30 Agricultural Research and Produciiviiy 



In 2.1 the variable /?,^^, publications in the field of plant 

 physiology, measures related and ''supporting'' scientific 

 knowledge in each country. Two alternative measures of 

 socioeconomic sophistication, GNP per capita and newspaper 

 copies per capita, are considered in the empirical work. 



Table 2.7 presents estimates based on cross- section data for for- 

 ty-four countries of the parameters of 2.1 in which fT ) is specified 

 to be log-linear or Cobb-Douglas in form. Regressions 1 and 2 are 

 based on alternate measures of the scientific manpower and re- 

 lated scientific inputs. In 1 the assumption that the utilization of 

 technical personnel and scientific equipment is proportional to 

 scientific manpower is made. In 2, these inputs are measured by 

 total expenditures. Both measures yield approximately the same 

 ''production elasticity." 



Table 2.7: Knowledge Production Function (Equation 2.1) 



(1) (2) (3) 



Notes: 



No. of observations: 44 



Dependent variable: number of publication in country (P^ 



In parentheses: / values 



Data are averages for 1962-68 



As regression 3 shows, the measure of plant physiology 

 research activity is a successful "proxy" variable for related 

 knowledge that is relevant to agricultural science productivity. 

 The general measures of socio-economic sophistication are not 



