Both theory and evidence suggest that innovation shapes output and productivity growth. This report develops a broad conceptual and empirical framework against which innovation policy issues in New Zealand can be assessed and evaluated.

Growth in income per capita is or should be a central objective of economic policy. This paper explores how the economy generates economic growth and what is actually going on in an economy when it does so. It describes economic growth as a fine-grained path-dependent process driven by...

There is strong theoretical and empirical support linking business research and development, innovation and productivity growth at a national level. There is also strong evidence of spillovers from business R&D. The magnitude of these spillovers is economically significant and warrants...

The Ministry of Economic Development ran a series of seminars about economic growth in 2004. One was an economic history of economic growth in New Zealand, three were on different and sometimes contradictory conceptual ways of thinking about economic growth – endogenous growth theory, Austrian...

This paper presents an explanation of how the dynamic but uncertain process of economic development and growth occurs. It shows that economic development leads to structural change, an enhancement of capabilities and path dependence in the economy. It examines three different approaches to...