Do patents encourage innovation? This column presents a new analysis, suggesting that patent rights block cumulative innovation only in very specific environments. To encourage innovation, remedial government policies should be targeted; a ‘broad based’ scaling back of patent rights is unlikely to be appropriate. Policies and institutions should facilitate more efficient licensing, promoting cumulative innovation without diluting the innovation incentives that patents provide.

Many of the emerging economies of the last two decades are now ensnared by ‘the middle-income trap’, in which middle-income countries don’t quite push through to high income status. This column presents recent research suggesting that, if governments act early and decisively to improve access to advanced infrastructure, enhance the protection of property rights, and reform labour markets, trapped economies – like their East Asian counterparts in the 1990s – can push on through.

Do the ‘cuddly’ Nordic countries free ride on the ‘cut-throat’ incentives for innovation in US-style economies? Don’t PCs, the internet, Google, Windows, iPhones and the Big Mac speak for themselves? This column argues that, despite a higher overall tax burden and more generous safety nets, the Nordics have generated at least as much – if not more – innovation than the US. So far, ‘cut-throat’ capitalism has not been the only road to an innovative economy.

Art, as any form of creativity, advances through innovations. But what is the cause of new artistic ideas? What can art history tell us about the relationship between demand and innovation? This column argues that during the Renaissance, it was demand for art – and entrepreneurial painters seeking to profit – that drove greats such as Titian, Tintoretto, and Canaletto to innovate.

Innovation is the heart of economic growth. This column presents evidence that the structure of a nation’s banking sector matters for innovation. The authors present evidence that when the banking market is very competitive and dominated by large banks, lenders are less able to fund innovation, as lending relationships can no longer be sustained.

CEPR Policy Insight 63 argues that innovation does not have the same potential to create growth in the future as in the past in the US.

This joint BIS-CEPR-ESRC eBook looks at the UK’s medium-term growth prospects and the role that policy might have in shaping the economy’s growth trajectory once it emerges from recession.

Competition may drive down prices but it also drives down profits – and some would argue innovation as well. How should policymakers balance the short-term need for competition with the the long-term need for innovation? This column explores the idea of ‘innovation and competition policy’ rather than just ‘competition poliicy’.

Studies have shown that foreign-owned firms are typically more productive. This column presents evidence from Spain that suggests this is mainly due to foreign firms buying the most productive domestic companies.