The knowledge‐based economy: intellectual origins and new economic perspectives

Abstract

This paper discusses the intellectual origins of the knowledge‐based economy or KBE, and recent economic theories used to provide an intellectual foundation for the KBE. The KBE is the dominant post‐industrial economic development paradigm that emerged in the 1980s, with an emphasis on the role of knowledge creation and distribution as the primary driver in the process of economic growth, the distribution of income, the growing importance of knowledge‐based networks among firms, and the interface between government business and citizens in the advanced economies. Recent empirical evidence on rates of return, geographic spillovers, and the internationalization of knowledge flows are discussed in relation to the theoretical foundations of the KBE.