Correlations between technological measures

My research on technological transfers between countries is throwing up some predictable results and some more interesting ones. At the moment, it is looking at correlations between various quantities measuring technology across countries. It is looking at levels of technology, flows of technology, and changes in technological levels.

One may expect that low levels of technology might lead to large changes in those levels. The changes would be mediated by the flows of technological knowledge carried by students, investment, and trade. As these flows require finance and integration in the world economy, the large changes might occur among those countries which do not have the very lowest levels of technology, as they could be too disadvantaged to compete well in the global economy.

On the obvious front, the preliminary results find that different per-capita measures of technological level correlate positively and highly, as do the per-capita measures of trade and investment associated with technological knowledge transfers (such as trade in scientific instruments and foreign direct investment). Student movements correlate less well with them, but where the correlations are large, they are positive.

Among the less obvious results is the finding that large per-capita technology gaps do not correlate highly with the corresponding transfers. I think this may point to support for the earlier hypothesis on very disadvantaged countries not being able to catch-up quickly with advantaged countries. There are other explanations, which more detailed analyses will hopefully dig out.