How to Keep Growing "New Economies"

Rather than debate whether technical advances have created a “new economy,” economists should focus on the more interesting and useful question: How do we create the sort of environment in which innovation and the productive use of new technology thrive, thereby creating economic prosperity? This Economic Commentary discusses the features governments must incorporate into their institutions in order to promotes prosperity. It is an excerpt of a paper presented by Jerry Jordan, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, at the 75^th Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International in Vancouver, BC, Canada, on July 1, 2000. The full text of the paper will be available in Contemporary Economic Policy, vol. 19, no. 1 (January), 2001.