Chapter 49

Since the industrial revolution ushered in the economic benefits of similarity, standardization has become a hybrid of technical design and political processes with major impact on markets, social welfare, and economic activity. Standards increasingly develop outside government regulatory venues in consortia and other forms of voluntary consensus bodies involving collaboration among private sector competitors, suppliers, customers, end users, trade association representatives, and government representatives. Standardization is regulated to avert self-interested collusion and to inspire democratic influences. Standards developed in voluntary consensus bodies are increasingly viewed as socially beneficial because they balance a broader range of interests that accompany the diffusion of new technology. This chapter discusses the significant, but often ignored, impact of standardization on technology transfer and technology