Organizational Unit:
School of Public Policy

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Representation and Reward in High Technology Industries and Occupations: The Influence of Race and Ethnicity
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-11-13) Gatchair, Sonia Denise
    This study examined whether the demand for more educated science and engineering workers outweighed longstanding practices of discrimination in hiring in high technology industries and science and engineering occupations. The study focused on the effects of education on the distribution of employment and wages among four racial and ethnic groups (non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics and Asians), for the period 1992 to 2002. The main data used in the analyses came from the March Annual Demographic Survey. Multinomial logit analyses were used to determine the probabilities of employment, and ordinary least squares, non-parametric regressions and t-tests were used to examine wages. The analyses showed that education was more important in determining employment in S &E occupations, when compared to its effects in other occupations; and compared to race, other demographic and labor market characteristics. The effects of education were greater in S &E jobs in the high technology sector when compared to S &E jobs elsewhere in the economy. However, the effects of education varied with race, the level of education, and the industry/ occupational group under consideration in ways that suggest that both employment and wages continue to be influenced by correlates of race. Based on the findings, the study provides recommendations for policy and future research.
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    Science, technology and innovation composite indicators for developing countries
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-10) Chinaprayoon, Chinawut
    This thesis aims to propose a policy-relevant science, technology and innovation indicator for developing countries. I firstly develop a model to examine the determination of innovativeness for a sample of 38 developing countries, based on endogenous growth theory and innovation systems literature. From econometric estimation, I find that R&D inputs, technology imports, and international connectedness are influential determinants of innovativeness in these countries. From this finding, I develop the Predicted Innovativeness Index for Developing Countries (INNÔDEX), a composite indicator that ranks countries according to their innovative capabilities.
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    The building of agro-biotechnology capabilities in small countries: The cases of Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-09) Bortagaray, Isabel
    The building of agro-biotechnology capabilities in small countries: The cases of Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay. Isabel Bortagaray 411 pages Directed by Dr. Susan E. Cozzens This dissertation has studied the role of institutional environments on the building of agro-biotechnological capabilities in small countries, through a comparative case study design. The key question was whether the institutional environments in Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay have evolved in a way that have fostered or hindered the transition towards modern biotechnology at the level of firms and sector. Biotechnology provided a particularly interesting area of study because of the dramatic changes it has undergone since the 1970s and consequently, it facilitated to study the transition from second generation to third generation biotechnology. Innovation studies have trend to focus on pharmaceutical biotechnology. This research however, attempted to understand the dynamics behind biotechnology applied to agriculture, in countries with agricultural-based economies. In this context three small countries were selected: Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay, based on some commonalities in terms of size (population), their reliance on agriculture, and some historical features that inter-connect them. The choice of biotechnology applied to agriculture enabled to study the extent to which the institutional environments have changed and processed change vis a vis fundamental technological development. The institutional environment was defined as composed by institutions (rules of the game), the web of organizations (players of the game), and policies. Technological capabilities were defined as composed by skills, processes and resources. Primary data was collected based on in-depth interviews to research organizations, hybrid research-related organizations, firms, and policy-making agencies in each country. These findings suggest that institutional thickness (number and variety of organizations and institutions), cohesiveness (shared sense of strategic purpose), and coherence between institutions and policies with regard to their goals and means are crucial for strengthening more complex, cumulative, encompassing (different biotechnologies with multiple focuses), and expanding biotechnologies.
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    The role of S and T policies in natural resources based economies: The cases of Chile and Finland
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-04-09) Catalan, Pablo
    The study presents an analysis of the role of science and technological (S and T) policies in natural resource-based economies, focusing on the cases of Chile and Finland. The exploitation of natural resources has been identified by several authors as a limited-long-term factor that affects economic growth. Finland following a technology-intensive path has combined natural resource abundance (NRA) with high growth rates. On the other hand, Chile whose economy depends mainly on NRA industries such as mining and forestry has not attained the Finnish economic level in spite of the successful reforms undertaken during the last two decades. Using analytical tools I define the S and T contribution to national income per capita over the 1981-2000 period, and analyze the complementarity of the relationship between S and T expenditures and NRA in both countries. I explain the diverging S and T performances in lights of three factors: institutions, education, and decentralization