Description
Book SynopsisTo understand how countries grow and develop, it is essential to know how they learn and become more productive and what government can do to promote learning. In
Creating a Learning Society, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Bruce C. Greenwald cast light on the significance of this insight for economic theory and policy.
Trade ReviewProfound and dazzling. In their new book, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Bruce C. Greenwald study the human wish to learn and our ability to learn and so uncover the processes that relate the institutions we devise and the accompanying processes that drive the production, dissemination, and use of knowledge. The authors' analysis provides the foundations of an understanding of the progress and regress of nations. This is social science at its best. -- Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge An impressive tour de force, from the theory of the firm all the way to long-term development, guided by the focus on knowledge and learning. Indeed, when economic theory takes knowledge on board-with its specific features and modes of accumulation-many of the conventional conclusions break down, from the welfare properties of competitive markets to the virtues of 'comparative advantages' in international exchanges. At the same time, in learning economies, public policies and institutions are shown to play a paramount role. This is an ambitious book with far-reaching policy implications. -- Giovanni Dosi, Director, Institute of Economics, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna If one's attention is on the economic long run and the processes involved in economic change, innovation and learning quickly can be seen as occupying the center of the stage. Unfortunately, for the last half century, the bulk of the attention in microeconomic theorizing has been on economic statics, which is blind to these variables. This book is a welcome exception. -- Richard R. Nelson, Columbia University Joseph E. Stiglitz and Bruce C. Greenwald have contributed a superb new understanding of the dynamic economy as a learning society, one that goes well beyond the usual treatment of education, training, and R&D. This important work continues the quest of Stiglitz and Greenwald for an appreciation of the role of public policy in overcoming market failures, asymmetries, and inefficiencies, and it provides insights on the limits and distortions of laissez-faire assumptions of optimality. This book should be at the very center of the next wave of policy debate. -- Robert Kuttner, coeditor, The American Prospect [A] sweeping work of macroeconomic theory. -- Walter Frick Harvard Business Review
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments for the Series Acknowledgments for the First Arrow Lecture Introduction, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Bruce C. Greenwald Part 1: Creating a Learning Society: A New Paradigm for Development and Social Progress: : Basic Concepts 1. The Learning Revolution 2. On the Importance of Learning 3. A Learning Economy 4. Creating a Learning Firm and a Learning Environment 5. Market Structure, Welfare, and Learning 6. The Welfare Economics of Schumpeterian Competition Part 2: Analytics 7. Learning in a Closed Economy-the Basic Model 8. A Two-Period, N-Good Model with Endogenous Labor Supply 9. Learning with Monopolistic Competition 10. Long-Term Growth and Innovation 11. The Infant-Economy Argument for Protection: Trade Policy in a Learning Environment Part 3: Policies for a Learning Society 12. The Role of Industrial and Trade Policy in Creating a Learning Society 13. Financial Policy and Creating a Learning Society 14. Macroeconomic and Investment Policies for a Learning Society 15. Intellectual Property 16. Social Transformation and the Creation of a Learning Society 17. Concluding Remarks Part 4: Commentary and Afterword 18. Introductory Remarks for the First Annual Arrow Lecture, by Michael Woodford 19. Further Considerations, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Bruce C. Greenwald 20. Commentary: The Case for Industrial Policy, by Philippe Aghion 21. Commentary, by Robert Solow 22. Commentary, by Kenneth Arrow Afterword: Rethinking Industrial Policy, by Philippe Aghion Notes References Notes on Contributors Index
