SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS, RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURES, COUNTRY SIZE, AND PER-CAPITA INCOME - A CROSS-SECTION ANALYSIS

It has proven very difficult to link scientific and technological acti vity with economic development. The selection of measures, or indicato rs, of scientific and technological activity poses severe conceptual a nd data problems; technical problems also arise in defining and measur ing economic development. In this study, one science and technology ou tput indicator, scientific publications, is regressed with R&D expendi tures, which are in tum related to income per capita and population si ze. A possible language bias effect is also considered. The results ar e statistically significant and corroborate prior hypotheses. The econ ometric patterns established could be used, it is suggested, for polic y analysis and projections.