Can Governments Till The Fields Of Innovation?

Innovation has long been seen as the product of hard work, luck, belonging to the private sector. But governments around the world are now trying to accelerate and influence domestic innovation. Several countries now have governmental leaders or even whole departments designed to spur growth through innovation. Much of the governments’ presence in the field of innovation deals with attempting to turn a country’s untapped resources into potential advantages. For example, Australia’s arid climate makes it a prime place to work on developing drought-resistant crops. And so Canberra is fostering research to tackle such a problem, although many public companies are already focused on the same research. Similar efforts are being undertaken by several countries that hope to nurture faster economic growth and development or to mitigate impending demographic hurdles. While rarely considered founts of innovation, governments do have an advantage in funding innovation: they don’t have to answer to shareholders who want a quick return on investment. Nevertheless, such a phenomenon begs the question of how innovation in general will proceed when it is no longer guided by the invisible hand of the market. – YaleGlobal