Science, high technology and the competitiveness of EU countries

High technology is not a well-defined issue in economics. In this paper, it is divided into very high RandD-intensive, so-called 'leading-edge', and 'high-level' technology, i.e. above-average RandD-intensive products. The similarity of exports and imports in both subdivisions of high technology is compared between the EU countries. By linking trade data on high technology with other indicators of disembodied knowledge, such as scientific publications and patents, it is shown that very RandD-intensive competition needs more science inputs than does high-level technology. As industrial property expressed by patents is an important prerequisite for above-average RandD-intensive trade, though less so for leading-edge technology, the policy conclusions point to the importance of non-uniformity in high-tech Europe.