BusinessWeek has an interesting article on the "innovation economy" and the hope that focusing on the next major wave of productivity and quality of life innovations can spur on our lackluster economy.
Historically, technological change has been the biggest force for productivity growth in the U.S. The latest figures show that "multifactor productivity"—a category that includes technological change and other improvements in business processes—accounted for 45% of productivity gains between 1987 and 2007. "Ninety-five percent of economists agree that innovation is the most important thing for long-run growth," says Acemoglu of MIT.
....At the same time, economist Paul Romer, now at Stanford University, showed how spending on innovation was different from the usual sort of capital investment because the gains from new ideas and discoveries could be shared by everyone.
West Virginia has not historically had an innovation economy; rather, it has often been "downstream" from innovation that was developed elsewhere. However, with the relatively modest leap into serious R&D with "Bucks for Brains," we're beginning to demonstrate that we understand the immense economic potential of ideas and innovation.
During the 2008 Create WV Conference, we will showcase a business track session called "Building a New Economy Infrastructure - Policies and Programs" that will dive into what it will take for West Virginia to develop a serious innovation economy.
Comments