Knowledge accumulation key factor in economic growth
AN ECONOMY’s competitiveness depended on the capabilities and human resources in the country, and comparing SA’s research output to global output indicated SA’s capabilities, Anastassios Pouris, director at the University of Pretoria’s Institute for Technological Innovation, said at the weekend.
Research and development (R&D) is a key driver of economic growth, competitiveness and job creation, and is the foundation for a knowledge economy. R&D expenditure in 2009-10 was 0,93% of gross domestic product, according to the Department of Science and Technology. The government wants to raise this to 1,5% in 2014.
Prof Pouris’s recently published article, co-written by Roula InglesiLotz of the University of Pretoria, titled The Influence of Scientific Research Output of Academics on Economic Growth in SA, argues that “knowledge accumulation is considered one of the key factors affecting the productive capacity of a country and, hence, its capacity for international competitiveness”.
Publications don’t have an impact on growth. New knowledge must be commercialised.
His research compares SA’s percentage of global research to growth in gross domestic product (GDP). In another recently published paper, Science in SA: The Dawn of a Renaissance?, notes that SA has reached a peak in its share of world publications, at 0,65%.
However, both David Kaplan, an economics professor at the University of Cape Town, and Michael Kahn, professor extraordinaire at Stellenbosch University, were sceptical about a causal link between growth in academic research output and increased GDP growth.
“Publications per se don’t have an impact on growth. New knowledge must be commercialised. You can have a lot of new knowledge and no commercialisation,” Prof Kaplan said. “The real question is finding out whether (this research output) is finding its way into new products and production processes.”
Prof Kahn said: “There is a mas- sive lag in time between scientific research and output.
“Even if it was true that university research was driving growth, it would take years to show.” Moreover, the link between research output and GDP was “much more complicated than that”.
However, Prof Pouris’s article argues: “The comparative performance of the academic research output in SA could be considered as a factor affecting the economic growth of the country … (but) economic growth did not influence the research productivity.”
Interestingly, this correlation is only true for developing countries. “For the developed countries … there is no significant correlation between economic performance and research performance. In contrast, for developing countries the correlation between economic performance and research is significant,” reads Prof Pouris’s article.
Prof Pouris said yesterday: “We have empirical verification that our research system is moving in the right direction.… When we invest more resources in R&D, we find there is a benefit to the economy.”