نشریه سیاست نامه علم و فناوری
پیاپی 1 (بهار 1390)

Knowledge driven economy, knowledge based economy, knowledge economy and so on, are some words being used frequently in the recent era, either in academic texts or in speeches of the politicians. This article represents a theoretical discussion of the various approaches to this concept in order to explicate different meanings of knowledge based economy in academic circles. Five approaches be distinguished, each of which is based on a different theoretical foundation. Three out of those five approaches represent more reliable pictures that in turn call for further attention. The current article will pay especial attention to critically analyse those three approaches and shall highlight their basic differences, chief among them their different views to the concept of knowledge and its role in economy. However, none of them argued that the economy is transformed or transforming into a new stage, i.e. the knowledge economy stage different from the industrial economy; but they mainly suggest that knowledge economy is just a different view to industrial economy, viewing it from the knowledge perspective. This shows that apart from the suggestions of some international organizations like the World Bank, or OECD that recommends policy makers to set special policies in order to enter the new phase of economy, i.e. the knowledge based economy; more robust academic approaches do not consider the transformation as a reliable view. Therefore, our country also should take more precise and academic approaches vis-à-vis knowledge based economy in order to avoid the pitfalls of non academic, but political approaches.

In this article, after discussing some aspects of neoclassic and evolutionary schools of economics and their strength and weaknesses considering technology and technological growth, we analyze and discuss new technology policy making- related settings, derived from evolutionary school of management. As you will see, the purpose of this article is not to one-sidedly criticize neoclassic economics. Instead, the main goal of the paper is to provide aspects of these economical approaches that can be used to explain the successful and unsuccessful events and policies, utilized in the technology and industry sectors in the recent decades, specially, in Southeast Asia. This text is mostly reflecting the viewpoints of scientists like Sanjaya Lall, which are based on criticism of neoclassic school of economics.

This series of articles are intended to provide an analysis for the transition process of oil-based economy to knowledge-based economy, which specially highlights the role of science, technology and industrial policies. Although there has been numerous studies concerning the role of these policies in achieving knowledge-based economy, this role is rarely discussed in the case of countries that have an economy based on natural resources, particularly oil-based countries. In this series of articles it is assumed that analyzing policy making in any sector, like science, technology and industry should not take place independently and without considering the relevant settings and surroundings. In this article characteristics of oil-based economies are considered as the base for policy making and its impacts. Long-term decrease in trade balance and income shock, Dutch disease and substitution effect, poor ties with the economy, political economic factors and political, social and cultural effects, are discussed as five categories of characteristics of countries with oil-based economies. Though focus of this article –influenced by literature based on disaster of resources- is on the negative aspects of oil based economies, there have been examples of positive effects of natural resources on a country’s economy. The scope and depth of such characteristics vary from country to country, but they can emerge in all of such countries. Policy making in any sector such as science, technology and industry, requires careful consideration of these defacto and potential characteristics and their limitation and opportunities resulted from them. In the next articles, the relation of these characteristics with knowledge-based economies, and the role of science, technology and industrial policies in the transition process are discussed.

Singapore is one of the south Asian developed countries and is successful sample of knowledge-based economies in the world. In this paper, knowledge-based economy has been interpreted as an economy in which acquisition, creation, dissemination and application of knowledge is the driving force for the economic growth, making wealth and employment and consequently realizing sustainable economic development. This article defines the indices of acquisition, creation, dissemination and application of knowledge in Singapore, based on recent surveys of the world bank and other international studies. Furthermore, it aims to comparatively analyze the main indices like researchers in R&D (per million people), royalty and license fees, payments (current US$), share of R&D in GDP and etc. in USA, Japan, South Korea, OECD and Iran. Then, this paper, using these four indices, will rank the level of knowledge-based economy in the selected countries.

Science and technology system in the context of any society is the fundamental systems that contributes many evolution to other social systems such as economics and politics. Appropriate interactions between these systems may cause to meet the needs and goals of the societies. Changing global economic environment and the need for science and technology to achieve development and independence has caused the need to design a proper relationship between science and technology system and financial sector in the economy. From the Beginning of the technological project based in idea or a creative research to achieve the income and growth financial institutions have the critical role. According to the Classification activity which have occurred in science and technology system tow stages could be identified. Any of those stages have the special features. Support and policy remark In each of these steps should be done based on their particular circumstances. In this paper, after analyzing the types of Innovative projects , a descriptive study conducted for relation between science and technology systems and the financial system. Ultimately to resolve some potential barriers and better use of resources and institutions, policy strategies has been proposed.

The differences in science and technology between our country and developed societies is an important issue that has drawn attention of many philosophers and experts. In this article by discussing this issue in a historic period, it is intended to answer this question: “In order to acquire technological development and achieving the scientific and technological level of developed countries, which policies have been made by the government, in that period, what was the results and why?”

Large technical systems (LTS) such as electricity and telecommunication networks are politically and economically vital to modern societies as these systems underpin the infrastructural services that are at the heart of life in those societies. In addition to evident academic interests in understanding these phenomena, analyzing the mechanisms of growth in LTS can contribute to policy discussions. This article explores the literature on growth of large technical systems, focusing on the role of innovations in facilitating the progresses.

The income that has been acquired mostly through selling natural resources, not economic activities, is called Renting. This kind of income has undesirable effects and consequences, such as low efficiency. Efficiency is about increasing quantity and quality of products and has an important role in economic growth and development of developed countries. In this article, first, a short overview on the concept of renting and its effects on economy of countries and efficiency is illustrated. Then performance of public and private banks are compared in a case study, assuming that public banks have access to renting. the efficiency of banking operations in public and private banks are also considered using the x index. This comparative analysis reveals that private banks do better in terms of efficiency and efficiency growth.