Building National and Regional Innovation Systems

Institutions for Economic Development

Jorge Niosi, Professor Emeritus, Department of Management and Technology, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Following the demise of the Washington Consensus, developing countries are looking for new ideas to guide their development. This innovative book suggests taking seriously some of the findings of evolutionary economics and paying specific attention to the institutions that matter for economic development, particularly those related to science, technology and innovation.

‘. . . this book is a valuable addition to the body of knowledge on the mechanics of innovation systems, technological catch-up and economic development. It comes across as historically rich, theoretically sound and surprisingly accessible. Academics, students and policy-makers who are interested in these topics will find the book appealing particularly because of its very clear message.’
——Abiodun Egbetokun,科学和聚氨酯blic Policy

‘The book by Jorge Niosi, Building National and Regional Innovation Systems is a welcome and timely contribution to the literature. The book is about how to promote science, technology and innovation for development and catching up in developing countries. Niosi presents a clear opinion of how countries should stimulate catching up. . . This book is highly recommendable to students, researchers and policy-makers. It is commendable more for its clearly stated and thought-provoking messages than for its empirical examples. I found that the examples are used more to demonstrate the correctness of Niosi’s arguments than to critically investigate their relevance.’
– Arne Isaksen, Papers in Regional Science

‘The era of the Washington consensus, where the basic advice to developing countries was simply to let markets emerge and not to interfere with their operations, now is gone, at least for the present. The challenge now is to articulate a broad development strategy that really works. Over the last decade a group of economists has been putting together a body of knowledge and analysis oriented to helping poor countries build the economic, organizational, technological, and scientific capabilities that they need in order to develop. Jorge Niosi is an important member of that group. And this book provides an excellent discussion of the emerging perspective on development strategy.’
– Richard R. Nelson, Columbia University, and Columbia Earth Institute, US