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Creating A Learning Society: A New Approach To Growth, Development, And Social ProgressStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
DescriptionIt has long been recognized that most standard of living increases are associated with advances in technology, not the accumulation of capital. Yet it has also become clear that what truly separates developed from less developed countries is not just a gap in resources or output but a gap in knowledge. In fact, the pace at which developing countries grow is largely determined by the pace at which they close that gap. Therefore, how countries learn and become more productive is key to understanding how they grow and develop, especially over the long term. In Creating a Learning Society, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Bruce C. Greenwald spell out the implications of this insight for both economic theory and policy. Taking as a starting point Kenneth J. Arrow's 1962 paper "Learning by Doing," they explain why the production of knowledge differs from that of other goods and why market economies alone are typically not efficient in the production and transmission of knowledge. Closing knowledge gaps, or helping laggards learn, is central to growth and development. Promotion infoPraise for Joseph Stiglitz: Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, and he deserves to be. Over a long career, he has made incisive and highly valued contributions to the explanation of an astonishingly broad range of economic phenomena, including taxes, interest rates, consumer behavior, corporate finance, and much else. Especially among economists who are still of active working age, he ranks as a titan of the field. -- Benjamin M. Friedman The New York Review of Books 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 at 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 Nelson, Columbia University ReviewsProfound and dazzling. In their new book Stiglitz and Greenwald study the human ability to learn and the wish to learn, and thereby uncover the processes that drive the production, dissemination, and use of knowledge. Their analysis provides the foundations of an understanding of the progress and regress of societies. This is social science at its best. -- Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge This is 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 on board knowledge - 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, and many others. 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, to be read also by those who do not trust too much the equilibrium and rationality assumptions on which a good deal of the book runs : just with 'knowledge taken seriously' one can go a quite long way in understanding modern development. -- 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 at 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 Nelson, Columbia University Joseph Stiglitz and Bruce 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, as well as 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, co-editor, The American Prospect |