exceeded that of the other major R&D- 

 performing nations between 1960-74, 

 although gains in productivity were larger in 

 the latter countries; by 1974, the productivi- 

 ty of France and West Germany was some 

 75-80 percent of the U.S. level, while Japan, 

 with the largest gains in productivity, 

 reached a level which was approximately 55 

 percent as high as U.S. productivity. 



D The United States has a large, favorable 

 balance of trade in commodities produced by 

 R&D-intensive industries, in contrast to the 

 increasingly negative balance in non-R&D- 



intensive products; the 1974 balance in 

 R&D-intensive products was large enough 

 to offset petroleum imports for the same 

 year. 



The favorable U.S. trade balance in R&D- 

 intensive products depends primarily upon 

 exports to developing nations and to 

 Western Europe; a deficit balance developed 

 with Japan in the mid-1960's and continued 

 through 1973, due largely to imports in the 

 areas of electrical machinery, professional 

 and scientific instruments, and nonelectrical 

 machinery. 



This chapter presents indicators of science and 

 technology in an international context. The 

 focus is on the United States and how it 

 compares with other major developed nations in 

 several aspects of science and technology. 



The indicators are directed primarily to four 

 general aspects. The first of these relates to the 

 absolute and relative levels of national resources 

 utilized for research and development (R&D); 

 this includes both human and financial 

 resources, as well as the areas of application to 

 which the R&D is aimed. The second topic 

 centers around scientific research; the indicators 

 here deal principally with the quantity and 

 quality of scientific research in individual 

 countries and the international dimensions of 

 science. The third facet concerns the output 

 from applied R&D and technological efforts; 

 indices in this group include trends in invention 

 and innovation, and international transactions 

 in technology. Finally, the fourth aspect deals 

 with productivity, economic competitiveness, 

 and international trade; indicators in this area 

 provide measures of the level and change in the 

 productivity of nations and of the role of R&D in 

 the U.S. trade balance. 



International indicators of science and 

 technology suffer from several general deficien- 

 cies. There is usually a paucity of data; the 

 reliability of the data which are available is often 

 unknown or less than desired; and information is 

 frequently based upon concepts and methods 

 which may differ substantially among countries. 

 These place restrictions on both the aspects of 

 science and technology which can be measured 

 and the accuracy of the measurements 



themselves. For these reasons, the indicators 

 and international comparisons presented in this 

 chapter should be interpreted with considerable 

 caution. 



RESOURCES FOR R&D 



The international comparisons presented here 

 are based upon indicators of the human and 

 financial resources directed to R&D by the major 

 R&D-performing countries. These indicators 

 are limited to measures of the magnitude of the 

 national resources for R&D, and the general 

 areas to which they are directed (e.g., defense, 

 space, and health). 



Expenditures for R&D 



R&D expenditures as percentages of the 

 Gross National Product (GNP) are shown in 

 figure 1-1 for the six countries with the largest 

 R&D expenditures. 2 This indicator expresses 

 the proportion of a country's economic output 

 which is directed to R&D and is a measure of the 

 R&D intensiveness of a nation.' But because of 

 differences among countries in the composition. 



2 Expenditures reported for the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are 

 for the performance of R&D alone, while those for other 

 countries include associated capital expenditures. 



-' For the classification of various countries according to 

 their R&D intensiveness, see "A Comparative Study of 

 Science Advisory Approaches of Selected Developed Coun- 

 tries" in Federal Poliqi, Plans, ami Organizaimn for Science and 

 Technology, Part II. U.S. Congress, House Committee on 

 Science and Astronautics, 93rd Congress, 2nd Session, 1974. 



