PREFACE

Directly or indirectly, the federal government funds and thus subsidizes a significant amount of research and development that has potential economic value.
These subsidies are intended in part to benefit U.S. firms and citizens. However, when the fruits of federally supported research and development are
transferred overseas, U.S. citizens may lose these intended benefits.
This project examined the effectiveness of U.S. policies for controlling the
international transfer of technology developed with federal support. It was
conducted at the request of the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy and funded by the National Science Foundation through the Critical
Technologies Institutes (CTIs) research contract.
This book reports the results of this examination of government policies. It
provides a framework for understanding the economic significance of these
policies and details the agency-specific measures that have evolved over several
decades for limiting and controlling international technology transfer. It also
compares U.S. policies with those of selected other industrialized nations. This
work should be of interest to those concerned with international flows of technology, as well as those concerned more directly with U.S. policies involving
both intellectual property and also cooperative agreements between industry
and the federal government.
CTI was created in 1991 by an act of Congress. It is a federally funded research
and development center sponsored by the National Science Foundation and
managed by RAND, a nonprofit corporation created for the purpose of improving public policy. CTIs mission is to help improve public policy by conducting
objective, independent research and analysis on policy issues which involve
science and technology in order to

Support the Office of Science and Technology Policy and other Executive
Branch agencies, offices and councils,

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Monitoring and Controlling the International Transfer of Technology

Help science and technology decisionmakers understand the likely consequences of their decisions and choose among alternative policies, and

Improve understanding in both the public and private sectors of the ways in
which science and technology can better serve national objectives.

CTI research focuses on problems of science and technology policy that involve
multiple agencies. In carrying out its mission CTI consults broadly with representatives from private industry, institutions of higher education, and other
nonprofit institutions.
Inquiries regarding CTI or this document may be directed to:
Bruce Don
Director, Critical Technologies Institute
RAND
1333 H St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 296-5000
Web: http://www.rand.org/centers/cti/
Email: cti@rand.org