Are the Major Knowledge-producing Countries Converging in Science and Technology Capabilities?

The global production of scientific and technology knowledge continues to grow. Advanced Western countries such as the USA and the EU countries continue to lead science and technology (S&T) in the world. The emergence of other knowledge-producing countries that occupy prominent positions in knowledge production have been changing the geography of world science and technology. By investigating the production of scientific publications and patents from a sample of traditional S&T powerhouses and the main emerging knowledge-producing countries, this paper attempts to test whether the remarkable development of S&T systems in the latter in the past few decades has led to a convergence with the former countries in S&T capabilities. The empirical analysis of convergence highlights the presence of clubs of convergence instead of absolute convergence. Four groups of countries have been identified as converging regarding their scientific publications per capita, and six convergence clubs have emerged when the production of patents per capita is considered.