Book review: How Growth Really Happens

Production is the core to investigate economic policymaking in Michael H Best’s latest book, How Growth Really Happens, published by Princeton University Press.

Best, son of a labor organizer, starts from historical experiences to understand policies focused on innovation. He explains the concept of capability triad, where the international performance of regional and national economies is based on deep structural advantages that come from the social environment and therefore bring to enterpreneurial success.

In the book, Best analyses processes by which private and public agencies working together to construct the structures and advance the living standards. Framework to consider is focused on enterprise, production and governance

Miracles in growth do not exist, and Best tries to «bring them back to Earth»

His paradigm is, therefore, production-centric: case studies do not start from a blank page but build on earlier work.

For example, in the US, during World War II, new sectors were created and production grew exponentially in fields related to the war.

More examples are relative to Germany, where the capability triad worked, and the UK, where it was a failure.