The Positive Sum Strategy: Harnessing Technology for Economic Growth

Technology may be thought of as an extroverted activity involving a search for workable solutions to problems. The output of technology tends to take the form of a tangible product or service. Science, by contrast, is generally introverted, studying problems that are usually generated internally. As technology has become increasingly sophisticated, it has become increasingly dependent on the findings and processes of science. Markets are the basic institutional framework within which new technologies are evaluated. Long-term economic growth relies on the performance of new technologies within this framework. This volume presents chapters by engineers and economists in the hope that the exchange between these groups would lead to a better understanding of the conditions under which technological innovation can be made to function more effectively in the generation of economic growth. The 41 essays included here are organized under the following topics: (1) "Technology and the Dynamics of Economic Growth"; (2) "Policy, Law, Science, and Education: The Framework of Technological Change"; (3) "The Economics of Innovation"; (4) "The Organization of Technological Advance: Entrepreneurship and the Management of Innovation"; (5) "Financing Innovation"; and (6) "Technology and International Economic Competition." The roles of universities, industries, and governmental agencies are considered. (CW)