Vaccine production is now at the heart of the debate on development. This paper argues that, as well as economic policies to address market failures, development policies aimed at fostering vaccine innovation should also consider the institutional and organisational uncertainties. The...

This paper argues that the development of targeted health technologies for poor people will require a new mix of technology, organizations and institutions which we conceptualize as new social technologies. Using a technology-market matrix, we explore these new social technologies which may...

The past two decades have been characterized by an increasing uncoupling of economic growth and social and economic development. Outside of China, the numbers living in absolute poverty have remained stubbornly large; in Africa, they have increased substantially. Although this uncoupling has...

Between 1970 and 2000 the proportion of global R&D occurring in low income economies rose from two percent to more than 20 percent. However, this rising commitment to R&D does not easily translate into the emergence of a family of innovations meeting the needs of low income consumers "at the...

Through linkage creation, commodity extraction has the capacity to support local industrial production and capabilities building. Drawing on the experience of supplying inputs into the East African gold mining industry, this paper examines the constraints experienced by local suppliers arising...

This paper has two core purposes. First, building on Nelson and Sampat's work, we outline the social technology conceptual framework and explain why we favour using it to explore two global health initiatives. Second, we discuss the evolution of those initiatives through the lens of the...

Promoting innovation through education is a challenge for both advanced industrial and developing economies. The linkages between public and private investment in education, the kind of education that is needed and sources of social and economic dynamism are all-important. These linkages are...

Investment in biotechnology has yielded relatively disappointing results and illustrates the gap between the promise and reality of new science. This begs the question: Does research on 'life' bring different complexities and uncertainties that act as a barrier to the application of new biology...

Between 1970 and 2000 the proportion of global R&D occurring in low income economies rose from two percent to more than 20 percent. However, this rising commitment to R&D does not easily translate into the emergence of a family of innovations meeting the needs of low income consumers "at the...