Maria João Ribeiro Thompson

A growth model for the quadruple helix

We develop a R&D-based growth model with productive public expenditure in order to frame the Quadruple Helix (QH) innovation concept, based on four helices: Academia & Technological Infrastructures , Firms , Government and Civil Society . Our motivation stems from acknowledgment that the relationship between these four helices and their joint impact on growth is in need of a theoretical framework. We aim to emphasise the importance to economic growth of innovation systems structured on these four helices. The introduced model confirms theoretically the notion that increases in: (i) complementarities between distinct productive units, or (ii) in productive government expenditure, lead to higher growth.

Innovation Economy, Productive Public Expenditure and Economic Growth

Multidisciplinary innovation is the main engine of growth for an increasing number of economies. Innovation requires the participation of and interaction between all economic agents. It also requires public spending on education, research and infrastructures. Our main goal is to emphasize the governments role in a growing innovation economy. Developing a non-scale, idea-based, one-sector growth model with complementarities and productive public expenditure, we analyse theoretically the growth effects of an increase in productive public expenditure, which we find positive in the short, medium and long run.

The skill premium and economic growth with costly investment, complementarities and international technological-knowledge diffusion

We analyse the skill premium and the growth rate in an innovator-imitator general equilibrium growth model assuming (i) internal costly investment in both physical capital and R&D, (ii) complementarities between intermediate goods in production and (iii) technological-knowledge diffusion. We find that in the imitator country these three elements influence the economic growth rate and the skill premium. In the innovator country, while the growth rate is affected by costly investment and complementarities, the skill premium is not affected by any of our assumptions. It depends solely on the productive advantage of high-skilled over low-skilled labour, which suggests that the sustained increase in the skill premium observed in several developed countries over the last three decades may have been due to increases in such productive advantage.

Growth Model for the Quadruple Helix Innovation Systems Conceptual Framework

Innovation is today more than the result of technological research and development, and constitutes the main engine of growth in an increasing number of economies. According to the Quadruple Helix (QH) innovation theory, an innovation economy is based on four helices—Academia, Citizens, Firms and Government—and their interactions. We believe that the QH’s conceptualised relationship between these four helices and their joint impact on economic growth deserves to be conveyed and demonstrated mathematically. We develop a one-sector idea-based growth model with complementarities between intermediate goods and services, and productive public expenditure. With an idea-based growth model, we can identify innovation as the main source of economic growth. The one-sector structure is chosen so as to capture the QH concept that all economic agents are equally important in the innovation process. By assuming the existence of complementarities between intermediate goods and services, we intend to convey analytically the economic feature that we believe characterises an innovation economy, in which profit-seeking firms benefit from cooperation, collaboration and information sharing. We introduce public expenditure with the purpose of highlighting the government’s irreplaceable role in a growing innovation economy. We analyse the growth effects of an increase in productive public expenditures, which we find positive in the short, medium and long run.

Generating Economic Growth: An Analytical Survey

The theoretical richness and variety of the new growth literature can make it difficult to capture the essence of growth models. With this paper, we wish to provide one possible integrating view of the nature of the growth generating processes. Revisiting the models that constitute the core of growth theory, we expose analytically the main mechanisms through which long-run growth can be delivered. Models that contemplate physical capital accumulation generate long-run growth through the attainment of a non- declining marginal productivity of capital. One mechanism for achieving this entails the introduction of technological progress; another mechanism involves the inclusion of human capital accumulation; and a third method relies on the elimination from the production function of the diminishing returns to capital feature. The foundational models that clas- sically represent each of these mechanisms are reviewed in an analytical and integrating perspective. Some growth models do not contemplate physical capital and hence obtain long-run growth without generating a non- declining marginal productivity of capital. We look into two reference models of this nature.