Why learning matters in an innovation economy | Joseph Stiglitz
Citizens in the world's richest countries have come to think of their economies as being based on innovation. But innovation has been part of the developed world's economy for more than two centuries. Indeed, for thousands of years, until the Industrial Revolution, incomes stagnated. Then per capita income soared, increasing year after year, interrupted only by the occasional effects of cyclical fluctuations.
The Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow noted some 60 years ago that rising incomes should largely be attributed not to capital accumulation, but to technological progress to learning how to do things better. While some of the productivity increase reflects the impact of dramatic discoveries, much of it has been due to small, incremental changes. And, if that is the case, it makes sense to focus attention on how societies learn, and what can be done to promote learning including learning how to learn.
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Prof. Joseph E.Stiglitz has with a degree of lucidity so characteristic of him discussed the importance of innovation consequent on learning and inventing best practices for the development of the economy. The importance of learning fresh and better set of skills can be facilitated by a thoughtful public policy initiative fostered and sustained by Government. One never emerges on reading his stimulating articles without learning something new from him.
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