Description
Creating a Learning Society explains how the countries of the world went from centuries of stagnation to the enormous increases in standards of living that have marked the last two hundred and fifty years: they have learned how to learn. Yet, as Stiglitz and Greenwald make clear, markets won’t succeed on their own in creating the learning society that we need. Achieving this requires good governmental policy in a variety of areas, including trade, industry, and intellectual property. Indeed, the central thesis of this book is that every policy–tax, regulation, and expenditure–affects learning, and that policymakers have been remiss in ignoring this. Some policies, such as the Washington Consensus policies foisted on developing countries by the World Bank and IMF, actually impede learning. Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University, former chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank, and former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton. His books include Making Globalization Work; The Price of Inequality;The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What to Do About Them; and Fair Trade for All (with Andrew Charlton). In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics. Bruce C. Greenwald is Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management at Columbia Business School. He is director of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing. His books include Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond; Competition Demystified; Towards a New Paradigm in Monetary Economics (with Joseph E. Stiglitz); and Globalization: n. The Irrational Fear that Someone in China Will Take Your Job (with Judd Kahn). Preface to the Reader’s Edition Preface to the Original Edition Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress: Basic Concepts and Analysis 1. The Learning Revolution 2. On the Importance of Learning 3. A Learning Economy 4. Creating a Learning Firm and a Learning Environment 5. Market Structure, Welfare, and Learning 6. The Welfare Economics of Schumpeterian Competition 7. Learning in a Closed Economy 8. The Infant-Economy Argument for Protection: Trade Policy in a Learning Environment Part II. Policies for a Learning Society 9. The Role of Industrial and Trade Policy in Creating a Learning Society 10. Financial Policy and Creating a Learning Society 11. Macroeconomic and Investment Policies for a Learning Society 12. Intellectual Property 13. Social Transformation and the Creation of a Learning Society 14. Concluding Remarks Notes References Index
