The Implications of Knowledge-Based Growth for Micro-Economic Policies

David Robinson, an economics professor, is dean of the Faculty of Social
Sciences at Laurentian University.

The Micro-economic Policy Analysis Branch of Industry Canada
commissioned 11 research papers to “broaden and deepen our
understanding of key issues relating to the impact of knowledge-based
growth on the Canadian economy and the policy implications that
arise.” The conference papers are presented in this volume under three
headings: “The Sources of Knowledge,” “Designing and Assessing
Innovation Policies,” and “The Impact of the Global
Telecommunication Revolution on the Canadian Economy.” The authors are
almost all economists, leaders in their fields, and active for decades
in Canadian policy analysis.

Topics covered include the new endogenous growth theories, the benefits
of trade openness, the costs of interprovincial trade barriers,
intellectual property, and the information highway. A scattering of
equations results from a good deal of econometric analysis, and useful
case and industry studies are included.

The book presents a bit of a conundrum for readers; its contributors
are saying “we know all the stories [but] we don’t know which are
true.” Series editor Peter Howitt, Bank of Montreal Professor of Money
and Finance at the University of Western Ontario, concedes there are
“few definite conclusions to be drawn from the papers in this
volume.” Nonetheless, there are general lessons and a lot of
suggestions for future research, and readers—primarily graduate
students and researchers working in the areas the papers cover—will
learn a good deal.