Technology in Growth

We review the role of R&D in endogenous growth theory, and describe extant empirical research – macro and micro – bearing on R&D as an engine of growth. Taking R&D to be key, while recognizing the significance of economic incentives, emphasizes knowledge as an economic object and, more generally, the economics of intellectual property rights. This paper argues that property rights matter, but in subtle counterintuitive ways, not yet fully investigated in research on endogenous growth.