How to increase innovation and economic growth

The Economist highlights advice from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on how to promote technological innovation, which in turn increases productivity and thus economic growth:

Many governments are facing not only slow economic growth but also big deficits and heavy debts. ... Innovation, the OECD argues, offers a way out. It is already the chief engine of productivity in the rich world, and thus holds out the tantalising prospect of sustaining economic growth on the cheap. ...

But what is the best way for governments to boost innovation? Sensibly if predictably, the OECD urges investment in education, research and “knowledge-supporting infrastructure” (such as broadband internet networks and smart electricity grids). Skimping on this while money is tight, says the agency, will cause growth to suffer in the long term.

The agency also offers several more novel prescriptions. It suggests that governments should not merely encourage the supply of innovation (for example, by funding research) but also try to stimulate demand. Economies, after all, benefit not from the invention of new products or services, but from their diffusion. In countries that are good at commercialising new ideas, such as America and Norway, even newly founded firms coin valuable intellectual property.

If governments want to see a blossoming of clean technology, therefore, they should use taxes to put a price on environmental externalities (such as carbon) rather than coddle pet technologies. ... The report recommends opening domestic research programmes to foreign firms, to take advantage of bright ideas from abroad.

The OECD encourages governments to rethink their policies in the light of globalisation and the information economy. It notes that “intangibles” such as knowledge networks and open business models now make up much of the value of firms in rich countries and that many companies produce profitable innovations with little or no research in-house.