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UMN Science and Technology Policy Presentations
Minnesota Lectures on Applied Economics and Policy
Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy The Center convenes focused workshops, seminars, roundtables, and symposia to educate and inform local and national decision-making.
Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment and the Life Sciences The Joint Degree Program in Law, Health & the Life Sciences and Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences, in pursuit of their common goal to create a community of interdisciplinary thinkers on law and science, sponsor approximately one event per month.
Ruttan Lecture on Science and Development Policy Inaugural Lecture
"Institutions and Economic Growth: Making Sense of the Relationship"
Richard R. Nelson October 18, 2006 There now is widespread agreement among economists that having the right institutions is the key to a nation's economic productivity and progressiveness. However, if one looks behind this apparent consonance of understandings, one can see that there is far from unanimity regarding just what the term “institutions” is supposed to mean, or about the way that institutions relate to economic growth, or about how a nation can get the right set of institutions. In short, the term “institutions” presently seems to be serving as a “placeholder” in the evolving theory of economic growth, much as the term “total factor productivity” did a number of years ago. The objective of this essay is to propose a way of conceptualizing what institutions are, how they relate to economic activity, and how they change over time, that in my view has the promise of making sense out of a growth theory in which institutions play the key role.
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