After all, economists have recognised for decades that the most important determinant of growth – and thus of gains in human development and welfare – is technological change and the knowledge it embodies.
The past two centuries of modern economic growth have seen huge advances in human welfare along with technological innovation and social advance.
You can be an optimist about the welfare effects of efficient technological change without being an optimist about the welfare effects of labor market regulations that lead firms to innovate around them.
The three major substantive themes of the course are (i) the normative foundations of policy making, (ii) how strategic interactions give rise to social pathologies that create room for public policy to improve social welfare, and (iii) how technological, political, and institutional factors constrain policy making and sometimes prevent good policies from being enacted.
I continued the analysis by investigating quantitatively the determinants of pro-poor growth, using welfare changes from labor-using technological change.
I stress technology, because it was technological change that improved the economic welfare of many.
Since allowing the global poor to benefit from scientific and technological development in agriculture and medicine more widely can play such a crucial role in improving human welfare, we will first examine the main arguments that defend temporary exclusivity.
The political and economic equilibria of an open trading system, relatively open immigration in Western states, and the acceptance of technological change as aggregate welfare-improving and liberalizing are all moving to disequilibrium.
Recent projects use terabytes of data on network communication to understand the diffusion of mobile technologies (Pakistan and Mongolia), the welfare impacts of mobile money (Rwanda and Uganda), and the role of technological innovation in reducing corruption and violence (Afghanistan).
Finally, there have to be measures aimed at supporting those harmed by economic change, whether as the result of globalisation or technological overhaul, such as stronger welfare nets and more progressive income tax regimes.
