RESOURCE INTRA-ACTIONS AND INTER-ACTIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

W. Arthur Lewis’s distinction between factors and forces of production, and Paul Romer’s insightful identification of the poverty of objects and the lack of ideas, as central to economic growth rate differences across economies, have enriched economic growth theory. However, both object- idea gaps, and factor-force specialization do not make explicit intra- actions among objects and ideas on the one hand, and the inter-actions among objects and ideas on the other hand. This analysis shows that resource intra-actions and inter-actions are important to technological change, and hence to economic growth. Economies with strong positive resource intra- and inter-actions produce more output than others. In fact, intra- and inter-active economies are characterized by economies of scale (increasing returns in the broad sense) and would produce twice as much output as others, and their rates of growth are high because of it. How useful this analysis can be to policy is left to empirical investigations.