1st Edition

Capabilities, Innovation and Economic Growth Policymaking for Freedom and Efficiency

By Michele Capriati Copyright 2018
    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    268 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The question of whether we can foster growth and innovation while promoting individual freedoms poses a challenge for everyone studying and working on innovation and development policies. Whilst innovation literature is largely dominated by a focus on efficiency, development literature tends to focus on equality and pays less attention to mechanisms fostering economic and social change. This book aims to move beyond these barriers and to identify development policies that foster both efficiency and equality, exploring the connection between innovation policies and the improvement of individual freedoms.



    Capabilities, Innovation and Economic Growth argues that we can answer these questions by focusing on the relation between Amartya Sen's human development approach and the Neo-Schumpeterian analysis of innovation systems. After considering the connections between the two schools of thought and the way they enrich each other's perspectives, chapters go on to show how policy can support virtuous circles in which innovation, human development and economic growth interact and mutually reinforce each other. This is undertaken through the descriptive analysis and the empirical testing of a sample of nations and European regions. The volume concludes with an exploration of the contribution that the capabilities approach can give to the design of innovation policy, and with the analysis of macroeconomic policies favorable to innovation and human development.



    This will be essential reading for: students and academic economists interested in development, growth and innovation; policy makers and officers in charge of defining development and innovation plans at national and regional level; and consultants and managers in development agencies implementing innovation and development projects.

    List of Tables



    List of Figures



    List of Maps







    1. Introduction: Capabilities, Innovation and Economic Growth






    Part one - Ideas



    2. The Toolbox



    2.1 Innovation, Growth and Development



    2.2 Human Development and Capability Approach



    3. The Interconnections between Freedom and Innovation



    3. 1 Technologies, Inclusive Innovation and Capabilities



    3.2 Human Capabilities and Learning Capabilities



    3.3 Innovation, Capabilities And Inequality



    3.4 Innovation, Public Institution and Democracy



    3.5 Innovation, Social Networks and Social Security



    3.6 Innovation, Growth And Freedom: The Virtuous Circles



    Part two - Empirics



    4. Innovation, Human Development and Economic Growth: Interpretations and Empirical Analysis



    4.1 Innovation and Growth



    4.2 Growth and Human Development



    4.3 Innovation and Human Development



    5. Innovation, Human Development and Economic Growth in National and Regional Innovation Systems: a Descriptive Analysis



    5.1 Introduction



    5.2 National Systems



    5.2 Regional Systems



    6. Innovation, Human Development and Economic Growth: an Empirical Analysis



    6.1 Introduction



    6.2 Correlation Analysis



    6.3 Empirical Analysis: the Model and Econometric Strategy



    6.4 Empirical Analysis: the Results





    Part three - Policy



    7. An Introduction to Policies



    7.1 Policy Matters



    7.2 Market Failures



    7.3 Criticism



    7.4 System Failures



    7.5 The Informational Basis of the Innovation Systems Approach



    7.6 The Role of the State and Non-Market

    Biography

    Michele Capriati is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Bari, Italy.