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Ideas and Growth

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  • Robert E. Lucas, Jr.

Abstract

What is it about modern capitalist economies that allows them, in contrast to all earlier societies, to generate sustained growth in productivity and living standards? It is widely agreed that the productivity growth of the industrialized economies is mainly an ongoing intellectual achievement, a sustained flow of new ideas. Are these ideas the achievements of a few geniuses, Newton, Beethoven, and a handful of others, viewed as external to the activities of ordinary people? Are they the product of a specialized research sector, engaged in the invention of patent-protected processes over which they have monopoly rights? Both images are based on important features of reality and both have inspired interesting growth theories, but neither seems to me central. What is central, I believe, is that fact that the industrial revolution involved the emergence (or rapid expansion) of a class of educated people, thousands–now many millions–of people who spend entire careers exchanging ideas, solving work-related problems, generating new knowledge.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 14133.

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Date of creation: Jun 2008
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14133

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  1. Satyajit Chatterjee & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2007. "Spin-offs and the Market for Ideas," NBER Working Papers 13198, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Jess Benhabib & Mark Spiegel, 2002. "Human capital and technology diffusion," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
  3. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 1999. "Education and Income in the Early 20th Century: Evidence from the Prairies," NBER Working Papers 7217, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1979. "Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 972-90, October.
  5. Angus Deaton & Christina Paxson, 1993. "Intertemporal Choice and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 4328, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages S71-102, October.
  7. Rosen, Sherwin, 1972. "Learning by Experience as Joint Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 86(3), pages 366-82, August.
  8. Fernando E. Alvarez & Francisco J. Buera & Robert E. Lucas, Jr., 2008. "Models of Idea Flows," NBER Working Papers 14135, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Samuel S. Kortum, 1997. "Research, Patenting, and Technological Change," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(6), pages 1389-1420, November.
  10. Eaton, Jonathan & Kortum, Samuel, 1999. "International Technology Diffusion: Theory and Measurement," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(3), pages 537-70, August.
  11. Prescott, Edward C & Boyd, John H, 1987. "Dynamic Coalitions: Engines of Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(2), pages 63-67, May.
  12. Jonathan Eaton & Samuel Kortum, 2002. "Technology, Geography, and Trade," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(5), pages 1741-1779, September.
  13. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
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  1. Robert E. Lucas
    by Metablog Obserwatora Finansowego in Obserwator Finansowy on 2009-12-10 11:59:58
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Cited by:
  1. Laabas, Belkacem & Weshah, Razzak, 2011. "Economic Growth and The Quality of Human Capital," MPRA Paper 28727, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Borjas, George J. & Doran, Kirk, 2012. "The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Productivity of American Mathematicians," Scholarly Articles 8160722, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
  3. Nicola Gennaioli & Rafael Laporta & Florencio L�pez-de-Silanes & Andrei Schleifer, 2012. "Human Capital and Regional Development," Working Papers 581, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
  4. James Roumasset, 2010. "Wither The Economics of Agricultural Development?," Working Papers 201003, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
  5. Michael Bar & Oksana Leukhina, 2010. "The role of mortality in the transmission of knowledge," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 291-321, December.
  6. Michael Koenig & Jan Lorenz & Fabrizio Zilibotti, . "Innovation vs. Imitation and the Evolution of Productivity Distributions," Discussion Papers 11-008, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
  7. Staley, Mark, 2011. "Growth and the diffusion of ideas," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4-5), pages 470-478.

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