Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/25629 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2007,057
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
This paper explores the relationship between knowledge creation, entrepreneur-ship, and economic growth in the United States over the last 150 years. Accor-ding to the “new growth theory,” investments in knowledge and human capital ge-nerate economic growth via spillovers of knowledge. But the theory does not ex-plain how or why spillovers occur, or why large investments in R&D do not al-ways result in economic growth. What is missing is “the knowledge filter” - the distinction between general knowledge and economically useful knowledge. Also missing is a mechanism (such as entrepreneurship) converting economically re-levant knowledge into economic activity. This paper shows that the unpreceden-ted increase in R&D spending in the United States during and after World War II was converted into economic activity via incumbent firms in the early postwar period and increasingly via new ventures in the last few decades.
Subjects: 
knowledge
economic growth
entrepreneurship
spillovers
history
JEL: 
O14
O17
O30
N90
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
510.35 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.