Technology plays a major role in shaping industrial performance. It affects productivity growth, creates and destroys jobs, changes skill requirements in the economy, and shapes the capacity of firms and industries to perform in international markets. Its potential economic gains are realized, however, as much from the widespread diffusion of new products and processes as from their initial development. This report uses a unique set of data which allows international comparisons of the patterns of R&D and of embodied technology diffusion among industries and countries, as well as examining their impact on productivity, employment, and skills, and on international competitiveness at a detailed industrial level.
