TA-relevante Bücher und Tagungsberichte

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has published a report on the impacts of national technology programmes. The report reviews the issue of impact evaluation, and introduces results from a wide range of ex-post evaluations of government S&T programmes in different countries. It considers various forms of government interventions (fiscal support/direct subsidies) and the role of targeting particular objectives. The executive summary of the report states the following:

This paper is concerned with the impacts of the portion of national government support for technology innovation and diffusion that can be represented in terms of specific programmes which have been evaluated. Most government R&D programmes are only partly about promoting innovation and industrial competitiveness.

Chapter 1 takes up the matter of justification. The traditional economic justification for government intervention is market failure. The TEP analysis, however, suggests wider criteria: new growth theories, the innovation process, national innovation systems and globalisation. Further potential justifications include:

i) technology for social, non-economic
goals;

ii) "distributive" criteria;

iii) promotion of "critical" technologies;
and

iv) response to other countries' program
mes.

Chapter 2 attempts to classify programmes. Most involve multiple objectives and instruments.

Chapter 3 considers evaluation. Most evaluation has concerned public accountability and programme management. The "institutionalisation" of efficient processes has become a key question. Longer-term impacts are particularly difficult to identify and assess. Intermediate indicators are needed.

Chapter 4 reviews impacts of national technology programmes as reflected in available empirical results of evaluation. The last Chapter summarises the main conclusions of the report. Economic evaluation of impacts is problematic, and is not adequately covered in most formal evaluations. Evaluation bias is a very real problem. Targeted programmes carry considerable (especially commercial) risks. In some countries, overall efforts have been dominated by a few programmes. The evidence on indirect fiscal programmes is fairly inconclusive but, on balance, positive.

In terms of promoting successful innovation and (especially) targeting, the record of government intervention is mixed. Most evaluations report significant successes. Some underline the catalyst role of government in bringing together partners and launching programmes. However, a few point to dramatic failures in picking winners, and to the difficulties governments may encounter in efficiently pursuing innovation beyond the "pre-competitive" stage.

As regards national innovation systems and technology diffusion, the results are inconclusive. Pre-competitive programmes have promoted networking in collaborative R&D. Some SME programmes report considerable success.

In the case of international programmes and issues, interpretation of evaluation results is especially difficult. Most evaluations point to significant benefits. There may be a trade-off between promoting national competitiveness and obtaining economies of scale in and access to international programmes. Most evaluations of international collaborative programmes have found successful outcomes, but a few have raised questions about the "distributive" aspects.

(Source: Executive summary)

Bibliographic data

OECD (ed.): Impacts of national technology programmes. Paris, 1995. 107 Seiten.
ISBN 92-64-14423-4