Building Taller Ladders
Article

Building Taller Ladders

Technology and Science Reinforce Each Other to Take the Global Economy Ever Higher

Joel Mokyr
IMF, 2018
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Recommendation

Science and technology have allied for centuries to create new goods, markets and production methods, expanding economies in the process. Today, explosive leaps in the field of computing underlie gains in research, manufacturing and services. According to economist Joel Mokyr, early 21st-century breakthroughs in areas such as materials science, biology, artificial intelligence and lasers will propel economic progress far into the future. getAbstract suggests this broad-brush look at the interdependence of science and economics to executives and investors.

Summary

Some economists argue that economic growth driven by technology is slowing, while others are much more optimistic about scientific progress. History has demonstrated that technological developments both increase economic productivity and equip science with more powerful tools for discoveries, which then – “in a symbiotic manner” – give rise to better technology. For example, the introduction of the microscope led to far-reaching scientific innovations at the granular level and yielded vast advances in the health care and medical sectors, from the discovery of germ theory to the ...

About the Author

Joel Mokyr is a professor of economics at Northwestern University.

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