Education and innovation policies

The link between innovation and education policies has strengthened over time, becoming very close in contemporary capitalism. Today, innovations depend on specialised knowledge, which is mostly owned by a university-trained working force, and increasingly emerge from university-industry collaboration in R&D activities. At the same time, the state’s commitment to widening the participation in higher education is one of the main levers for inequality reduction. Thus, education and innovation policies have become more and more strategic axes of the political economies of advanced economies. Using many indicators, the chapter highlights that each growth model has its style of intervention in education and innovation policies. In inclusive growth countries – especially those of the egalitarian variant – public funding is higher and universities represent a fundamental cornerstone for development policy, but also for inequality reduction. So far, the competitiveness of the economic systems mainly comes from private investments. In these cases, the state has mainly an ancillary role. It follows that the effects on the reduction of inequalities are lower. Finally, the non-inclusive low-growth model shows a modest investment in education and innovation policies.