Results of the week: not enough growth

In Delhi next week, politicians and economists will again discuss how to ensure economic growth in the countries of the "big twenty". There, on January 14 and 15, a meeting of the working group will be held. It is not only how many countries of the European Union will quickly get out of the recession, but also what the Russian economy will develop. In anticipation of this event, many Western Delovyan editions decided to reflect on what this coveted economic growth was, how it managed to achieve in the past and what needs to be done to update it in the future.

The magazine "Economist" publishes a schedule for the increase in GDP of the two largest countries of the world, Great Britain and the USA, over the last seven centuries. Significant changes in the improvement of the lives of the inhabitants of not only these, but also other countries were provided by British inventions - the universal steam engine of James Watt (the very one in whose capacity of Watt), the invention of a steam locomotive and telegraph, and closer to the end of the XIX century - an electric generator, was called. The last British discovery that influenced economic growth was the system of water supply for the house that turned the life of Europeans:

In 1900, even the most prosperous people were quite primitive. Coasting products were stored in special boxes with ice, but the ice itself could not produce at home, it was supplied with horse -drawn transport. Most of the houses did not conduct electric lighting or running water. If you move from this time immediately in the 70s, then the picture is different: in American and European cuisines there are gas or electric plates and oven, refrigerators, food combines, and a little later microwave ovens and dishwashers appear. After 40 years, at the beginning of the XXI century, in the kitchens - all the same equipment, except that digital displays appeared. But the cooking process does not differ from how our grandmothers did it.

Or take, for example, speed. In the XIX century, horses and sailing ships replaced railways and steamboats. Internal combustion engines and reactive turbines allowed people and goods to move with increasing speed. But since the 70s, the speed of movement has not increased. The journey in the car on the highway does not take place much faster than 50 years ago. In many cities, even a return to the past occurs, and money is invested in bicycle paths and tram tracks. The idea of moving in supersonic aircraft was abandoned at the beginning of this century - after a plane crash during take -off at the Paris airport.

Returning to the main inventions that influenced economic growth, it is worth noting that in the middle of the 20th century the United States took the initiative, where radio broadcasting began to develop. A huge number of people gained easy access to information, which resulted in the offensive of the information revolution - after the industrial. The widespread distribution first radio, and then television allowed the world economy to develop for some time, but then a decline came. And even the invention of the computer and the spread of the Internet did not breathe life into the internal gross product of developed countries. Behind the peak that came in the 70s, the gradual stagnation came, which poured into the current economic crisis. Even the boom in the mid-2000s is only an echo of the last jerk made by mankind thanks to information technology.

Economic growth slows down , and the question arises, what needs to be done so that he again begins to gain momentum. In economic theory, two ways to develop the economy are distinguished: extensive and intensive. The first means an increase in labor, capital and resources. A specific example of extensive development of the economy was the appearance of women in the labor market. In the Roman Empire, a “working woman” was called a prostitute, and all the other ladies were engaged in housekeeping and raising children. This went on until the beginning of the last century. Following female emancipation, the economy has spurred an affordable education for a larger number of people. But this process also has negative aspects. According to the journal "Economist", an increase in the number of workers in the labor market leads only to a drop in wages. It is better to develop an intensive way, which is based mainly on innovation.

The words of the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about the “unity of the nation” in the modernization and innovation case, said in October last year at one of the innovative forums, will not help invent something that will bring humanity to a new level of development. So far, even the countries that participated in the industrial and information revolutions - Great Britain and the United States are not within the power of.

In addition to innovation, the improvement of legislation and state regulation can play a role in economic growth. This is partly based on an increase in the volume of GDP volumes of countries that joined the European Union after 2000. Along with other conditions for joining the EU, a lot of attention is paid to harmonization of the legislation of the new countries of the Union and the old ones. The amount of taxes in different EU countries may be different, but the taxation structure is similar. The same applies to the rules of doing business, for example, the opening of a new company or a decision of disputes between entrepreneurs. “Without an effectively functioning legal system, the long -term economic development of Russia is impossible,” these are the conclusions of the “index of economic freedom” , which is published annually by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. This is part of the answer to the question of what Russia needs to do to further maintain economic growth, but for the EU this answer has not yet been found.