KNOWLEDGE, PROPERTY, AND THE SYSTEM DYNAMICS OF TECHNOLOGICAL-CHANGE

Technological change and its relationship to the growth of knowledge a re considered here from a general systems-theoretic perspective. The t raditional linear model that has influenced economic thinking and poli cy analysis suggests a unidirectional flow of causation, from exogenou s fundamental discoveries in science leading eventually to technologic al inventions, innovations, and the diffusion of new products and prod uction techniques. Scientific and technological advance should be appr oached, instead, from a general evolutionary viewpoint, as a phenomeno n of ''organized complexity'' that results in cumulative and irreversi ble transformations in knowledge and use of economic resources. This p aper examines some of the system effects of various institutional solu tions to the so-called appropriability problem affecting the productio n of information. It points out some of the science-technology interac tions that have often been overlooked and discusses the implications o f positive and negative feedbacks between the dynamics of innovation a nd diffusion. It concludes by considering what these may imply for dis cussions of North-South differences over the policy of strengthening p rotection for intellectual property rights.