High Technology And International Competitiveness

Following World War II, the U.S. manufacturing sector emerged as the dominant industrial force in the world in virtually all areas, including productivity, market share, innovations, and capital investments. Though other countries have caught up with and surpassed the United States in many industries, Romesh Diwan and Chandana Chakraborty argue that America can recapture its dominant role by moving forcefully into high-technology industries. In this work, they examine competitiveness in a range of high-technology enterprises, analyzing the industries as an aggregate as well as through three specific examples: semi-conductors, telecommunications, and computers. The authors provide a complete understanding of the technical changes and developments that are taking place in U.S. high technology, and offer guidance to policy makers in promoting competitive strength. Their work defines and quantifies the high-tech industrial sector of the U.S, economy, and analyzes the productivity of this sector by utilizing a translog cost function, which provides information about the structure of the input-output relations in a particular industry. Using these functions, Diwan and Chakraborty answer quantitatively a number of questions relating to the growth of various inputs, productivities, and outputs, which lead to conclusions regarding the structure of production, costs, and capacity in U.S. industry. Their conclusions--that technical change is biased in the main in favor of capital and material, and that capital and skilled labor are complements--are consistent with new ideas and theories in the field. This work will be a valuable reference source for professional economists and policy experts, as well as for scholars and students in international trade, finance, and development.

World Bank Technical Paper No. 300. Provides an overview of past experiences with the introduction of agricultural technologies in World Bank-funded projects in Mediterranean climates, with an emphasis on the Middle East and North African region. The authors review the adequacy of present crop and livestock technologies, identify technical and socio-economic constraints on their adoption, and describe prospective technologies for pilot testing and full-scale introduction in future Bank-funded projects.

Innovation, comparative advantage, and R & D competition; Case study evidence on R&D reactions; Imports, exports, and intra-industry trade; R&D reactions to import competition.

"...should help mobilize Government support for the nation's slipping technological and international trade position...." Leonard Silk, The New York Times. A blue-ribbon panel takes a critical look at the state of U.S. leadership in technological innovation and trade.

A broad overview of Canadian high-tech activities that suggests insights concerning the direction and scope of such industries as well as public policy. Includes a study of Canada's competitiveness in the manufacturing sector, and the use and production of new technology; an examination of the characteristics of the information technology sector and the likely patterns of development and economic prospects, the role of multi-national corporations, and their corporate decision-making; government policies that may stimulate Canadian high technology and enhance competitiveness; a brief history of GATT tariff negotiations, subsidies and possible agreements to limit their use; the use of government procurement policies to assist domestic high-tech firms; regulation in the context of high-tech policies; the protection of intellectual property and education and research as the basis of a new high-tech strategy, particularly the Canadian record.

Technology and the economy; International aspects of American technology; Consequences of American technology exports; Foreign technology as a resource; The climate for innovation in leading western industrial nations; The climate for innovation in the United States; Meeting the challenge ahead.

Marcela Miozzo is Reader in Innovation Studies at Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK. Her teaching and research activities are the innovation and the internationalization of services; technological and organisational changes in the construction sector; and technological capabilities of firms in Latin America. Vivien Walsh is Professor of Innovation Management at Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK. Her teaching and research activities are the areas of globalization; networks and collaboration in the innovation process.