As Innovations Drive Economic Growth, Do they also Raise Well-Being?

Martin Binder and Ulrich Witt

Papers on Economics and Evolution from Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography

Abstract: While there is little doubt that innovations drive economic growth, their effects on well-being are less clear. One reason for this are ambivalent effects of innovations on well-being that result from pecuniary and technological externalities of innovations, argued to be inevitably. Another major reason lies in the fact that, as a result of innovations, preferences can change over time. Under such conditions, a time-consistent measuring rod for changes in well-being is hard to construct. Existing conceptions of well-being are shown not yet to solve the problem in a way that provides an unambiguous answer to the question in the title.

Keywords: innovations; growth; welfare; well-being; preference change Length 20 pages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I31 O00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg, nep-hap and nep-pke
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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