The Inter-Industry Structure of Technological Specialization

Three aspects of national technological specialization were shown in the previous Chapter: i) the existence of substantial differences among countries in the degreee of specialization, ii) the general increase over the 1980s, and iii) the national specificities, with the degrees of specialization that have grown faster in some countries, and decreased in a few others. We have not yet, however, taken into account the influence of individual technological sectors on the general degree of specialization. Obviously, significant differences exist across sectors and over time on the distribution of inventions by country. In some technological fields, the majority of countries have an innovative activity broadly proportional to their aggregate S&T size, while other fields can be deeply affected by the strengths (or weaknesses) of particular countries. Within each sector, the distribution across countries of technological activities may change over time, leading to a more even distribution of innovations, or to greater concentration in a few countries. These questions, which are strictly related to the analysis of the degree of specialization carried out in the previous Chapter, are addressed in this Chapter.1