On the Obituary of Scientific Knowledge Monopoly

Abstract

The

Trajectories in Knowledge Economy: Empirics from SSA and MENA Countries

“…We estimate a panel of 21 African and Middle East countries over the years 1996-2010. We concur with the literature (Narayan et al, 2011;Asongu, 2013a) in asserting that it is unlikely to find convergence within a very heterogeneous set of countries.…”

“…Absolute convergence therefore results from factors such as the formulation of monetary unions and adoption of a unique currency, among others (Asongu, 2013a On the other hand, conditional convergence is that which depends on structural and institutional characteristics. Consistent with the economic growth literature (Barro, 1991), conditional convergence depicts the kind of convergence whereby one's own long-term steady state (equilibrium) depends on structural characteristics and fundamentals of its economy or market (Nayaran et al, 2011).…”

“…However, there is growing importance of empirical convergence applications to other fields, e.g. applications to financial systems (Bruno et al, 2012;Narayan et al, 2011;Asongu, 2013a) and KE (Karagiannis, 2007;Asongu, 2015ab). In the light of these recent developments, we are aware of the risks of 'doing measurement without theory'.…”

“…The Fung (2009) has been used in recent African convergence literature (Asongu, 2013a). The system GMM has been applied in recent KE convergence literature (Karagiannis, 2007).…”

The Comparative Economics of Knowledge Economy in Africa: Policy Benchmarks, Syndromes and Implications

“…The positive externalities of education in human capital have been examined by Wantchekon et al (2014). In response to the August 15 th 2013 Shanghai university rankings publication, Asongu (2013f) has investigated the future of scientific monopoly to conclude that African nations are failing to catch-up.…”