Lost in the tales of woe brought forth by the crash of oil and natural gas prices is the story of how the market leadership for research and development (R&D) has shifted from Europe and North America to China, South Korea and other Asian nations. There are many reasons for this, some inevitable, some induced by the market and others from the "law of unintended consequences." No matter why, the end result is that expenditures from South Korea, China, and others on overall R&D is rising. South Korea spends more than 4% of its gross domestic product on R&D, while the U.S. only spends 2.7%. China spends just over 2%, while the European Union spends only 1.94%.
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