Innovation, growth and economic development : have the conditions for catch-up changed?

This paper shows that there have been important changes in how the global economic system works. A high growth regime has gradually been substituted by one of low growth. This change appears to be especially pronounced for small economies. Until the end of the 1980s, the scope for technological imitation was a significant factor in generating growth in low-income countries but this did not extend to the 1990s. The results reported in this paper suggest that, during the 1990s, whether low-income countries managed to catch up or fall behind depended mainly on their ability to develop their 'innovation system'.