The fruits of intellectual production: economic and scientific specialisation among OECD countries
* Copenhagen Business School and Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London, respectively
Address for correspondence: Keld Laursen, DRUID, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy, Copenhagen Business School, Solbjergvej 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark; email: kl.ivs{at}cbs.dk
This paper brings together data from 17 OECD countries on scientific publications, patents and production, to explore the relationship between scientific and economic specialisation for 17 manufacturing industries. Since Marx, there has been a fundamental debate in economics about the link between science and the economic system. Marx argued that the needs of production shape scientific developments and that science has become a factor of production, whereas Polanyi argued that developments in science are largely independent of the economic sphere. Using a panel data model and econometric estimations at the industry level, the paper derives some hypotheses from the two positions and finds that, while the overall evidence on the link between national production and scientific specialisation is mixed, it is important to have high levels of relevant to-the-industry scientific strength per capita in order to be specialised in science-based industries.
Key Words: Scientific specialisation • International economic specialisation • Bibliometric data
JEL classifications: O31, C23
Manuscript received February 4, 2002; final version received July 9, 2003.