Innovation and Employment – Process versus Product Innovation

Which kinds of growth lead to increased employment and which do not? This is one of the questions that this important volume attempts to answer. The book explores the complex relationships between innovation, growth and employment that are vital for both research into, and policy for, the creation of jobs.

Politicians claiming that more rapid growth would remedy unemployment do not usually specify what kind of growth is meant. Is it, for example, economic (GDP) or productivity growth? Growing concern over 'jobless growth' requires both policymakers and researchers to make such distinctions, and to clarify their employment implications.

The authors initially address their theoretical approach to, and conceptualization of, innovation and employment, where the distinction between process and product innovations and between high-tech and low-tech goods and services are central. They go on to address the relationship between innovation and employment, using empirical material to analyse the effects that different kinds of innovations have upon job creation and destruction. Finally, the volume summarizes the findings and addresses conclusions as well as policy implications.

This book will be of great interest to those involved in research and policy in the fields of macroeconomics (economic growth and employment), industrial economics and innovation.

Charles Edquist, Professor, CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden, the late Leif Hommen, formerly in CIRCLE, Lund University, Lund, Sweden and Maureen McKelvey, Professor, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden