Further Reading

The following is a selection of papers, data sources, books and articles for those who wish to learn more about the five components of the Wake Up 2050 Index.

Demography

• “Population ageing”, Weil, 2006. Discusses economic impact of an ageing population.
• OECD data on pensions
• OECD data on fertility and other demographic indicators
• World Bank data on population, age, dependency ratios
• UN Population Division
• Demography matters: Interesting blog on the challenges posed by changing demographics (content by academics): Interesting blog on the challenges posed by changing demographics (content by academics).

Knowledge

• “A Contribution to the Empirics of Economics Growth”, Mankiw, Romer and Weil, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1992. Important academic article which showed that there are strong links between education levels and the subsequent economic growth rate.
• “Endogenous Technological Change”, Romer, NBER 1989. Classic article which developed idea that human capital is key driver of economic growth.
• “Returns to Investment in Education”, Psachoropoulos, 1994. Assess the rate of return of different types of educational investment:
• OECD data on education, including PISA scores, % receiving tertiary education.
• OECD data on productivity
• The Global Gender Gap, 2013, World Economic Forum  Useful overview of international trends and performance on gender equality.
• Education Today, 2013, OECD.  Comprehensive overview of international trends and policy developments on education across OECD member countries.
• Education Technology Success Stories, Brookings Institution, 2013.  Interesting article on how technology is being used to change education.
• Schools, Education and Social Exclusion, CASE, 1999.  Analysis of link between educational performance and social exclusion in the UK.
• Education, Globalisation, and the Knowledge Economy, TLRP,  2008.  Discussion of the impact of globalisation on the demand and use of skills by multinational companies.

Innovation

• “Innovation and Economic Growth”, G. Cameron.  Article which finds clear evidence that innovation drives economic growth.
• “Endogenous Innovation in the Theory of Growth”, Grossman and Helpman, Journal of Economic Perspectives,
• OECD data on innovation including triadic patents, R&D spending
• European data on innovation, R&D, intellectual property
• “The Entrepreneurial State”, M. Mazzucato, 2015. Argues that much private sector innovation is dependent on public sector ideas and support.

Openness

• “How does foreign investment affect economic growth?” Borensztein, Gregorio and Lee, Journal of International Economics, 1998. Article which shows importance of FDI for growth and technology transfer.
• OECD data on FDI
• OECD data on trade
• Data visualisation from World Bank of connection between trade and growth
• “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations”, D. Landes, 1998. Historical overview of development of Western economies whicha rgues strongly that openness was a key driver of growth.
• “The World is Flat”, T. Friedman, 2005. Excellent account of the impact of globalisation on the world economy.

Resilience

• “Economic Growth and Income Inequality”, The American Economic Review, 1955.  Classic article by Kuznets that introduced idea of a connection between economic growth and income inequality.
• “Institutions as the fundamental cause of long-run growth.” Acemogolu, Johnson and Robinson, 2005.  Classic paper arguing for the importance of property-rights based economic institutions.
• OECD data on government debt and household debt
• Heritage foundation index of Economic Freedom, assessing the openness of markets.
• “The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics”, R. Koo, 2009. Explains how debt accumulation caused Japanese stagnation and highlights dangers of debt bubbles more generally.
• Democracy on the Precipice, Council of Europe, 2012.  Discussion by academics of some of the risks to democracy in Europe.
• Liberty, Equality, Connectivity, CSIS, 2014.  Paper which discusses impact of cyberterrorism and cybersecurity on democracy and international politics.
• Good and Bad Quality, the Multiple Worlds of Democracy, OECD, 2009.  Conceptual analysis of democracy in an attempt to form a systematic measure of how democratic states are.  Also includes a preliminary ranking.
• Redistribution, Inequality and Growth, IMF, 2014.  Paper which finds evidence that inequality reduce growth and that attempts at redistribution normally doesn’t harm it.
• Divided Democracy, IPPR, 2014.  Analysis from UK think tank of the relationship between voting and policy changes.  Advocates compulsory voting.
• How Europeans View and Evaluate Democracy, OECD, 2014.  Evidence on European views on the importance of different elements of democracy and how well their institutions are performing.
• Measuring inequality in income and consumption, OECD, 2014.  Statistical brief on developments in the measurement of inequality.