Global Changes in Localization of Technology and Innovations with alignment to the EU

Nowadays, increasing technological capabilities in emerging countries, mainly the BRIC's, have been questioned. These countries have increased their R&D expenditures, number of scientists and scientific publications. Huge technological progress in these countries raises concerns in developed countries. The aim of this thesis is to identify changes in the localization of technology, innovations and R&D in the world economy that have occurred in the last three decades. The main attention is given to the fact how these changes affect the technological dominance of developed countries, particularly the EU. In this thesis it was shown that some developing countries have significantly increased their technological capabilities. Yet developed countries retain dominance in all technological sectors. The EU is more affected by the rise of the technological capabilities in emerging countries than the U.S. and Japan, which is largely related to the huge differences between member states and lower productivity in the EU as a whole.