Improving Measures of Science, Technology, and Innovation: Interim Report

摘要

The structure of the United States and global economies has changed during the last two decades in at least three major ways. First, what used to be as simple as tracking domestic research and development (R&D) spending by a small number of large U.S. manufacturers has now blossomed into the need to monitor scientific, technology, and innovation (STI) activities across the globe and across a wide range of sectors, beyond manufacturing. Second, the type of information available to track innovation, R&D, and even the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce has changed as well. Historically statistical agencies have relied on probability surveys to collect consistent and unbiased information. In recent years, however, the amount of raw data that is easily available online has soared, opening up possibilities for the new STI indicators. Microdata from administrative records and other sources have been increasingly used to produce measures of capacities and trends in the global STI system.