Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- The setting of the problem -- Patent statistics -- The role of intellectual stimuli -- The use of important inventions as a cause of further inventions -- Productivity advance: A Case of supply and demand? -- The amount of invention is governed by the extent...

Productivity growth has slowed across most OECD economies since the mid-2000s. While important aspects of New Zealand’s economic performance have improved over this period, productivity growth is still comparatively low. This continues a long-run trend of poor productivity in New Zealand,...

Over recent years `opportunity cost' (OC) models of growth have been constructed which suggest that firms take advantage of the possibility of intertemporal subsitution in order to engage in productivity-improving activities during recessions. This paper tests whether this argument is correct,...