The degree of economic development of any region is usually related to different
factors. One of the most important is the technological level associated to the productive
sectors. The technological level must be measured, not only by the appearance of new
products and production processes (generation), but also by the possibility of including
these products and processes inside the firm (adoption/diffusion). This idea means that
both, generation and diffusion of technology occupy a central position in the production
system of any region, and especially in some places where the SME´s are a relevant
majority.
One of the main targets of technological policy is the development of the
technological level of the firms and by extent of the region as a whole. So it is relevant
to design and study the evolution of an indicator that measures this objective.
There are several ways to study the technological level of a region or of a specific
economic sector. In this paper, we will follow the methodology of Input-Output
Analysis that make possible a more detailed study. In this paper we are interested in
investigating the relationship between the industries at the regional level of Andalusia
and compared with the country as a whole. The period of analysis is 1980-1995.
Our first target is to specify the input side in the innovation process by means of
variables such as R&D spends, industrial employment in the R&D activities, human capital, etc., both as a whole and as share of GPD. The second step is related to the
analysis of output data, characterised mainly by technological indexes (Saez, 1992) and
de evolution of potentially innovative industrial sectors, which include sectors that use
mainly high technological inputs and spread technology among the whole economy.
The third step is concerned with study of the evolution of the Intermediate Input
Requirements and Employment Requirements of every industrial sector and of the
regional econom
