The Impact of Nanotechnologies on Developing Countries

This chapter provides a brief analysis of how emerging nanotechnologies could, for the better or worse, have an impact on developing countries. I start with clarifications of what developing countries and nanotechnologies are and provide a framework of possible impacts by considering the full life-cycle and socio-economic contexts of technologies. Then I use the framework for the analysis of a few selected issues: whether nanotechnologies meet specific needs of the poor; how they can impact the economies by changing material demands; and how their impact is affected by changing intellectual property rights.