The Origin of Technical Change: Knowlege Generation, Oppertunities and Entrepreneurship

In this paper I will focus exclusively on opportunity in the narrow sense and therefore on the origin of the required knowledge. For the purpose of this paper an opportunity exists when all reqiured elements of knowledge are "out there" and await the arrival of a keen entrepreneur to recognize, combined and exploit them. The origin of knowledge is therefore ultimately the source of economic growth and as such its understanding is of crucial importance to economics in general and macro-economic growth theory in particular. I leave all downstream complications of where the required entrepreneurial vision, venture capital, raw materials, intermediate products and finally skilled labor come for future research.