Transcript Inaugural Lecture - :: Globelics Academy

Evolutionary Economics Theory
& Innovation System Framework
for Innovating an Integrated
African-National Social-economic
System
Globelics Academy, Tampere, Finland
June 11, 2008
Mammo Muchie Coordinator DIIPER Aalborg University/ and DST/NRF SARCHI Chair
holder, South Africa
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Overview
 Inspiration
 Problems of African Economic Development
 Problems with Theories of Development
Economics
 The Relevance of Friedrich List’s Theory of
Productive Power to Africa
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Overview
 National System of Innovation
 Towards the creation of an integrated
African economic system
 Future research
 Concluding Remarks
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The main objective
 To explore whether traditional development
economic theory has addressed, overlooked or
ignored the core issues of African development.
 And search for a more robust theoretical
alternative that is open to reinstating in some way
the core issues of what should be the African
quest for structural transformation.
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Inspiration
 “The three principal reactive-reactionary theses, which I
call the perversity thesis or thesis of the perverse effect,
the futility thesis, and the jeopardy thesis. According to the
perversity thesis, any purposive action to improve some
feature of the political, social, or economic order only
serves to exacerbate the condition one wishes to remedy.
The futility thesis holds that attempts at social
transformation will be unavailing, that they will simply fail to
’make a dent.’ Finally, the jeopardy thesis argues that the
cost of the proposed change or reform is too high as it
endangers some previous, precious accomplishment.” (
Hirshman, 1991, p.7)
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Inspiration
 I should add to Hirshman’s three theses, a fourth
one: and that is what people often say when I
argue for an integrated African national economy,
they say it is too unrealistic and even illusory. Thus
I encapsulate their worries as the ‘illusory thesis’,
which says that the pursuit of African integration is
too pie in the sky dream, fantasy, utopian,
unrealistic , which distracts from taking realistic
incremental actions and thus by foreclosing such
options becomes itself dangerous!
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inspiration
 So I plan to do the dangerous thing of
arguing for innovating an integrated African
national economic system by engaging with
and critiquing available theories to develop
hopefully original new synthesis.
 The only risk to avoid is not to take risk,
even if that may lead you to land in ridicule!
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2. The problem of African
development
 After half a century of colonial freedom:Africa as a
continent still has an economic size less than the
economic size of France!
 Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic size is less than
the economic size of Holland!
 Yet there are 54 states, 54 policies plus the
unwelcome imposition of often the ’one size fits all
policies’ from outside that most of these states do
not seem able to avoid or afford, or can reject if
harmful!
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Problems of African Development
 Politically...formal independence without an African agency
 Economically... Continued fragmentation means dependence will still
continue, poverty and insecurity too!
 Intellectually : knowledge creation and use often not geared to bring
about structural transformation of an integrated African economy
 Integrating research, training, creativities, governing, producing and
circulating within an Africa wide economic system not in existence yet
 Creation of an African national system of production and consumption:
a major challenge
 Linking academy, industry, government and labour on an African scale
and scope often recognised about but hardly implemented.
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Problems of African Development
 The need for African Integration- rich in rhetoric,
but dismal failure in taking even a few actions to
do actual integration except for the natural crossborder ones!
 Stratergies for and to Africa are growing: Summits
also for and to Africa
 The EU’s 2005 strategy speaks of a ’one Africa’
framework for its EPA whilst continuing to
differentiate its policies to different states and
regions within Africa!
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Problems of African Development
 Over 200 integration schemes, but no
recognisable and substantive integration yet!
 The central problem of African development is
linked to whether or not Africa is indeed
integratable and can be integrated!
 A recognition of Africa’s experience and history
implies locating the core of the development in the
dynamics of integrating Africa
 African integration is one of the few things that
remains to advance Africa’s independence,
agency and post-colonial freedom.
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Problems of African development
 African integration follows logically from Africa’s
specific experience and history(past) and the
project to transform the economy structurally from
its fragile state into a self- sustaining robust state
(future)!
 Any theorising that ignores Africa’s experience and
history in its theoretical arsenal is likely to be
more of a problem than help to bring Africa’s
independence and transformation.
 Let us see how development economic theorising
dealt with this core issue of African development
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3. Problems with Development
Economics(DE): Its Rise and
Decline
Albert Hirschman, one of the founders of
development economics said:
 ”Development economics is a comparatively
young area of inquiry. It was both born just about a
generation ago, as a subdiscipline of economics,
with a number of other social sciences looking on
both sceptically and jealously from a
distance.(Albert Hirschman,1981)
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Development Economics-Genesis
 Over 200 years of Industrial Capitalism
 Economic development – is in reality the analysis of the
economic progress of nations – appears to be what
economics as a whole is designed to address.
 What else can the discovery of the "nature and causes" of
economic progress by Adam Smith mean?
 For modern economists, however, the status of economic
development is somewhat more unsettling
 it has always been the diffuse field, not really considered
"real economics" but rather an amalgam of sociology,
anthropology, history, politics and, even ideology.
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Development Economics: Context
for its Evolution
War –time planning,
post-war European reconstruction
De-colonisation
Competion between capitalist and noncapitalist path of development
 Together, these factors provided the context
for the emergence of development
economics provides the context for the
intellectual framework



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The Earlier version of Development
Economics
 Early economic development theory was but
merely an extension of conventional economic
theory which equated "development" with growth
and industrialization.
 As a result, Latin American, Asian and African
countries were seen mostly as "underdeveloped"
countries, i.e. "primitive" versions of European
nations that could, with time, "develop" the
institutions and standards of living of Europe and
North America.
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Are the Developed Problems to the
Developing?
 Unlike European industrialization, developing
countries were supposed to undergo
industrialization under conditions when the North
has industrilised already
 Industrialisation of the South was supposed to
occur while these countries existed along side
already- industrialized Northern countries and
were tied to them by trade.
 This, speculated a few, could give rise to distinct
structural problems for the development of those
in the South
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Distinct experience vs. Linear
Stages
 Kuznets was also one of the earliest workers on
development economics in particular collecting and
analyzing the empirical characteristics of developing
countries (1965, 1966, 1971, 1979).
 His major thesis, which argued that underdeveloped
countries of today possess characteristics different from
those that industrialized countries faced before they
developed, helped put an end to the simplistic view that all
countries went through the same "linear stages" in their
history and launched the separate field of development
economics - which now focused on the analysis of modern
underdeveloped countries' distinct experiences.
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Development Economics: the early
Core themes
 Rural underemployment and disguised
unemployment
 Late industrialisation
 Utilisation of undermployed manpower
 Accelerate capital accumulation
 Deliberate intensification and guided effort
 New rationality for protection, planning and
industrialisation
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The Early Strategies for Economic
Development
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Industralization
Rapid capital accumulation
Mobilisation of underemployed manpower
Planning and an economically active state
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DE’s Contribution
 Development economists claimed that neoclassical economics did not apply to
underdeveloped countries
 But this is not a big deal, since neo-classical
economics cannot be said to apply anywhere!
 Only a few East Asian economies industralised
 Different models: Balanced growth, big push, dual
economy and so on
 Internally the debate raged: to write the obituary of
development economics or find new themes to
sustain it…
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Variation in themes
 The positions polarised from those that originated
the field:( Colin G. Clark(1939), Paul
N.Rosenstein-Rodan(1943), Kurt
Mandelbaum(1947) and others such as Bert
F.Hoselitz, Ragnar Nurske, Jacob Viner and Hla
Myint
 To those who advocated development, planning
and economic growth (Arthur Lewis, Jan
Tinbergen, Nicholas Kaldor, Joan Robinson,
Maurice Dobb, Hans Singer, Gunnar Myrdal,
Simon Kuznets, Hollis B. Chenery and Irma
Adelman
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DE-as Social development?
 And those that stress economic development as
social development and who inverted and made
economics a special case of development
economics (e.g. Dudley Seers), Theodore
Shultz(who stressed human resources
development, skills and education) Paul Streeten
& Mahbub Ul-Haq (human development),
E.F.Schumacher (Small is beautiful))
 And the structuralists(Raul Prebisch, Ceso
Furtado,) and neo –Marxian theory( Paul Baran,
Paul Sweezy, Andre Gunder Fran, Samir Amin)
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Neo-Classical/Neo-liberal DE
 Anti –structuralists and neo-liberal school (Alexander
Gerschenkron, Walt Rostow, Peter baur, Anne Krueger, Ian
Little, Harry Johnson, Bela Balassa and Deepak Lal)
 Their thesis was simple: government intervention did not
only not improve development, it in fact thwarted it.
 The emergence of huge bureaucracies and state
regulations, they argued, suffocated private investment and
distorted prices making developing economies
extraordinarily inefficient.
 In their view, the ills of unbalanced growth, dependency,
etc. were all ascribed to too much government dirigisme,
not too little.
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DE
 Early DE equated development with growth and
industralisation
 Developing countries seen as ’primitive versions’ of Europe
with time to grow into their civilised status!
 Qustionining: industralisation unsustainable if it comes with
human cost(e.g.population, inequality, agriculture, urban
dev.,education, health, unemployment).Treat these issues
not simply as appendages of underlying growrh thesis!
 Populist theories questioned growth(e.g.Schumacher)
 Structuralism: not primitive versions but with distinct
structural problems! Country specific analyses necessary
(Albert Hirschmann(1958)
 Dirigisme more of a problem to development than help
 (neo- classicals)
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Dispute still sizzles
 What is interesting about development economics is that
the normative stance of the particular theorist clearly
informs the choices of issues, themes and remedies
preferred.
 In recent years, the Neoclassical thesis has gained greater
adherence, particularly in Latin America.
 However, the evidence of why economic growth or failure
is still ambivalent and disputed.
 Both structuralists and counter-structuralists point to fast
East Asian development and disastrous African experience
as proofs of their directly opposing theses.
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The Two Directions: to reject or
overcome thematic deficiency?
 In the 80s arguments from the Right
stressed the neglect of the market and the
unacceptable state activism in the economy
 Amartya Sen came up with an argument of
taking the issue beyond the simple state
and market dichotomy and opening DE to
themes to what may prolong the life of
development economics
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Sen’s Attempted Improvement
 Sen admitted that traditional development
economics may not have been as
dismissable as various trends suggest.
 Instead he acknowledged what he
calls ’thematic deficiency’ at the core of
development economic theorising
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Sen’s Attempted improvement
 He argued concentration on national product, aggregate
income, total supply of public goods, capital accumulation,
the creation of surplus may be necessary but not
sufficient to get development that includes the least
advantaged.
 He stressed entitlements of people and capabilities these
entitlements generate is the relevant thematic choice for
development economics.
 Sen said the process of economic development has to be
concerned with what people can and cannot do or to use
his words have reason to value and choose to do!
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Still Development Economics
Remains Polarized!
 Development economics has bifurcated into neoliberal versions (Poverty of Development
Economics, 1981) and its critiques (The Dilemma
of Development by John Toye,1987) on the one
hand, and the Amartya Sen thematic extension
from national product to entitlement and capability
leading to human development and inclusions of
social specific themes such as gender, deprivation,
hunger , basic needs and environment.
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List’s Theory
 Sen’s capability-building theme seems to resonate
with List’s theory of productive power!
 However Sen’s capability is built on the premise of
the economy of the individual and List’s productive
power is to improve, progress and develop a
nation!
 For List economic development – is in reality the
analysis of the economic progress of nations – in
reality that appears to be what economics as a
whole is designed to be about. Is it?

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Friedrich List’s Theory
 The theory of productive power by List can
provide a fresh thematic extension to both Sen’s
capability theme and development economics
 The merit of his theory is that it starts by affirming
experience and history of nations rather than
beginning with abstractions such as
industrialisation, planning, capital accumulation
and utilising the underemployed.
 It contexualises its theory of productive power with
the idea of the national interest and even the
national passion
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List’s Justification of his theory
 His theory of productive power can be built as the
core theme of the theory of development
economics
 Individuals, nations and humanity are distinct
 The sum of individual interests is not to be
equated with the interest of a nation (1856:74)
 Social interests diverge from private
interests(ibid.:245)
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List’s Justification
 The economy of the individual is different from the
economy of the nation, and the economy of the global
human interest is different from both (p.vi)
 Some nations can be concerned more for their national
welfare than the welfare of humanity!
 So they can choose expanding productive forces through
protection than expanding global welfare through free trade
 They preach free trade, but they practice protection!
 Could it be that what was in the interest of England is
thought to be in the interest of the world!
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List’s Justification
 The production based economics (List) vs.
Exchangeable values and allocations
through international trade (Adam Smith)
have different development outcomes!
 Trading in cooked and manufactured vs raw
and agricultural goods not the same thing!
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List’s theoretical justification
 Theory of productive power is more than
commodities, money and factors of production or
natural advantages
 It is above all a realisation that division of labour
presupposes national unity, national independence,
a shared project and cooperation of productive
forces (p.74)
 List was castigated as ” a dangerous enemy on
account of his endeavouring to rescue his country
completely from the manufacturing monoploy of
England (ibid.viii- translator of American version of
List’s tome!)
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List’s strategies
 Industralisation and manufacturing to be driven by a
capable nation and state
 Incentives to those who take risks of creating new
industries
 Building the capital of the mind and training and spreading
education to cover comprehensively the nation as a whole
 Choice of industries for protection on the basis of
knowledge, experience and linkages with the rest of the
national economy (p.69)
 Development of agriculture necessary to industralise
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List’s strategies
 Industries of luxury to recieve attention until in the
last phase(p.392)
 Trade is an instrument of development, progress
and independence (ibid.)
 Protection is also a means to development,
independence and liberty for free trade (p.64)
 Improving, developing and preserving the nation is
the principal purpose of a nation(p.70)
 Supported regional integration of German cities
and the union of interest of various states such as
Belgium, Denmark, Holland and Hungary!
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 List is right in his claim that a national political economy
facing constraints needs to find a way to organise
transformation from agriculture to manufacture!
 Those that trade in raw materials and agriculture remain
underdeveloped
 Those that build productive power have made it (e.g.USA,
Germany, Japan, East Asian Tigers)
 The lesson is clear: if a nation wants to develop, it has to
organise its national system of political economy with a
logic of stimulating rapidly and comprehensively productive
power.
 Otherwise it can have very rich minerals and agriculture
and territorial size, but will remain underveloped!
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The Puzzle for Africa
 The national system of innovation concept derived from the
Listian tradition in the context of Africa may be
a ’provocation’
 In the context where the ’national’ in Africa is not well
defined!
 In the context where ’institutions’do not function with a
predictable system and rationality
 Where learning and capability are not mobilised to advance
African transformation with deliberation and focus!
 Where the misplaced focus on thematic deficiency
underemphasises framework deficiency that is the root of
misplaced theorising concerning Africa!
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The Research Challenge
Probing ways for forging an African NSI
 The national innovation system has to be made in
Africa!
 It is not the case of an an already made situation
 It is the case of generating the African national
economy and production for the economy of
increasing returns to scale in the process of
transformation
 The peculiarties of the African situation provides
challenges to both economic theory and policy
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National Innovation approach
Figure 1: Major Elements of National Innovation System (NIS)
Conceptual Framing
Ideas, policies need to be linked
to a conceptual framing of how
economics and politics play out.
Implementation/
Learning Oucomes and Changes :
Implementation of strategies, policies and
programmes should include feedback
mechanisms
Ability to learn and ability to take corrective
measures are imperative for building
technological capabilities and imbed
innovation dynamics in industrial and
socio-economic development
Learning outcomes could lead to different
types of socio-economic changes –
corrective, adaptive, evolutionary, modifying,
and so on (Transformation/ Regressive)
Institutions, Technologies, and
Knowledge:
NIS
Need strong interaction, linkages,
synergies, and co-ordination to achieve
more efficient innovation system and
higher level of technology accumulation
Incentives:
Appropriate incentives to
institutions lead to
co-evolutionary dynamics
between institution, technology,
and knowledge production by
linking economic and
non-economic agents.
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Major Elements of National Innovation
System (NIS)
 Conceptual Framework:
by designing policies, building institutions and applying
knowledge
Institutions, Technologies, and Knowledge:
Need strong interaction, linkages, synergies, and coordination to achieve coherent co-evolution leading to an
efficient innovation system and higher level of technology
accumulation.
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Major Elements of National Innovation
System (NIS) .. Contd.
 Incentives:
Appropriate incentives to institutions lead to achieve co-evolutionary dynamics
between institution, technology, and knowledge production by linking economic
and non-economic agents to meet stated goals and objectives.
 Implementation and Learning:
Implementation of strategies, policies, programmes,and projects, and should
include feedback mechanisms (review, monitoring, and ) leading to learning
outcomes.
Ability to learn - self learning and ability to take corrective measures are
imperative for building technological capabilities and imbed innovation
dynamics in industrial and socio-economic development.
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Linkages for Co-evolution
Figure 2: Linkages between Institutions, Technologies, Knowledge
and Incentives in NIS
Figure 2: Linkages between Institutions, Technologies, Knowledge
and Incentives in NIS
Efficient or Inefficient
National Innovation System
Efficient or Inefficient
National Innovation System
Relations and
Infrastructure:
Infrastructure:
Science & Technology,
Science & Technology,
IntellectualIntellectual
PropertyProperty
Rights,Rights,
Government
Policy,
ICT,
and
Government Policy,
ICT, and
S&T
Culture.
S&T Culture.
Investment:
Investment:
R&D Expenditure and
Government R&D Support,
Venture Capital,
and FDI.
R&D Expenditure
and
Government R&D Support,
Venture Capital, and FDI.
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Relations
and
Linkages:
Linkages:
University-Industry Linkages,
University-Industry Linkages,
R&D
and Industry,
PublicPublic
R&D and
Industry,
Globalisation
of MNC R&D,
Globalisation
of MNC R&D,
Transnational
Networks.Networks.
Transnational
Knowledge and Talent:
Knowledge and Talent:
Education and Human
Resources development, and
Education
and Human
Labour
Flexibility.
Resources development, and
Labour Flexibility.
46
Institutions, Technology, Incentives and their
Linkages in National Innovation System (NIS)
 Infrastructure:
Science & Technology, Intellectual Property Rights, Government Policy,
ICT, and Culture.
 Investment:
R&D Expenditure and Government R&D Support, Venture Capital, and
FDI.
 Knowledge and Talent:
Education and Human Resources development, and Labour Flexibility.
 Relations and Linkages:
University-Industry Linkages, Public R&D and Industry, Globalisation of
MNC R&D, Transnational Networks.
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Figure 3: Linkages Between Systems of Innovation and Industrial-economic/
Socio-economic Objectives
Industrial-economic
Objectives
- Building Indigenous
Capabilities
- Export Growth
- Employment Growth
- GDP Growth, etc.
High degree of success in
meeting the objectives
Both systems are individually
strong and have strong synthesis/
working in tandem
Socio-economic
Objectives
- Reducing Inequalities
- Reducing Exclusion
/ Division
/ Imbalances
- Preserving Identity/
Autonomy
National System of
Innovation
Technology Specific
Innovation System
Interaction of various
actors, engaged in a
particular way, to
create:
1. Learning
2. Knowledge
3. Capabilities
Such as
ICT
Biotechnology
Automobile technology
or a particular
technology
One or both systems are weak and
working in disharmony/ different
rates or levels
Industrial-economic
Objectives
Socio-economic
Objectives
Low degree of success in
meeting the objectives
Source: Authors
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Unifying the key elements of SI
 Ideas, policies need to be linked to a
conceptual framing of how economics and
politics are co-governed and/or co-evolved
 Responding to opportunities, and dealing
with challenges require policies to be rooted
in a conceptual framework that co-governs
the dynamic interaction between a nation’s
political and economic transformation
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Unifying IS
 Conceptual framework or concept-circumfrencing
has been popularised by what is known as the
innovation systems
 Innovation has many sites
 The one that is space-centered has been
described by national, city, local, regional and
other boundaries
 Other sites are innovation, technology,sector, firm
and so on
 A model that captures them follows
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Technology
•ICT
•Nano-tech
•Bio-tech
Sector
Space
•Nation
•Region
•local
Political
•Ideology
•Governance
•Institutions
•policies
Knowledge
Technology
Hybrids
•Agriculture
•Manufacturing
•Pharmacy
•electronics
Economical
•Market
•Agents
•Incentives
System of
Innovation
Innovation
Firm
•SME
•MNC
•SOE
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•Product
•Process
•Organisational
•institutional
Unifying model of SI
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Evolutionary Economics
 Stimulate and understand inter economic and noneconomic actor interactions and dynamics,
 Co-evoution of economic and non-economic governing
institutions, practices and understanding (Richard Nelson)
 The interaction of policies, knowledge, incentives,
institutions, practices and the understanding involved in the
process
 System building, to identify significant interactions and
interfacing of parts,
 Bridge the gap between theory and reality,
 The sources and organisation for stimulating innovation,
imagination and creativity, learning and comptence building
 How routines are formed and novelties emerge
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Evolutionary Economics
 Integrating Africa or making the Africa nation itself
is an evolutionary problem of dynamics, of
creative destruction,requiring evolutionary
approaches to understanding and creating
knowledge
 Evolutionary economic theory has such concepts
that can be useful to stimulate research in making
an integrated African economy.

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Evolutionary Economics
 It has the concepts that can be
appropriated to fit with what Africa has to do
to survive in a difficult world.
 For example the main development problem
is to integrate Africa: to imagine the Africa
nation and make it!
 Evolutionary economic tools can be useful in
the process!
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Danger:Appropriation or Mimicry
 We know theoretical and empirical work mainly done for
developed economies using evolutionary economics and
the NSI
 Appropriation is legitimate if what is learned is how this has
been done, and why it has been done the way it has rather
than copying what is is done well!
 The problem is how to use evolutionary economics and
especially the NSI to do a research diagnosis on Africa’s
economics now and its likely evoutionary trajectories
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Danger: appropriation or mimicry
 We are not going to use ready made formula but explore
the evoution of Africa’s economic system as it is in order to
find better ways of stimulating structural transformation
 No need not thus to engage in controversy on whether to
apply evolutionary economics or NSI!
 Some suggest important revisions may be needed
 Others say that radical modification not needed.
 For me this is a non-issue…to develop, nations need to
engage in the dynamics of acquring Existing knowledge
and make New knowledge themselves (Richard Nelson)
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Acquiring and making
 In fact to acquire better and better existing
knowledge they must build their own R & D
capability also.
 It is not either acquiring the existing or making
new.. It is making to acquire in order to make new
and build on a continuous spiral enhancing a
simulatenous mutuality in the practice and the
understanding(Ibid.)
 It is both know how as practice and the learning
and understanding to create novel practices that
recreate more and better learning that continues
in time and space!
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Why the NSI for Africa?
 A national system of innovation to promote a national
system of production
 To enable a system creation to produce what Africa
consumes, and to consume what Africa produces
 To create Africa...wide producers and users interactions
(Lundvall:85)
 To embed knowledge creation,innovation, learning in
Africa’s institutions,societies
 To inject a total learning and innovation culture in Africa
 To retain African resources to stimulate african
development
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The Research Orientation: to build
on
 The economy of the
nation
 Systems
 Co-evoutions
 Interactions
 Innovation
 Learning
 Comptence building
 The organisation of
productive power
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 Africa..nation
 Integration
 Structural
transformation
 Relation with the world
economy
 Agency and
independence
 capability
accumulation
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The Research Orientation to Decline
 Continue to search for solution within the existing arbitrary
arrangements as they are in Africa
 That continues to engage, interrogate and critique them
 That tinkers with fragmented Africa
 That does not question dependence,
 Continues to take the fragmentated status of Africa as
’normal’
 Fashions ideas and policies without questioning such
fragmentations
 Blames Africans when conceptual and policy results show
more poverty creation than wealth creation
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Concluding Remark
 Not all the states in Africa can catch up as
they are now!
 Not sure even if they can catch up even if
regrouped as regions
 Important to emerge united to deal with a
world economy and respond to its many
challenges.
 No alternative to learning and the social
innovation of uniting, if Africans and Africa
are to attain full dignity and humanity.
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Concluding Remark





A theory of African economic development that confronts the key challenges of
integration of economy, society, knowledge, forging Pan-African unity, stimulating the
African Renaissance, stregthening the AU/NEPAD, imagining and making the Africanation and creating a vibrant African public sphere of free citizens!
This theory of African development is likely to emerge with a controversy and debate with
the available theories.
What Africa suffers is not thus from a thematic deficiency in diagnosing its development
problematic.. It is the irrelevance of the framework that ignores its specific experience,
history , project and dream to be free at the core of the problem!
Can evolutionary econonmics help address this framework deficiency.. That is the
question.
”If we are to remain free, if we are to enjoy the full benefits of Africa's rich resources, we
must unite to plan for our total defense and the full exploitation of our material and
human means in the full interest of our people. To go it alone will limit our horizon, curtail
our expectations and threaten our liberty.” Kwame Nkrumah
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