R&D Data Trends in the Global Distribution of R&D since the 1970s: Data, their Interpretation and Limitations

The 1970 ‘Sussex Manifesto ’ was one of the earliest global policy reports to use statistical data about R&D that were starting to become available on an internationally comparable basis, though only in a very sketchy form for developing countries. It demonstrated the marginal position of that group of countries as contributors to the world’s R&D, accounting for only about 2 per cent of the global total. It also couched some of its core recommendations about policy in terms of quantitative indicators of R&D, but highlighted several major limitations of such indicators as tools for policy. This Background Paper revisits the global data to review how the distribution of R&D between groups of countries has changed since the 1960s, in particular with respect to the marginal position of developing countries. It reveals mixed trends. The economies that were ‘developing ’ in the 1960s now account for a much larger share of the global total, but this is concentrated in a small number of countries that are highly R&D-intensive and/or very large like India and China, leaving many others still playing only a marginal role. The paper also returns to some of the Manifesto’s concerns about the limitations of R&D indicators as a basis for policy debate. It notes a surprising persistence of many of those earlier limitations. About the author