To explain the importance of scientific research and technological innovation for industrial countries and in particular for the EU, in order to improve or to maintain economic leadership, is the central idea of this volume. It starts with a historical and theoretical perspective on...

The analysis of the interactions between natural resource scarcity, technological innovation and the dynamics of eco- nomic systems has a long-standing tradition in economics. During the 1980s and the early 1990s, a new phase of these interactions initiated under the effects of technological...