The Effects of Technology-as-Knowledge on the Economic Performance of Developing Countries: An Econometric Analysis using Annual Publications Data for Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, 1976-2004

Extant literature indicates that technology, and by implication its underlying knowledge base, determines long-run economic performance. Absent from the literature with respect to developing countries are quantitative assessments of the nexus between technology as knowledge and economic performance. This paper imposes a simple production function on annual pooled observations on Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa over the 1976-2004 period to estimate the marginal impacts of technology as knowledge on economic performance. It finds that capital (k), openness to trade (τ), and even the share of government expenditure of GDP (G) among other factors, influence economic performance. However, the economic performance of countries like Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa depends largely on technology, technological change, and the basic knowledge that forms the foundation for both. For instance, measured as a homogenous “manna from heaven”, technology is the strongest determinant of real per capita income of the three nations. The strength of technology as a determinant of performance depends on the knowledge underpinnings of technology measured as the number of publications (Q, q). Both Q and q are strongly correlated with the countries’ performance. This suggests that the “social capability” and “technological congruence” of these countries are improving, and that developing countries like Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa gain from increased investment in knowledge-building activities including publishing. Obviously there is room for strengthening results, but this analysis has succeeded in producing a testable hypothesis

A Brief Future of Time in the Monopoly of Scientific Knowledge

This paper provides global empirical evidence on cross-country differences in scientific and technical publications. Its purpose is to model the future of scientific knowledge monopoly in order to understand whether the impressive growth experienced by latecomers in the industry has been accompanied by a similar catch-up in scientific capabilities and knowledge contribution. The empirical evidence for the period 1994–2010 is based on 41 panels which together consist of 99 countries. The large dataset allows us to disaggregate countries into fundamental characteristics based on income levels (high-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income and low-income), legal origins (English common-law, French civil-law, German civil-law and Scandinavian civil-law) and regional proximity (South Asia, Europe and Central Asia; East Asia and the Pacific; Middle East and North Africa; Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa). Three main issues are investigated: the presence or not of catch-up processes, the speed of the catch-up processes and the time needed for a complete elimination of country differences in scientific and technical publications. The findings based on absolute and conditional catch-up patterns broadly show that advanced countries will continue to dominate in scientific knowledge contribution. Policy implications are discussed

The role of knowledge economy in African business

This paper assesses the role knowledge economy (KE) in African business in 53 countries for the period 1996-2010. The four KE components of the World Bank are employed, notably: education, innovation, economic incentives & institutional regime and information & communication technology. The business indicators are classified into: starting, doing and ending business. Principal components analysis and panel instrumental variable fixed effects approaches are employed as empirical strategies. The findings which are broadly consistent with intuition and the predictions of economic theory suggest that KE policies will substantially boost the starting and doing of business in Africa. This is relevant in fighting unemployment and improving African competitiveness in global value chains. Policy implications for the relevance of each specific KE dimension in African business are discussed with particular emphasis on the theoretical underpinnings of the study. The investigation is original in its contribution at the same time to the scarce literature on African KE and the growing challenges of improving the business climate of the continent by means of KE