How does technology advance? How can we best assimilate innovation? These questions and others are considered by experts on the theories and applications of technological innovations. Considering subjects as diverse as the diffusion of new technologies and their industrial applications, governmental policies, and manifestations of innovation in our institutions, history, and environment, our contributors map milestones in research and speculate about the roads ahead. Wasteful, inefficient, and frequently wrongheaded, the process of technological changes is here revealed as a describable, scientific force.

I. Diffusion The diffusion of new technology - Paul Stoneman and Giuliana Battisti General purpose technologies - Timothy Bresnahan International trade, foreign direct investment, and technology spillovers - Wolfgang Keller II. Innovation Outcomes Innovation and economic development - Jan Fagerberg, Martin Srholec, and Bart Verspagen Energy, the environment, and technological change - David Popp, Richard G. Newell, and Adam B. Jaffe The economics of innovation and technical change in agriculture - Philip G. Pardey, Julian M. Alston, and Vernon W. Ruttan III. Measurement of Innovation Growth accounting - Charles Hulten Returns to R&D and productivity - Bronwyn Hall, Jacques Mairesse, and Pierre Mohnen Patent statistics as innovation indicators - Sadao Nagaoka, Kazuyuki Motohashi, and Akira Goto Using innovation surveys for econometric analysis - Jacques Mairesse and Pierre Mohnen IV. Policy Towards Innovation Systems of innovation - Luc Soete, Bart Verspagen, and Bas ter Weel Economics of technology policy - W. Edward Steinmueller Military R&D and innovation - David C. Mowery