Scoreboard 2001 The Knowledge Base of OECD Economies

These indicators build on the work of the OECD National Experts on S&T Indicators (NESTI). Research and development (R&D) data, based on the methodological guidelines set in the OECD "Frascati Manual", offer a unique view of the size of inventive efforts funded and carried out by government, private non-profit institutions, universities and the business sector. Human resources in science and technology are covered by a new set of indicators that build on methodological work by the OECD and Eurostat (Canberra Manual, 1995). They seek to address important policy issues, such as the mobility of science and technology resources across industries and borders. Patent indicators provide a measure of "output" of inventive activity that complements "input" measures such as R&D. For the first time, patent families have been used to improve the comparability of patent-based indicators across countries.

In order to measure countries' readiness for the new information technologies and their diffusion and impact, a set of indicators build on the work of the OECD Working Party on Telecommunication and Information Services Policies (TISP) and the Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society (WPIIS). The infrastructure indicators, complemented by the Internet access price database, provide timely comparisons of countries' readiness and the barriers to the uptake of new technologies and thus a key set of policy-relevant indicators. The ICT supply database uses the OECD definition of the information and communication technology sector and provides international comparisons for a key growth sector in OECD economies. Over a very short time span, national statistical offices have made great strides towards providing high-quality, timely ICT usage statistics. For the first time, this publication relies on these official sources to look at the diffusion of the Internet across households and businesses.

To measure the extent of the international integration of commodity, capital markets and production activities, a set of indicators builds on the work of the OECD Statistical Working Party of the Committee on Industry and Business Environment (SWIC) and its forthcoming Manual on Economic Globalisation Indicators. The Activities of Foreign Affiliates (AFA) database provides detailed information on firms' adoption of global strategies. Data on the activity of foreign affiliates in the services sector are used for the first time.

To measure economic performance from a structural perspective and account for differences across industries, the indicators build on the work of the OECD Statistical Working Party of the Committee on Industry and Business Environment (SWIC). The STAN (Structural Analysis) database, based on ISIC Rev. 3 and extended to include services activities, is used to compare countries' industrial structure and productivity growth. An improved classification of technology and knowledge-intensive industries has been developed and is used for the first time.