Abstract
Technological change and its relationship to the growth of knowledge are considered here from a general systems-theoretic perspective. The traditional linear model that has influenced economic thinking and policy analysis suggests a unidirectional flow of causation, from exogenous fundamental discoveries in science leading eventually to technological inventions, innovations, and the diffusion of new products and production techniques. Scientific and technological advance should be approached, instead, from a general evolutionary viewpoint, as a phenomenon of “organized complexity” that results in cumulative and irreversible transformations in knowledge and use of economic resources. This paper examines some of the system effects of various institutional solutions to the so-called appropriability problem affecting the production of information. It points out some of the science-technology interactions that have often been overlooked and discusses the implications of positive and negative feedbacks between the dynamics of innovation and diffusion. It concludes by considering what these may imply for discussions of North-South differences over the policy of strengthening protection for intellectual property rights.

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