Technological Performance and Performance in International Trade

In the previous chapter, we examined the technological performance of Belgium in the strict sense. But technological performance of a nation is, of course, not a goal in itself. A strong technological position should be instrumental in terms of higher rates of economic growth, welfare, etc. Indeed, the performance of countries is measured in the first place by very basic economic indicators like the level and evolution of per capita income, the relative inequality of the distribution of income, the unemployment rate, and the degree of indebtedness to the rest of the world. For very open economies like Belgium, one of the main determinants of these basic variables is its share in world trade and the evolution of that share. As it happens, the Belgian market share in OECD exports of manufactured goods, although still high relative to the size of the country, has shown a marked decline since the beginning of the 1970s: from about 6.0% in the early 1970s to about 5.5% in the early 1990s (see Figure 9.1). This is a drop of more than 8% in relative terms.