TPACTechnology Policy and Assessment Center
 
 

Changes in National Technological Competitiveness: 1990-93-96-99

Alan L. Porter, J. David Roessner, Xiao-Yin Jin, and Nils C. Newman

Abstract: Georgia Tech’s Technology Policy and Assessment Center, with support from the US National Science Foundation, has been generating High Tech Indicators (HTI) – measures of national technology-based export competitiveness since 1987. This paper reports the HTI results for 33 nations in 1999 in comparison with those of 1990, 1993, and 1996. HTI includes four “input indicators” and a key “output indicator” – technological standing. We construct a new composite input indicator here and examine its predictive capability. Input indicators for 1990 and 1993 show intriguing relationships to 1999 technological standing. We compare the indicators for various groups – leading and emerging Western economies, rapidly developing Asian economies, former East Bloc nations, and lagging Latin American countries. The United States presently exhibits a dominant position, but signs strongly point toward increasingly broad-based competition in technology-based products.

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