Abstract
Globalization has dramatically altered innovation systems, not only in terms of the institutional context where different actors cooperate, but also in the nature and scope of interactive learning. This volume comprises a collection of essays in honour of the prominent development economist Robert E. Evenson and brings together a group of outstanding contributions classified into three sections: Economic Development, Agricultural Development and Technology Transfer. A fairly wide and interdisciplinary perspective is used to analyse the technology–innovation–economic development nexus.
In addition to quantitative techniques, the book chapters use rigorous economic and philosophical analysis, predominantly based on Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach, which advocates for ‘development as freedom’. This philosophical frame is put forth as a way to make economic growth more inclusive and is a critical feature of Robert Evenson’s perspective on Technological Change and Development, presenting very close links to work by other stalwarts such as T. W. Schultz and Zvi Griliches.
The first section of the book examines innovation reforms that have impacted technological change and economic development. Importantly, it links sustainability of economic development with eco-innovations such as waste management practices in car technologies. This indicates a paradigm shift in public policy towards using economic reforms to achieve more inclusive and sustainable development.
The second section is dedicated to different aspects of technological progress and agricultural development. In this part of the book, the hypothesis that agricultural innovations and technological progress have been solely dependent on public investment in research is carefully discussed. Additional analysis measures public agricultural research capital and its impact on state agricultural productivity in different US states. The main reason to explain dependence on public investment is that farm firms do not undertake organized research because of the large fixed costs, long gestation periods and specialized talent needed to successfully undertake research in a cost-effective manner.
Different aspects of technology transfer, innovation systems and industrial development are extensively examined in the third section of the book. The main hypothesis is that industrialization is a possible pathway to economic prosperity and structural trans-formation of newly industrializing countries in East Asia. In fact, in East Asia, the industrial sector has emerged as a dominant economic sector and has generated links with other sectors while changing the ways and means to induce innovation. From this, a fundamental contribution to technological change is formulated: technological progress induces dynamism that has determined the pace of economic prosperity and social structural transformation.
Some part of the empirical work in the book uses panel data to examine agricultural development in the Philippines and reflects on how innovations have increased farm productivity since the mid-1970s. A fundamental finding is the justification of the Schultz hypothesis which implies that an inverse relationship exists between distance from market and productivity as well as efficiency of farms. Nevertheless, the analysis firmly rejects this association as a long-run relationship. It is also essential to indicate that farmer education played a significant role in enhancing productivity: the returns on education were the highest for farmers who were educated to primary and secondary levels. The econometric analysis also shows a decrease in transaction costs in densely populated villages, and that gains in productivity and efficiency of farmers located in remote and sparsely populated villages were higher. This is an important result which adheres to the convergence hypothesis and suggests that if the state provides indispensable public goods in the rural sector of the economy, it translates into a substantial rise in agricultural productivity and efficiency levels.
In the analysis of eco-innovation and intellectual property rights (IPRs) (specifically patents), reference is made to the Copenhagen Economics study, which finds that based on the cost per unit of carbon reduction, IPR-protected technologies are not necessarily more costly than unprotected alternatives. The study notes that the expense of some innovative carbon abatement technologies stems from the immaturity of the technology rather than patent protection. Moreover, the study finds that while there are few emerging market economies that account for the majority of patents protected (99.4%); there is a much larger number of low-income nations that protect very few patents (0.6% of the sample). Given that patents are virtually non-existent for technologies in most developing countries, it is difficult to argue that IPR is a significant barrier to technology transfer.
In the third section of the book, globalization of industrial R&D in developing countries is analysed, and the most striking features are not only the internationalization of their own firms (although in limited numbers), but also that some industrial firms from developing countries (mainly India and China) are becoming multinational companies, thus reversing process of multinationalization of firms. The main hypothesis about the development of these R&D policies entails that firms stemming from these countries internationalize their R&D in order to develop alternate channels of technology sourcing from developed countries (Kuemmerle, 1997).
Despite the careful theorizing, perhaps a more extensive explanation, not so much about the applied analytical methods, but about the nature of the data would help improve the book’s utility for guiding empirical research. I would have liked to see a more detailed description about the process to obtain the raw data, which is usually very long drawn and complex, and a brief explanation of the institutional contexts in which data were generated.
The book could be stimulating for graduate students and scholars not only because of the economic techniques used and discussed, but also because of the educational, social and philosophical methods reflected upon across different chapters. This methodological plurality significantly enriches the text, allowing the discussion to move beyond common arguments in the fields of innovation studies and economics research. This makes it a motivating reference not only for academics, but also for professionals interested in technology management and development.