A New Way to Think About Government’s Role in Wealth Creation, With David Sainsbury

For too long, economic policy in the U.S. and Commonwealth
nations has been guided by the “market efficiency” school. The
result has been a widespread unwillingness to view government
roles as critical to boosting innovation, growth, and
competitiveness. It’s time for a new approach, which Lord David
Sainsbury, author of Windows of Opportunity: How Nations Make
Wealth, calls the “production capability” school. Under this
school, the key question for economic policy is how well it
enables enterprises to be more innovative and efficient.
Rejecting the old doctrine in favor of the new is perhaps the
most economic important task for our time. Rob and Jackie discuss
this and the role for government in “picking winners” at the
level of technologies and industries with Sainsbury.


Mentioned:


Lord David Sainsbury, Windows of Opportunity: How Nations
Make Wealth (Profile Books, 2019).

Robert D. Atkinson and Stephen J. Ezell, Innovation
Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (Yale University Press,
2014).