Abstract

The technology in use in a country is determined less by the "supply push" of technologically oriented programs than by the "demand pull" from users. In a market economy, the latter is strong ly influenced by the level and structure of prices, wages, and exchange rates, by the price and avail abitity of credit, raw materials, and energy, by patterns of income distribution, and by the degree of competition among different producers. All of these are strongly influenced by government policies. In a centrally planned economy, the demand for improved technology depends on the incentives facing decision-makers in factories and ministries. In both kinds of economies, the orientation and content of engineering education and general education, influence the values that engineers, entrepreneurs, and other decision-makers bring to the technological aspects of their development.