Innovation, imitation and growth in a changing world economy

The rapid growth of East Asia, which has had such a dramatic impact on the world economy, is widely seen as a process of "catch-up" in which poorer nations grow rapidly assimilating Western and Japanese "know-how". However, this pattern is now changing. In particular, Korea and Taiwan are becoming centres of innovative activity. In this article, Michael Chui, Paul Levine, Joe Pearlman and Andrew Sentance analyse these developments. They argue that evidence of increasing innovation outside the West will be beneficial to world growth over the longer term and should be welcomed, not regarded as a threat.