Classifying technology policy from an evolutionary perspective

For the classification of technology policy in an evolutionary framework the taxonomy of mission- and diffusion-oriented policy design introduced by Ergas [Ergas, H. (1987), The importance of technology policy, in: Dasgupta, P., Stoneman, P (eds.), Economic Policy and Technological Performance, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.] is useful. However, Ergas' indirect method of identifying the respective policy style is only able to give a first and rough insight in the technology policy of a specific country. To improve on that, we developed a so-called direct method aiming at a sound characterization of single policy measures and giving a more detailed picture about policy orientation. To demonstrate the basic procedure of the suggested approach, it is applied empirically on the German technology policy of the last 2 decades. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.