U.S. technological leadership: Where did it come from and where did it go?

Abstract

During the quarter century following the Second World War, the United States was the world's most productive economy by virtually all measures, and the technological leader across a very broad front. This paper is concerned with the sources of U.S. technological leadership during that era, and the reasons for the erosion of that leadership. It is proposed that there were two distinguishable components of post-war U.S. technological dominance. One was a lead in mass production industries, and this was of long standing. The other was leadership in high technology industries due to massive American investments in science and technology, eduction, and research and development; and this was new. The U.S. advantage in mass-production industries eroded when, after Bretton Woods, the world became a common market. The U.S. preeminence in high technology industries diminished as other countries matched U.S. investments in science and technology. It is argued that since the late 1960s, the major industrial nations are bound together technologically as never before.