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Innovation As An Innovation

By Jim Chen at al.

On January 25, 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama delivered the 2011 State of the Union Address packed with references to innovation.  In fact, he mentioned "innovation" no fewer than nine times during his speech.  In each of his 2010 and 2009 Addresses, President Obama mentioned innovation only twice.  During his entire eight years as U.S. President, George W. Bush mentioned innovation quite sparingly in State of the Union Addresses:  twice each in 2006 and 2003.  Even technophile President William J. Clinton employed the word only four times in his two terms in office.  So, why is innovation suddenly so popular with President Obama?

There are a number of possible explanations for why innovation has caught the presidential, and national, Zeitgeist.  One reason is that technological innovation is closely associated with economic growth.  From Robert Solow's neoclassical growth model, which estimated that about four fifths of productivity gains stem from new technology, to Paul Romer's suggestion that investments in research and development may be especially effective means of encouraging technological improvements, much modern economic thought recommends the promotion of innovation as an especially effective policy goal.

Another motivation is the fashionable fear that the United States is at risk from being overtaken by China, whose students (and students from South Korea, Finland, and Canada, among many others) recently outperformed their American colleagues in science, mathematics, and other subjects in the Programme for International Student Assessment ("PISA").  The recent sensation caused by Amy Chua's publication of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, in which she critique's the results of she terms "Western" parenting, tapped this Angst to find a gusher.

A third explanation may arise from a dawning realization that classical models of innovation may not be succeeding as well as they once did.  Witness the National Institutes of Health's new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences ("NCATS"), whose euphemistic goal, "to leverage science to bring new ideas and materials to the attention of industry by demonstrating their value," is a reaction to worrying relative decline in the rate of discovery, development, and market-availability of new pharmaceutical drugs.

Finally, the fruits of innovation, such as the iPad, the Nissan Leaf, and Roundup Ready alfalfa, are usually viewed as cool, compelling, and a welcome distraction from the distressing realities of slow economic growth and high unemployment.  Where the Romans had panem et circenses, one can now enjoy the latest update of Angry Birds.

More agricultural law at LEXVIVO.

Full post as published by Agricultural Law on January 28, 2011 (boomark / email).