Innovation Policy and Performance
A Cross-Country Comparison
This publication examines the relationship between innovation policy and economic performance in six OECD countries – Austria, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In-depth analyses highlight countries’ strengths and weaknesses in innovation, as well as the effectiveness of their innovation policies in driving economic performance. Taken together, the country studies constitute a rich evidence base which will be of considerable interest to innovation policy makers in all OECD countries. They indicate that countries share a need to adapt – or even profoundly change – their innovation policies in order to deal with opportunities and threats posed by new technological and economic developments.
Austria
Austria looks back at an extended period of high economic performance, and is today among the OECD countries with the highest level of GDP per capita. The growth paradigm formed during the period of moving upstream towards the group of high-income countries was based on high and stable rates of investment and reliance on technology imports complemented by “absorptive capacities”. Diffusion of new technologies was facilitated by a stable macro-economic environment conducive to a high rate of capital formation and by the availability of a well-trained labour force.