This year's Nobel Prize for Economics went to three economists for their work on innovation and its role in determining growth in an economy. It is worth looking at some of their ideas and explore possible implications for Pakistan,

One of the three laureates, Joel Mokyr, takes a historic approach and shows how a continual flow of innovations is necessary for growth. But creating and sustaining such a flow in innovations needs simultaneous work on two pillars. The first is what he calls "prescriptive knowledge" — practical skills about how to build or fix things. These may be contained in manuals or drawings or instructions, or simply passed on from one skilled artisan to another.

In Pakistan we have much prescriptive knowledge — skilled workmen can fix your car or mobile phone; build your house; or duplicate a piece of equipment or machinery. Usually such knowledge is passed on in workshops where a highly skilled artisan (ustaad) works with a group of young apprentices.

However, according to Mokyr, prescriptive knowledge is not enough to create a flow of innovation. We also need what he calls "propositional knowledge" — theoretical knowledge about how and why things work as they do. Without such theoretical knowledge we cannot build on, or improve, the technology we have. A skilled technician can fix a car or mobile phone but cannot design an improved version.

Propositional knowledge requires education in the natural and computer sciences, as well as in in analytical subjects such as mathematics........

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