The National Origins of Global Innovation Policy and the Case for a World Innovation Organization

Abstract

This paper examines how national innovation policies strategically interact to form emergent de facto global innovation policies from the perspective of seven distinct economic models. We consider the case for a global coordinating institute – a World Innovation Organization – to address the collective action problem that arises from the strategic misalignment in innovation policy between national and global incentives. A theoretical basis for this enquiry is furnished by outlining seven economic models of national innovation policy in strategic global context – three familiar models (autarky, innovation systems, and innovation competition) and four new models (based on the work of Michael Spence, Harold Hotelling, Charles Tiebout, and David Teece). We find that the case for a WIO hinges differentially on each model.