Productivity,technological change and international competitiveness

Contrary to widespread skepticism in industry and in many governmental agencies, research on innovational processes can be of major practical value for policy guidance in both sectors of decision-making. By way of illustration, this paper will briefly review our studies in the U.S., Western Europe and Japan covering three problem areas which have generated increasing domestic concern in recent years: productivity, technological change and international competitiveness. These studies have continued since their initiation 15 years ago; the National Science Foundation has supported some of the projects in each of these problem areas. In each case, attention will be given first to outlining some of the basic needs for research and then to summarizing some of our findings.