Crisis And Embodied Innovations

While it has become a commonplace that innovations drive growth, it remains dubious whether innovations drive contraction as well. This book provides clarity on this question by introducing the embodied innovations into the circle of already recognised causes of economic crises. This new, and at the same time old, actor overturns the conventional casting of roles and has been endowed with an adequate tractability in industry and policy-making. The author shows how issues of investment, accumulation and structural change associated with embodied innovations can be used to monitor potential financial crisis. The idea that crises are deviations from normal trend is rejected, instead it is argued that crises belong to the normal trend itself. Contrary to popular belief crises are not unavoidable, in fact they are quite predictable and their depth is manageable. Looking to the future, forecasting and early warning teams could be used to catch turning points in the economy instead of focusing on the mere extrapolations. The book is based on the author's original researches reported in Tokyo, Brussels, Kyiv, Vienna, Graz, Lucerne and Paris. All these experiences and discussions have helped to crystallize ideas for this book, bringing together an original and accessible narrative on how an innovative and heterogeneous economy works in general and fluctuates in particular. This study provides a fresh perspective on crises and innovation, making it indispensable reading for scholars, researchers, policy-makers and professionals.