Capabilities, Innovation and Economic Growth: Policymaking for Freedom and Efficiency

This book explores the connection between innovation policies and the improvement of individual freedoms. Whilst innovation literature is largely dominated by a focus on efficiency, development literature tends to focus on equality and pays less attention to mechanisms fostering economic and social change. This book aims to move beyond these barriers and to identify development policies that foster both efficiency and equality.

The question of whether we can foster growth and innovation while promoting individual freedoms poses a challenge for everyone studying and working on innovation policies. This book argues that we can answer these questions by focusing on the relation between Amartya Sen’s human development approach and the Neo-Schumpeterian analysis of innovation systems. After considering the the connections between the two schools of thought and the way they enrich each other’s perspectives, the book goes on to show how policies that support the growth of human capital and equality of opportunities also foster innovation. This is demonstrated through the empirical test of a sample of European regions. The book ends with an exploration of how the state and intermediary institutions can foster sustainable change in communities.