Are there global shifts in the world science base? Analysing the catching up and falling behind of world regions

This paper explores the changing role of world regions (North America, EU15, South EU, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Former-USSR, Latin America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East) in science from 1981 to 2011. We use bibliometric data extracted from Thomson Reuter’s National Science Indicators (2011) for 21 broad disciplines, and aggregated the data into the four major science areas: life, fundamental, applied and social sciences. Comparing three sub-periods (1981–1989, 1990–2000 and 2001–2011), we investigate (i) over time changes in descriptive indicators such as publications, citations, and relative impact; (ii) static specialization measured by revealed comparative advantage (RCA) in citations and papers; and (iii) dynamic specialization measured by absolute growth in papers. Descriptive results show a global shift in science largely in quantity (papers) and much less in impact (citations). We argue this should be interpreted as a shift in science’s absorptive capacity but not necessarily a shift of knowledge generation at the world science frontier, which reflects the nature of science systems operating with high inertia and path dependency in areas of their historically inherited advantages and disadvantages. In view of their common historical legacy in science we are particularly interested in the process of convergence/divergence of the catching-up/transition regions with the world frontier regions. We implement an interpretative framework to compare regions in terms of their static and dynamic specialization from 1981–1989 to 2001–2011. Again, our analysis shows that while science systems are mostly characterised by strong inertia and historically inherited (dis)advantages, Asia Pacific, Latin America and CEE show strong catching-up characteristics but largely in the absorptive capacity of science

Why Economic Growth Trends Differ So Much across Developing Countries in the Era of Globalisation

The claim of globalisation critics that the income gap with industrial countries is bound to widen for essentially all developing countries as a consequence of economic globalisation is in conflict with empirical evidence. Economic performance differs tremendously across developing countries. We discuss several factors such as capital accumulation, openness to trade, and foreign indebtedness which may explain the varying experience with globalisation in regard to per capita income growth and income distribution. Economic restructuring is shown to represent an important—though frequently neglected—link between globalisation and country-specific performance. We conclude that national policy-makers continue to have effective leverage to promote economic catching-up and poverty alleviation in the countries they govern.

Is 'Open Innovation' Re-Inventing Innovation Policy for Catching-up Economies?

This paper discusses the current state of the .open innovationÿ thinking in the context of core economic challenges faced by catching-up and developing countries. The main argument of the paper is that due to the paradoxes and contradictions between the .mainstreamÿ innovation discourse and practice and the peculiar challenges of the catching-up countries, applying the concept of .open innovationÿ may have unintended or reverse effects on catching-up development. This problem can be remedied by more conscious attention to the basic contradictions and paradoxes that requires a more comprehensive analytical focus on innovation and technological development at the levels of firm, industry and policy.

Coordination of innovation policy in the catching-up context: Estonia and Brazil compared

This paper proposes an analytical framework for analysing innovation policies in catching-up economies. The framework combines two dynamic trajectories that affect innovation policy . policy content and policy governance context . and builds an approach that looks at innovation policy governance through a multi-level concept of policy coordination. The paper argues that for understanding and analysing innovation-policy governance systems, the comprehension of the developments in the field of public-administration-and-management research and practice is as necessary as understanding developments in the field of innovation policy research and practice because the developments in the former partly condition what are the feasible models for increasing the effectiveness of innovation-policy governance. The paper applies the framework to two stylised case studies . Estonia and Brazil . and shows that the framework is useful for revealing the complexities of innovation-policy governance that are overlooked in narrow innovation policy analysis and shows that innovationpolicy governance challenges may be more complex than usually presumed.

Emerging 21st century technologies : is Europe still falling behind?

Firms and countries that specialise in emerging technologies tend to have a higher chance of becoming or remaining competitive in the future. This paper aims to analyse the most dynamic areas of technological competition between 2010 and 2019 and to identify which actors are leading in those areas. We analyse patenting dynamics in four major patent offices (USPTO, EPO, JPO, KIPO), to have a global landscape of technological dynamism, and we use the IPC patent classification system to proxy the technological areas. After examining patenting growth patterns in all 4-digit IPC classes, we built a score to classify the emergent technological areas across the four offices. Our results indicate twelve “emerging” IPC classes, which are related to software engineering, digital communication, IT methods for management,medical technology, pharmaceuticals, energy conservation, games, biotechnology and semiconductor devices. We find that European firms do not hold a leading share in any of these IPC classes. This is particularly true in emerging areas such as software engineering, energy conservation and semiconductor devices, which are likely to be critical to succeed in the new techno-paradigms related to digitalization and clean energy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Globalisation : trends, issues and macro implications for the EU

Globalisation, defined as an increasingly integrated world economy, has the potential to generate the largest structural upheaval in economies since the industrial revolution. As in the past, this process is being underpinned by both technological change and by a shift in policies in many countries towards a more open, market based, system of economic governance. These policies reflect the realities of a new world order where knowledge creation and absorption and the flexibility of the regulatory and institutional frameworks will be the key determinants of the economic fortunes of economies. This paper examines the historical empirical evidence regarding globalisation and quantifies the macro benefits and costs for the EU over the coming decades.globalisation, trade integration, global productivity, terms of trade, Denis , Mc Morrow, R�ger

GLOBALIZATION AND ECON0MIC CONVERGENCE: AN ASSESSMENT

This paper offers a critical survey of a strong globalization thesis that predicts a direct link from more open trade and investment regimes to faster economic growth in developing countries and income convergence across the global economy. Its examination of recent experience suggests that while in a more open and integrated world economy both the quantity and the quality of investment are influenced by external factors the forces driving capital accumulation retain strong domestic roots and remain open to the influence of various types of policy initiative.

Convergence and Divergence among Technology Clubs

The paper investigates cross-country differences in technology in a large sample of developed and developing economies over the 1990s. The empirical analysis indicates the existence of three technology clubs with markedly different levels of technological development: advanced, followers and marginalized countries. The technology clubs also differ with respect to their dynamics over the 1990s. While the club of followers is characterized by a process of gradual convergence towards the technological frontier, the group of marginalized has experienced an increase in its gap in terms of innovative capabilities.Growth and development; technological change; convergence clubs; polarization