Endogenous Growth, Productivity and Economic Policy: A Progress Report

In recent years, our understanding of the sources of growth has been strongly influenced by endogenous growth theory. In the first article, Peter Howitt of Brown University, one of the leading researchers in the field, provides a progress report on the current state of the endogenous growth literature. Among the many policy insights discussed by Howitt are that policies fostering technology transfer provide countries with the ability to converge to the productivity growth rate of the technological leaders; that educational attainment, the health of the population, public infrastructure and tax policy are all important drivers of productivity growth; and that competition policy can actually spur innovation and hence growth through a variety of channels, including a desire on the part of firms to escape competition by remaining at the technological frontier.