The trade specialization of SANE: evidence from manufacturing industries

This paper studies the evolution of the foreign trade specialization in manufacturing sectors of South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. These four countries, the so-called SANE, have recently been viewed as Africa’s best chance of producing an economic bloc whose role for Africa might be comparable to that of the BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China for the world economy. Using data on trade flows since mid-1970s, the results show that the SANE group has experienced few changes in its trade structure, which is still based on low-technology and slow-growth world demand sectors. The degree of persistence in the specialization model is higher in the case of Algeria and Nigeria, where the dependence on products based on natural resources is stronger.

Defining Key Inventors: A Comparison of Fuel Cell and Nanotechnology Industries

This paper defines the notion of key inventors — those whose patenting is simultaneously highly productive and also widely cited. By implication, key inventors should be the leaders in any developing new field and we investigate the validity of the notion through an exploration of two emerging technological fields: fuel cell and nanotechnology. The nature of the two groups is compared to discuss the differences between the technological groups.