innovativeness in these countries. From this finding, I develop the Predicted Innovativeness Index for Developing Countries (INNÔDEX), a composite indicator that ranks countries according to their innovative capabilities.M.S.Committee Chair: Cozzens, Susan; Committee Member: Porter, Alan; Committee Member: Walsh, Joh

Science and technology policies, competitiveness, and economic development : a case study of Taiwan

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-131).The economic growth in Taiwan for the last few decades has been credited as stellar performance. However, what accounts for the growth? Institutions, political regime, geographical locations, or legal origins? This thesis attempts to explain the economic growth in terms of science and technology (S&T) based on the neoclassical and new growth theories, and comes at a finding that S&T development is significant along with the economic growth. In the process, the author also finds that the government is the major player in Taiwan's S&T development. Based on these findings, the author concludes that from Taiwan's lessons, the S&T is a direction and an area for those developing countries that strive to gain economic growth to make their endeavors on. And, for those latecomer countries, state-led S&T development will be a sufficient condition for economic development, for the government is the major role that is most likely to initiate the development through appropriate policy implementation and is most likely to provide a momentum to the stagnating economic deadlock.by Su-Hsin Chang.S.M

A Systematic Approach to Developing National Technology Policy and Strategy for Emerging technologies

As the pace of global competition increases, a country\u27s competitiveness becomes of greater concern. Technology drives competitiveness and is a crucial factor for economic development in developed and developing economies. This poses a need for governments to be involved in supporting technology research and development in their countries. A government must not only provide support when an emerging technology is being considered, it should also nurture and guide its development. The effective national technology policies and strategies should go beyond merely identifying the critical technologies. This research has developed a systematic and comprehensive approach for policy makers to strategically define the national technology policy for emerging technologies. A hierarchical decision model was built and expert opinions were quantified. There are four levels in the hierarchy: mission, objectives, technological goals, and research strategies. This research has also demonstrated several approaches for the validation and analysis of results. The inconsistency measure, intraclass correlation coefficient, and statistical test for the reliability of the experts and group agreement were used for this purpose. Finally, HDM sensitivity analysis was used to study the robustness of the rankings, especially at the technology level. Change may be caused at this level when the national policies change, which is a relatively common occurrence. The approach developed in this research was applied to the assessment of nanotechnologies for Thailand\u27s agriculture. The seven nanotechnologies such as nanosensors, nanodevices for identity preservation and historical tracking, novel tools, smart treatment delivery system, nanomaterials, nanoparticles, and agro-environment were assessed and evaluated with respect to the national mission, Be the world leader in developing a sustainable food and agricultural-based economy. According to the experts, the top three nanotechnologies supporting Thailand\u27s agricultural development are novel tools (26%), smart treatment delivery systems (24%), and nanosensors (23%). Research strategies supporting specific nanotechnologies were also identified and evaluated. As a result, a ranking of research strategies according to theirs contributions to the overall mission was developed