Technology, Globalisation, and Economic Performance.

• Author: Durbin, Erik
• Position: Review

Technology, Globalisation, and Economic Performance Danielle Archibugi and Jonathan Michie eds., (Port Chester, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997) 303 pp.

Over the past 50 years, mainstream economics has paid distressingly little attention to the role of technological change in economic performance. As a result, much of the debate on technology policy has taken place in the context of what has been called "pop economics," which views nations as similar to large corporations competing in the international marketplace. Many of the contributors to Danielle Archibugi and Jonathan Michie's Technology, Globalization, and Economic Development begin from this questionable premise. Yet, if we look past the book's overall bias, we can find useful insights into the important question of how globalization is affecting the creation and adoption of new technologies.

Many of the volume's contributors are concerned primarily with the role of technology in determining a nation's place in the global economic order. In the introduction, the editors claim that the book's guiding question is whether in an increasingly integrated global marketplace, "government action aimed at enhancing the competitive advantage of firms becomes more, rather than less, important." According to this view, technology policy provides a way for nations to overtake their neighbors in a struggle for economic dominance. This perspective has been widely disputed by mainstream economists, perhaps most eloquently by Paul Krugman.(1) Nevertheless, the premise that nations are engaged in constant economic competition is taken as a given by many of the contributors.

Despite this dubious slant, the book sheds valuable light on issues that have not received enough attention. Technology is important to an economy's performance and therefore to the welfare of a country's citizens. So it is important to understand how globalization is affecting innovation. "Technological globalization" has become a buzzword encompassing a variety of real and imagined changes in the world economy; this book's value lies in defining this term precisely and examining whether it is really taking place.

Technological development is often analyzed in terms of three separate stages: basic research, followed by specific product or process innovations and, finally, marketing and licensing of new technology. The editors of this volume point out that globalization has different meanings at different stages. Scientists...