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ItemChild health in Pakistan: an analysis of problem structuring(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-08-26) Panwhar, Samina T.This study presents an analysis of policies addressing child mortality in Pakistan focusing on problem structuring, using a comparison with Bangladesh. Pakistan's progress in addressing child mortality rate has been much slower than that of Bangladesh despite the fact that Pakistan has excelled in economic growth, and the two countries have comparable populations and share political history. This study analyzes and provides an explanation for differential outcomes in terms of problem structuring in the two countries. A comparative analysis of policy documents reviewed for the two countries illustrates the fact that Bangladesh, in formulating its child health policy, has emphasized the input factors such as nutrition and environmental aspects, besides health services. Pakistan, on the other hand, maintains a general problem formulation strategy focusing mainly on health service and ignoring the social, environmental, and other factors causing morbidity and mortality in children. Another comparison between policy formulation in each country and the extensive literature available on child mortality suggest that neither country pays as much attention to structural factors as the literature does. The analysis provides some insight into differentials in policy formulation associated with child mortality in the two countries, but more importantly, it provides an understanding of the underlying elements for inadequate policy outcomes in case of Pakistan.
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ItemInternational research collaboration, research team performance, and scientific and; technological capabilities in colombia -a bottom-up perspective(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-12-16) Ordonez-Matamoros, GonzaloThis dissertation examines the ways international research collaboration affects the ability of Colombian research teams to produce bibliographic outputs, and to contribute to local knowledge. Research hypotheses are tested using Zero Inflated Negative Binomial Regression models to account for the effects of international research collaboration on team output while controlling for team characteristics, partner characteristics, scientific discipline, sector, the characteristics of the teams' home institution, and team location. The study uses control groups and the Propensity Score Matching approach to assess the overall impact of international research collaboration on research team performance while controlling for the effects of endogeneity and selection bias. Results show that international research collaboration is positively associated with both team output and teams' ability to contribute to local knowledge. The study shows that such effects depend on the type of collaboration chosen and the type of partner involved. Particularly, it shows that while co-authoring with colleagues located overseas or receiving foreign funding positively affects team performance, hosting foreign researchers does not seem to affect a team's productivity or its ability to contribute to local knowledge once all other variables are held constant. It also finds that collaborating with partners from the South yields greater productivity counts than collaborating with partners from the North, but that collaboration with partners from northern countries is strongly associated with a team's ability to contribute to local knowledge, while collaboration with partners from southern countries is not. Theoretical and policy implications of these and other counterintuitive findings are discussed.
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ItemRepresentation and Reward in High Technology Industries and Occupations: The Influence of Race and Ethnicity(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-11-13) Gatchair, Sonia DeniseThis 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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ItemScience, technology and innovation composite indicators for developing countries(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-10) Chinaprayoon, ChinawutThis 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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ItemThe 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, IsabelThe 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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ItemThe 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, PabloThe 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
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ItemThe Duality of Innovation: Liberation and Economic Competitiveness(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-07-19) Bobb, Kamau ImaraEconomic competitiveness and liberation are treated as dual objectives of innovation in traditional industries in developing countries that have endured both slavery and colonization. In developing nations that slave and colonial histories, the objective of innovation may be more than the assumed one, economic competitiveness; it may be liberation as well. The objective of innovation may be to wrest domestic control over national resources from international agencies and multinational corporations. This dissertation explores this idea with case studies of the sugar industry in Barbados and Guyana. Evidence from semi-structured interviews in both locations is used to determine whether liberation is indeed an objective of the innovation process and if so, whether it is complementary or contradictory to the standard relationship between innovation and economic competitiveness. The results suggest that the concept of liberation is not only present in large philosophical discussions of national strategy, but also in the practical "bench-level" discussions about technical options for the Caribbean sugar regime. The connection of sugar to the slave and colonial past introduces notions of powerlessness and resentment into innovation discussions that customarily revolve exclusively around research agendas, technological options and their economic costs and benefits. Consideration of this dimension is a necessary addition to the National Innovation Systems framework when it is being applied to the developing world.