Scientific knowledge production and technology development, 1973-1986: A cross-national comparative study

The present study examines the causal factors of scientific knowledge production and technological development in a country. The study is based on the assumption that environmental conditions have influence on knowledge production activity and technological development activity in society.;The analyses provide us with several findings. (1) In contrast to most studies which are based on cross-sectional analyses, the results of the present study indicate that there is a strong inertia effect, and thus it is difficult to find out causal factors of knowledge production and technological development. (2) The increase rates of knowledge production level and technological development level in higher level countries are smaller than those in lower or middle level countries. (3) In spite of these phenomena, the prior condition of higher education activity and the increase of R & D effort have positive influence on knowledge production level of a country. (4) The increase of R & D personnel and the increase of higher education activity also have positive influence on technological development level of a country. Finally, even though there is a strong correlation between knowledge production and technological development, there is no evidence of causal relationship between them.;The present study adopts an econometric approach to identify the causal relationships as well as descriptive relationships among variables. The study also examines the possibility of utilization of scientific activity index and centrality index in the research of science and technology policy.;Empirical analyses are performed to identify the relationships between environmental conditions, knowledge production level, technological development level, and centrality of a country in the economic world system. The study utilizes the pooled data set for forty-two countries and for fourteen years from 1973 to 1986. The study applies three different analyses: (1) OLS stepwise regression analysis; (2) regression analysis with lagged dependent and dummy variables (covariance model); and (3) panel analysis.